By Colorado Kids Advisory Board member Marcy Humphrey

Title: Early Sunday Morning
Author: Barry Denenberg
Illustrator: N/A
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Number of Pages: 156

In the book Early Sunday Morning, Amber Billows is living with her brother, Andy, her mother, and her father in Washington D.C in 1941. Her father is a reporter, and he moves his family around a lot. Amber has lived in New York, Washington D.C. twice, Boston, and Baltimore. Now they are moving again - to Hawaii! Amber is NOT happy about this news, and she practically blows up at her father. But her fit has no affect on him, so Amber decides to start researching how they live in Hawaii. When they finally leave on a plane, Amber is getting sort of excited. They fly on an aquaplane to reach Hawaii from San Francisco. When they reach Hawaii, Amber meets Kame Arata. Kame is Japanese, but she was born in America. A month after the Billows arrive in Hawaii, disaster strikes. Pearl Harbor is attacked by Japanese. The outcome is horrible, and is something Amber will remember for the rest of her life- if she lives through it.

Early Sunday Morning is a wonderful book. I enjoyed how the author, Berry Denenberg, really brought to life Amber Billows. She seemed like a real twelve-year-old during that time. Her thoughts and feelings about the attack related to anybody's at that time. I also thought that Denenberg put a lot of facts into the story. The feelings that Amber expressed really covered what is going on right now in our country. She was confused and scared. I would be surprised if this is not what a twelve-year-old would feel like today. I would defiantly recommend this book to anybody over ten. If you enjoy this book, then I also recommend all of the other "Dear America" series. I loved Early Sunday Morning, and I hope you will too. (December, 2001)