Knitting Together: A Scarf for Keiko by Anna Malaspina

It was 1942 in Los Angeles. Everyone was saying, "There's a war on." Sam knows that. His big brother Mike was away in the army.

And in his class at school, everyone had to knit for the soldiers. Sam was not good at knitting, and he didn't want any help from Keiko, the girl sitting next to him. Her needles clicked fast as her rows grew longer quickly. Sam's yarn just tangled.

"We must do our part for the war effort," said Mrs. Olson. "Our soldiers are counting on us."

"No one should count on me," thought Sam.

At school some of Sam's buddies wouldn't speak to Keiko. But she quietly continued knitting, even on the playground. On his way home Sam noticed Keiko's father, sadly sweeping up broken window glass in front of his store, where he had put up a sign, I AM AN AMERICAN.

And at home Sam learned that to protect against spies, President Roosevelt had ordered that all Japanese families had to pack up only what they could carry to an Japanese internment camp with high barbed wire fences and guards in towers, far out in the desert. Keiko's mother's best tea pot and cups were sitting on their kitchen table.

"I offered to take care of Mrs. Saito's precious tea set," Sam's mother said.

"I told her it would be here when they get home."

And sometime later, Sam got a small package with a letter from Keiko.

Dear Sam,
Here are the socks I knitted for Mike. Tell him to come home safely.
Your friend, Keiko.

P.S. You can borrow my bike until I get back.

Suddenly Sam thought of how cold the desert can be at night. He found some red yarn in his mother's basket and began to knit something for Keiko. He knitted at school and every night as his family listened to the war news on their radio. And soon he sent a package to Keiko.

Dear Keiko,
I wanted to make this scarf for you to wear while you are away.
Your friend, Sam

And in her historical notes at the end of her A Scarf for Keiko (Lerner Publishing, 2019), author Anna Maspina includes the account of the removal of Japanese citizens from the west coast of the United States as seen through the eyes of a Jewish family in Los Angeles, paralleling the internment of part of their own family in Poland during the war. Maspina skillfully uses the knitted socks and scarf as a metaphor of the knitting together of immigrant Americans, particularly during World War II. With the help of illustrator Merrilee Liddiard, who sketches out the look of American life during the war years, shared things between the two families become hopeful symbols of lasting friendship between them. Says Publishers Weekly, "...A rich source for discussion, both about outward political oppression and the inward struggle to behave honorably amid it."