3.5 stars. Fish for Jimmy was a great book for educating my niece and nephew about the existence of the Japanese internment camps during World War II. The story also explained the events that lead to the (flawed) logic behind the establishment of these camps.Now, my niece and nephew had not been aware of this little slice of history, and they both came away from the book appropriately horrified that the U.S. did this to its own citizens. This lead to a discussion about how just because America is America that doesn't mean that we haven't done some bad things to people. We also discussed how the relatives of one of our family friends were sent to these camps, and we talked about how at work I ran across the broadsides telling Japanese-American where to report for internment. So the kids, my niece in particular got a lot out of this story--four stars for that.
Unfortunately, the story itself was a little rough in spots. This was a book that I had to assemble myself, and there were little odd gaps in the story that made me think that I had put pages in the wrong order (I hadn't). The kids and I were confused about why the father was separated from his wife and kids, and it wasn't until later in the book that we got that answer. So there was a little awkwardness, which made me feel three star-ish about Fish for Jimmy. Still, a good book for introducing kids to to this chapter in American history. Oh, and the illustrations were quite well done, too!