Combining the literal events of the story with metaphorical images in her illustrations, Katie Yamasaki uses her experience as a muralist and an educator to tell the story of young brothers Jimmy and Taro who grow up in California in the 1940s. Following the attack on Pearl Harbour by Japan, their father is arrested by the FBI and, along with their mother, the boys are sent to an internment camp far away from their home on the Pacific.

Katie Yamasaki has painted over 80 murals in the United States while collaborating closely with the communities involved. She earned an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York where she was also a faculty member. Currently, Yamasaki is in a multi-year residency with the Women & Justice Project as well as a teaching artist in the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn.