When the Emperor Was Divine Essay

Study Guide: When The Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka Developed by Library Services, Santa Clara County Office of Education. The Santa Clara County Office of Education has developed this curriculum guide for use by teachers. We hope you will find it a useful tool in planning your discussion and lesson plans for this book. Should you have any comments or suggestions please contact Library Services at (408) 453-6800. TABLE OF CONTENTS • • • • • • • • • • • • About the Writer About the Book Before Reading the Book (Motivating Activities) Discussion Starters Writing Prompts Words to Know/Vocabulary Places to Know/History & Social Science Characterization/Literary Concept Essay Topics Assessment Options Related Topics/Additional Resources Standards Correlations

ABOUT THE WRITER Julie Otsuka was born in Palo Alto and studied art at Yale University. After pursuing a career as a painter, she turned to fiction at age 30. One of her short stories was included in Scribner's Best of the Fiction Workshops 1998, edited by Carol Shields. When The Emperor Was Divine is her first novel. She lives in New York.
Photo by Jerry Bauer

Author's website: www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0902/otsuka/ ABOUT THE BOOK Julia Otsuka's quietly disturbing novel opens with a woman reading a sign in a post office window. It is Berkeley, California, the spring of 1942. Pearl Harbor has been attacked, the war is on, and though the precise message on the sign is not revealed, its impact on

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the woman who reads it is immediate and profound. It is, in many ways she cannot yet foresee, a sign of things to come. She readies herself and her two young children for a journey that will take them to the high desert plains of Utah and into a world that will shatter their illusions forever. They travel by train and gradually the reader discovers that all on board are Japanese American, that the shades must be pulled down at night so as not to invite rock-throwing, and that their destination is an...