We Are Not Strangers
Inspired by a True Story (Abrams ComicArts 2023)
When Marco Calvo arrives at the Jewish Synagogue to attend his grandfather's funeral, he is caught off guard by something very unexpected. Among his close family and friends there are some people he doesn't recognize at all. Several Japanese American families have arrived and no one is quite sure why they are here. Who are these strangers that knew his grandfather so well?
What Marco discovers leads him on a journey to explore the powerful true story of his Jewish grandfather who sided with Japanese families during the incarceration camps of WW2. Set in the multicultural Seattle Central District of the 1940s, ‘We Are Not Strangers’ explores the unique situation of Japanese and Jewish Americans living side by side in a country at war. These perspectives converge in a portrait of a community's struggle with race, responsibility and what it truly means to be an American.
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2024 Washington State Book Award FINALIST
2024 Excellence in Graphic Literature WINNER
2024 American Library Association Sophie Brody Medal HONOREE
2024 KCLS Literary Lions AWARD
2024 Anti-Defamation Leage Books Matter Collection
2024 Mary Sue Best Non-Fiction
2024 Jewish Comic Experience AWARD
“A forthright condemnation of a shameful chapter of American history and a heartening reminder of the value of community.”
For Teachers
Educators Guide
An accompanying education guide is available for ‘We Are Not Strangers’! Created by the amazing teachers and educators partnering with Abrams ComicArts, this guide is perfect for educators that want to utilize ‘We Are Not Strangers’ in their curriculum. VIEW THE GUIDE >
“ The tones and texture of the artwork is intimate, tactile, and forlorn. Reading The Freeholder feels like finding in an attic some dusty artifact of loss and fortitude.”
Jonathan Fetter-Vorm
Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb
“We Are Not Strangers tells a different kind of love story, a different kind of hero story, a different story about race and immigration and community, which surely is what the world needs now. Josh Tuininga has made magic here.”
Laurie Frankel
This Is How It Always Is and One Two Three
“We Are Not Strangers inspires readers to treat fellow human beings with fairness and dignity. Tuininga wonderfully succeeds in showing and telling a real story with real people in a real time.”
Sharon Hashimoto
More American
Research & collaboration:
This project is made possible by 4Culture heritage and art project grants as well as collaboration and research between myself, historians at University of Washington and Densho.org.
