The novel, Under the Blood Red Sun by Graham Salisbury, introduced us to people, places and things with which we had very limited knowledge.  Through reading the book, we learned a bit more about: the attack on Pearl Harbor, World War II, Hawaii, Japanese culture, pigeon racing, and baseball in 1941.  Today we will increase our knowledge base even more as we delve into these areas via a webquest. 

Please answer these questions as a comment on this post.  This counts as a homework grade for all my kids, but we’d love to hear from people around the world, too.  Perhaps we’ll hear from someone who lived through World War II, or who lives in Japan or Hawaii. 

 

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1. What song does Grampa sing on page 79? Listen to the song. Do you agree with Tomi’s description of it as the slowest song in history? What other record does the song hold? What does the song ask for Japan?

2. Grampa speaks Japanese frequently.  What does your name look and sound like in Japanese?

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3. Mose and Rico are Portugese; Charlie is Hawaiian; Tomi and his family are Japanese; Billy is haole.  Hawaii is a melting pot.  Read this short history of Hawaii.   Briefly explain how Hawaii developed such a diverse population.  What other interesting piece of information did you read?

4. Mose and Rico plan to do their science project on volcanoes.  Watch this brief video from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.  What did you learn? 

5. Check out the stats from the 1941 baseball season.  Which of Tomi’s favorite players won some type of accolade that year?  Who played in the World Series?  Who won?

6. Write a three sentence review of Under the Blood Red Sun.   Did you like it?  Why or why not.