# While I Was Away - Hardcover

by **Waka T. Brown** (Author)

**Named one of New York Public Library's & Bank Street's Best Books of the Year!**

**_The Farewell_ meets Erin Entrada Kelly's _Blackbird Fly_ in this empowering middle grade memoir from debut author Waka T. Brown, who takes readers on a journey to 1980s Japan, where she was sent as a child to reconnect to her family's roots.**

When twelve-year-old Waka's parents suspect she can't understand the basic Japanese they speak to her, they make a drastic decision to send her to Tokyo to live for several months with her strict grandmother. Forced to say goodbye to her friends and what would have been her summer vacation, Waka is plucked from her straight-A-student life in rural Kansas and flown across the globe, where she faces the culture shock of a lifetime.

In Japan, Waka struggles with reading and writing in _kanji_, doesn't quite mesh with her complicated and distant Obaasama, and gets made fun of by the students in her Japanese public-school classes. Even though this is the country her parents came from, Waka has never felt more like an outsider.

If she's always been the "smart Japanese girl" in America but is now the "dumb foreigner" in Japan, where is home...and who will Waka be when she finds it?

**Number of Pages:** 320

**Dimensions:** 1.2 x 8.2 x 5.8 IN

**Illustrated:** Yes

**Publication Date:** January 26, 2021

**Accelerated Reader:**

**Quiz Name:** While I Was Away

**Interest Level:** Middle Grades, 4-8

**Reading Level:** 5.1

**Point Value:** 10

## Details

- **Price:** 19.99 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 19.99 USD | In stock |

## Images

- While I Was Away - Hardcover

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> Updated: 2026-07-23