I’m thrilled to celebrate the book birthday of Barbed Wire Between Us today! It’s the story of my heart. I wanted to tell the story of a Japanese grandmother standing outside the Kids in Cages ever since I saw haunting images in the media during Trump’s first administration. My early attempts were dark and definitely not suitable for children. One person in my critique group advised me to write an Op Ed in the New York Times instead.
It was hard to find the story arc because I was so angry about what was happening. Slowly, I morphed my bleak manuscript into an area that felt uncomfortable for me. Free verse poetry. I am not a poet. I’ve never taken a poetry class, and most poetry forms are not familiar to me. But I do love novels in verse, and the free verse middle grade books served as mentors and cheerleaders. And actually, Rajani LaRocca, whose novel-in-verse class I took online, when she taught with Chris Baron, also kindly encouraged me.
I had to dig into my feelings — the ones that were not full of rage — and try to find the words that came out of years of reading children’s books about Japanese “Internment” camps. My Japanese American mother was another inspiration. She never complained about WWII and her forced relocation. No one from her generation complained. At best, she would crack a joke about it. That’s the only snippet I ever got. And while she wasn’t one of the Japanese American grandmothers who stood outside the Kids in Cages, her spirit was there. After all, as a Civil Servant during the 1970s, she worked in Little Saigon (Westminster, CA), to help to naturalize immigrants.
The free verse version of my manuscript was a step in the right direction, but it still didn’t feel fully-baked. During the pandemic lockdown, I watched a book talk by a Long Beach public librarian on Amah Faraway. Even though I had read this delightful picture book, it didn’t dawn on me that it was a reverso poem. As the librarian explained the reverso poem format, a bell went off in my head.
Could I turn my free verse manuscript into a reverso poem? It turns out that it’s easy to trim down. I took my poem and flipped it backwards, as is the reverso poem format. Then, I started cutting lines. I made punctuation edits to the second half, and lo and behold, a half an hour later, it was done. But was it a children’s book? I wasn’t sure.
I had a feeling that Japanese Internment Camp sites were also now holding Kids in Cages, so I ran an internet search. I was shocked to find that some sites held Native Americans back in the day as well. The poem format was circular, and so was the history. The history that isn’t taught in U.S. classrooms.
I still wasn’t sure if my manuscript was ready to go, so I sat on it for a few months, until I finally sent it to my agent. Lary Rosenblatt of 22MediaWorks, thought it was the best manuscript I’d written so far. It was nice to have that feedback. I knew that I wanted to do this book with Red Comet Press. I had met Angus Yuen-Killick, the publisher, at USBBY in 2021, and I felt so comfortable with him.
I’m thrilled with how it came out. From the silver highlights on the dust jacket that made the barbed wire pop to the illustrations by the amazingly talented Violeta Encarnación, I felt like everyone on this project gave it their all. I hope you like it.
Barbed Wire Between Us by Mia Wenjen, illustrated by Violeta Encarnación
A powerful reverso poem about two girls separated by barbed wire and 80 years of history.
Barbed Wire Between Us is a powerful reverso poem that tells two deeply resonant stories across time. It begins with a Japanese American girl sent to an internment camp in Oklahoma during World War II. Read in reverse, it reveals the journey of a Latina girl detained in the very same camp decades later, during the U.S. policy of migrant family separation. Harrowing and emotionally charged, this poetic narrative compels us to confront a haunting question: What have we truly learned in the past 80 years about how we treat the most vulnerable among us? With haunting symmetry and striking parallels, Barbed Wire Between Us is a moving meditation on justice, memory, and the echoes of history that still shape our present. [picture book, ages 7 and up]
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Activities for Barbed Wire Between Us
Here is a FREE geography game that I made on Japanese Internment Camp sites that go with Barbed Wire Between Us. Some of the books featured on this game are also on this book list: 36 Japanese Internment Books for Kids & My Family’s Story.
How To Fold an Origami Crane:
Meet Illustrator Violeta Encarnación
p.s. Related posts:
BARBED WIRED BETWEEN US: Kirkus The Most Anticipated Children’s Books of Spring 2026
BARBED WIRE BETWEEN US gets Kirkus Starred Review!
Barbed Wire Between Us gets Starred Review from Publishers Weekly!
Barbed Wire Between Us unboxing!
Barbed Wire Between Us included in Sneak Peek list of Poetry for Young People 2026
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My books:
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Barbed Wire Between Us by Mia Wenjen, illustrated by Violeta Encarnación
- ⭐ Starred review from Kirkus
- ⭐ Starred review from Publishers Weekly
- ⭐ Starred review from School Library Journal
- Kirkus: The Most Anticipated Children’s Books of Spring 2026
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
- California Eureka Non-Fiction Gold Award
- Junior Library Guild Gold Selection
- Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Winner (from National Council for the Social Studies and Children’s Book Council)
The Traveling Taco:
- California Eureka Non-Fiction Silver Award
- Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Winner (from National Council for the Social Studies and Children’s Book Council)
- Reading Rockets’ Summer Reading Guide 2025
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
We Sing from the Heart: How the Slants® Took Their Fight for Free Speech to the Supreme Court
- ALSC Notable Children’s Book
- 2025 Carter G. Woodson Book Award Middle Level Honoree
- Orbis Pictus Recommended Book for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children
- 2024 Julia Ward Howe Prize for Children’s Literature Winner
- California Eureka Non-Fiction Award Honor Book
- Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Winner (from National Council for the Social Studies and Children’s Book Council)
- Bank Street Best Children’s Books of the Year 2025
- Recommended Reading for the Social Justice Literature Award 2025 (International Literacy Association)
- Pennsylvania Mountain Laurel Book Award Nominee 2026-27
- Junior Library Guild Gold Selection
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
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Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- ⭐ Starred review from School Library Journal!
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Massachusetts Book Award Long List
- dPICTUS 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
- Green Earth Book Award Long List
- Nautilus Silver Winner, Nonfiction Children’s Picture Book
- Sunshine State Young Readers Award Orange Blossom List for Nonfiction
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Bank Street College’s The Best Children’s Books of the Year
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Congratulations! I’m looking forward to reading this with my son. Just requested that my library buy a copy.