Three Years and Eight Months - Tapa dura

Based on true events during World War II, Three Years and Eight Months tells a compelling journey of hardships and human endurance of ordinary people in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation. A 10-year-old Chinese American boy secretly joins the Chinese war resistance group to help save the lives of thousands of prisoners of war, as well as allied American, British, and Canadian forces. The book features extensive historical notes and photographs documenting the Japanese occupation in Hong Kong from 1942 to 1945.

Icy Smith is the award-winning author of The Lonely Queue, Mei Ling in China City, and Half Spoon of Rice. She is the 2012 recipient of the National Joint Conference of Librarians of Color Author Award for her “substantial and lasting contributions to the understanding of diversity and a multicultural society in the United States.In her acclaimed book, The Lonely Queue, Smith documents the remarkable history of the 150 years of Chinese Americans in Southern California. It was the recipient of the 2002 Clarion Award for nonfiction. Mei Ling in China City received the 2009 Chinese American Librarians Association Best Book Award in the Children's Category. Half Spoon of Rice was selected as a medalist of the Benjamin Franklin Awards, Moonbeam Children's Book Awards, California Book Award, Society of School Librarians International Honor Book Award, Skipping Stones Honor Awards, and the Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices.