The Dragon King Trilogy, Book One: Topaz Dragon

Young adult to adult historical fantasy.

Seventeen-year-old Ryujin Shimazu is a prisoner in the Topaz internment camp during World War II even though he is an American citizen. When his grandmother from Hawaii is also sent to the camp, he learns the reasons behind the strange feelings that threaten to overwhelm him—desires to hold, to grasp, to roam at night, and to be near water. Lost in tradition from their Japanese ancestors is the tale of Ryujin’s mother’s line and the male child (a male has not been born for centuries), who is a shape-shifting imperial dragon. Not only must Ryujin, whose name means dragon king, learn control, but he must discover the gems on Topaz Mountain that will give him power. Everything comes to a head as he must defuse the tensions in the camp that rise over the murder of one of the internees by a deranged camp guard.