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Summary
Summary
Sakura's dad gets a new job in America, so she and her parents make the move from their home in Japan. When she arrives in the States, most of all she misses her grandmother and the cherry blossom trees they used to picnic under. One day, she meets her neighbour, a boy named Luke, and begins to feel a little more settled. When spring comes, Luke takes her to see the cherry blossom trees flowering right there in her new neighbourhood.
Author Notes
ROBERT PAUL WESTON was born in Dover, England, but did most of his growing up in the small town of Georgetown, Ontario. Since then, he's also spent time living in the US, Japan, Switzerland and the UK. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and has been nominated for the Journey Prize and the Fountain Award for Speculative Fiction. He has written several novels for young readers, including Zorgamazoo , Dust City and Blues for Zoey . Sakura's Cherry Blossoms is his first picture book. He currently lives in London, England.
MISA SABURI was born in Sleepy Hollow, New York, and raised in Tokyo, Japan. She makes illustrations using Photoshop, sometimes while watching soccer and silly Japanese TV shows. She illustrated the Cantata Learning Sing-Along Books series, as well as the upcoming picture book Snow White , an adaptation of the classic tale. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
"Seeing these blossoms in bloom/ is always finest with friends," Sakura's grandmother Obaachan tells her as they picnic underneath flowering cherry trees. Sakura loves her grandmother and misses her when her family moves from Japan to the United States. With lyrical prose-and sentences written, an afterword explains, in the Japanese poetic form of tanka-Weston (The Creature Department) chronicles the trials of adapting to another culture. Sakura gets used to new words ("They nipped and snapped on her tongue/ like the tang of pickled plums") and finds a friend her age named Luke. Then Obaachan falls ill, and Sakura must return to Japan to say goodbye. She mourns, but the following spring brings her a reminder of Obaachan in her new city. With their sturdy outlines, Saburi's images look like traditional woodblock prints; her sweet, doll-headed figures and toylike landscape help take the sting out of the story's sadder moments. Weston combines a look at Japanese customs, a meditation on loss, and observations on adjusting to a new country in this wistful, low-key tale. Ages 3-7. Author's agent: Jackie Kaiser, Westwood Creative Artists. Illustrator's agent: Kirsten Hall, Catbird Agency. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Short tanka poems sympathetically tell of Japanese girl Sakura's love for Obaachan (grandmother) and for the cherry trees that shade their picnics. When Sakura moves to San Francisco because of her dad's job, both are sad. After Obaachan dies, a new friend finds a way to reconnect Sakura with her beloved home and grandmother. Digital illustrations recall Japanese woodblock prints. Includes a note on tanka. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A Japanese girl's beloved cherry blossoms become a metaphor for the ephemerality of life when her grandmother passes away, her memory still abloom even across the sea in America. Sakura, whose name means cherry blossom, loves to picnic with her obaachan under the cherry tree. Together they tell stories and eat bento lunches. But when Sakura moves from Japan to the United States, everything becomes unfamiliarthe house, the trees, the school, and the language, whose words "nipped and snapped on her tongue like the tang of pickled plums." With the help of a new, white friend, Sakura slowly adjusts, until she loses her grandmother and is thrown into grief. When spring arrives and their city's riverfront is covered in cherry blossoms, Sakura finds herself full of memories and love for her obaachan as she picnics with new friends under the cherry trees. Digital illustrations showcase interesting compositions and good design sensibilities, and Saburi has a unique way of rendering the world. However, the color palette is muddied. The heavy use of complementary colors leads to a muddiness in value and a less appealing environment. Nevertheless, there's an earnestness that comes from the words and art as Sakura's tale of intergenerational love shines through.Writing in a series of tanka poems, Weston addresses the difficulty of moving to a new country and the loss of a loved one with warmth and compassion. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Sakura loves nothing better than springtime, when the cherry tree is covered in pink blossoms, and she and Obaachan (Grandmother) sit under its luminous light and tell stories. But then Sakura and her parents have to move from Japan to America and leave Obaachan behind. Sakura's days are filled with adjustments to a new life and a new language, with words that nipped and snapped on her tongue / like the tang of pickled plums. This thoughtful story is written as a series of tanka poems, a traditional Japanese poetic form that Weston explains at the end. The language is so precise that it sparkles like the stars that Sakura views through the telescope of her new friend Luke, a cerebral boy whose wisdom echoes Obaachan's. Luke and Sakura teach each other to see things quite literally from a new perspective, and their friendship grows strong. Saburi's Photoshop illustrations mirror the plot, riding the wave of Sakura's emotions, adding layers of depth and detail. Blocks of solid colors cream, plum, indigo, and black are shot through with crisp, white starlight and snow, and provide the perfect backdrop for this heartwarming story of the ephemeral, the eternal nature of love, friendship, cherry blossoms, and stars.--Chaudhri, Amina Copyright 2018 Booklist
