A warm, gorgeous exploration of a little girl's experience immigrating
to a new country and missing her home and her grandmother, who still
lives far away.
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, under which
she and her grandmother used to play and picnic. She wonders how she'll
ever feel at home in this new place, with its unfamiliar language and
landscape. One day, she meets her neighbor, a boy named Luke, and begins
to feel a little more settled. When her grandmother becomes ill, though,
her family takes a trip back to Japan. Sakura is sad when she returns to
the States and once again reflects on all she misses. Luke does his best
to cheer her up -- and tells her about a surprise he knows she'll love,
but she'll have to wait till spring. In the meantime, Sakura and Luke's
friendship blooms and finally, when spring comes, Luke takes her to see
the cherry blossom trees flowering right there in her new neighborhood.
Sakura's Cherry Blossoms captures the beauty of the healing power of
friendship through Weston's Japanese poetry-inspired text and Saburi's
breathtaking illustrations.