Ember
Random House
February 2012
$9.99 US
328p pb
ISBN: 978-0385739788
fp February 2011
Orchards: a novel
Holly Thompson
illustrations by Grady McFerrin
from the book...
After a classmate
commits suicide, Kana Goldberg - a half-Japanese, half-Jewish American
- wonders who is responsible. She and her cliquey friends said some
thoughtless things to the girl. Hoping that Kana will reflect on her
behavior, her parents pack her off to her mother's ancestral home in
Japan for the summer. There Kana spends hours under the hot sun tending
to her family's mikan orange groves.
Kana's
mixed heritage makes it hard to fit in at first, especially under the
critical eye of her traditional grandmother, who has never accepted
Kana's father. But as the summer unfolds, Kana gets to know her
relatives, Japan, and village culture, and she begins to process the
pain and guilt she feels about the tragedy back home. Then news about a
friend sends her world spinning out of orbit all over again.
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