The Fall 2008 issue of Multicultural Review includes a really nice review of The Wakame Gatherers by Holly Thompson and illustrated by Kazumi Wilds:

"Nanami is an extraordinary girl in the eyes of both her grandmothers. One (Gram) is from Maine and the other from a sea village in Japan. Nanami lives in Japan with her parents, so Gram has to travel far for her unforgettable visit.

"As Namami translates for her grandmothers, she learns of the war between their countries and about the peace today that allows them to be friends. Each grandmother learns to appreciate the other. They both also learn about seaweed.

"During Gram's visit, Obaasan takes her and Nanami to gather seaweed to eat, narrating through the gathering and preparation processes. Obaasan is shocked that in Maine, where the conditions are perfect for growing seaweed, no one eats it. So, upon her return home, Gram tries her hand at seaweed gathering along with the routine setting of her lobster traps.

"This is a heartwarming example of how being from different cultures, countries, and races and speaking another language are not really barriers to appreciation and acceptance unless we allow them to be. There are many biracial, binational, and bilingual families today that prove this is true. I have been asked many times if my own family's differences cause problems. The answer is that as long as there is respect, there is no problem, just as is the case in this charming picture book."

There is a very sweet interview with Holly Thompson on Annie Donwerth Chikamatsu's blog, Here and There Japan. In it, Holly talks mostly about life in Japan rather than writing, and I love learning about all of life's little details that we here in the U.S. would never expect. For example, Holly says that she has trouble finding shoes big enough for her in Japan, so she always buys shoes when she's back in the U.S.!

Holly Thompson, author of The Wakame Gatherers, reports on a wonderful event she hosted in Japan last month. I'll let her explain:

Recently in Koshigoe, Kamakura, elementary school teachers from the U.S. state of Colorado joined community volunteers for a day to learn about wakame and to visit sites illustrated by Kazumi Wilds in my picture book The Wakame Gatherers. Late last year I was contacted by the Program for Teaching East Asia (TEA www.colorado.edu/CAS/TEA/) and learned that The Wakame Gatherers would be featured in the three-week 2008 TEA study tour--Japan through Children's Literature. A day was scheduled for the selected teachers to join me in Kamakura, and I was to show them around locations featured in the book where wakame is cultivated and dried. Plans for the day formed and reformed and soon came to involve many members of the Koshigoe community. Finally, after months of planning and anticipation, on a Saturday last month I met the fourteen teachers and their three leaders at the tiny Koshigoe Station on the Enoden Line.

We walked down the main Enoden street past the fish shop featured prominently in one illustration and past the old house that illustrator Kazumi Wilds selected as a model house for main character Nanami. We made our way to the port area just east of the Koyurugi headland where in winter and early spring wakame is hung to dry. There we watched the local fishing families preparing shirasu (tiny sardines) for drying and heard a brief talk by a fisherman; teachers had the opportunity to ask him questions about both naturally growing and cultivated wakame and the seasonal work of harvesting. Farther down the beach we gathered around the woman who served as the model for the character Baachan in the book. She was busy raking shirasu over drying screens, but took time out to talk with teachers and generously gave the group heaping platefuls of just-harvested and boiled shirasu. Teachers took photos of the shirasu work, the beach setting featured in the book, and especially the warm and smiling Baachan model. Teachers even took pictures of other teachers holding up The Wakame Gatherers, pointing to illustrated pages that featured the landscape just behind them.

From the beach we walked through back lanes to the Koshigoe Middle School where, following months of planning, over a dozen community volunteers had meticulously prepared for the teachers to join them in cooking various wakame dishes. Teachers donned aprons, the menu was explained and they eagerly gathered around cooking tables to work with the volunteers to prepare miso wakame soup, wakame and seafood sunomono, wakame and tsukune nimono, wakame salad and wakame rice. During the cooking there was ample time for questions, talk and exchange of ideas between the teachers and community members.

The meal was served in an adjacent room where photos of the wakame harvesting process were hung. While eating, we heard talks by a representative of a local fishing family about the history and physical work of wakame cultivation in Koshigoe; by an elementary school teacher about the school's wakame program in which students fix wakame sporelings onto the ropes, set the ropes in the bay and later harvest the wakame; and by a community elder and lifelong Koshigoe resident who spoke of early days in Kamakura and the difficult years during the war--how unthinkable it would have been then, she said, yet how wonderful now for her to be sharing a meal cooked together with a group of American teachers in peace.

On the way back to Koshigoe Station at the end of the day, comments from the teachers included, "That was the best day we've had on the tour!" "Amazing!" "So great to be able to cook together," and "This, today, was the true meaning of exchange."

What more could an author ask for?!

The Wakame Gatherers is honored to be chosen by the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) of the University of Wisconsin-Madison as one of its 2008 Choices.

The 2008 edition of CCBC Choices features annotated entries for 279 books for children and young adults published in 2007 and recommended by the CCBC staff. CCBC Choices 2008 includes author/title and subject indexes and a commentary on the 2007 publishing year. (PDF of titles in CCBC Choices 2008).

Thanks, CCBC!

The Society of Writers, Editors & Traslators (SWET) is a an organization based in Japan. In thier April 2008 newsletter, there is a lengthy interview of Holly Thompson, author of The Wakame Gatherers. She talks about the impetus for the story, the publishing process, and the themes of the book.

It's a thoughtful and in-depth discussion of these issues, but of course, I was just a little thrilled to see my own name mentioned:

Q. Was it difficult to pitch a book with wakame in the title? Did you have to coach anyone on the pronunciation?
A. Actually, publisher Renee Ting of Shen's Books was adamant about keeping wakame in the title. One of her goals is to bring other cultures to children in the United States, and this includes introducing new words. Different publishers have different approaches, but many picture books published in North America nowadays include non-English words in the text. The glossary in the back of The Wakame Gatherers has a pronunciation guide. Of course many people still mispronounce the word wakame, but it doesn't seem to be a marketing deterrent.

Read the entire interview here.

Papertigers.org has a nice review of The Wakame Gatherers by Holly Thompson and illustrated by Kazumi Wilds:

"The loving relationship between grandchild and grandparent takes on an added dimension in this touching story of intergenerational communication and connection...

The Wakame Gatherers is a good example of how common experiences can bring people together across oceans and through time. It reminds us that reaching greater understanding of one another is always worth the journey."

January's issue of The Edge of the Forest features an interview with our own Holly Thompson talking about The Wakame Gatherers, Japan, and writing. (She even mentions me and Shen's Books-- yay!) Here's an excerpt that I found particularly interesting, as it pertains to some of the issues we covered in our "Crossing Cultural Borders" series of posts.

The Edge of the Forest: In workshops you've conducted you've spoken about some of the mistakes writers make when attempting to write multicultural fiction. Could you give a couple of examples?

Holly Thompson: Perhaps the most serious mistake writers make is not knowing a culture deeply enough; this can result in a book full of clichés--in setting, characterization, and dialogue. Another mistake is not doing enough research and relying on rather narrow personal experience. A writer doesn't need to be a native of a culture to write about a culture; research with primary resources, substantial direct experience and interviews with experts can enable a writer to create an authentic story.

Every year, Walter Mayes, one of the authors of Valerie and Walter's Best Books for Children and best known in some circles as "Walter the Giant Storyteller," gives a talk about his children's book picks for the year. If you are involved at all with children's books in the Northern California Bay Area, you will recognize Walter's huge frame, bright red hair, and bushy beard. (And if you were at Hicklebee's bookstore on the night of the final Harry Potter release, you would have recognized him as Hagrid.)

Walter will be giving his "Best Books of 2007" talk tomorrow night at The Storyteller, an incredible children's bookstore in Lafayette, California. Right in my backyard, as a matter of fact. And I just found out today that one of his picks will be The Wakame Gatherers by Holly Thompson and Kazumi Wilds! Woohoo!

If you're in the area, you should definitely consider stopping by. Walter is a great speaker, and he will surely excite you about all the great books that came out this year.

Walter's Best Books of 2007!
The Storyteller Bookstore
30 Lafayette Circle, Lafayette CA 94549
Thursday, November 8, 7:00-9:00 pm
$10 fee. Reservations required. Call 925-284-3480

For parents and teachers, this evening full of giveaways and great advice is a yearly favorite. Walter will be covering ages 0-12. (Watch for another night of great book for ages 12-18 in the spring.) The Storyteller finds itself overwhelmed by posters and other giveaways, so we hope you'll come down for this event and take away great armfuls.

It's here! It's here! My advance copies of The Wakame Gatherers arrived, and they are as brilliantly gorgeous as I expected.

I am thrilled and excited about this beautiful book. Here's the synopsis:

Nanami has two grandmothers: Baachan, who lives with her family in Japan, and Gram, who lives in Maine. When Gram visits Japan for the first time, Baachan takes her and Nanami on a trip to the seaside to gather Wakame, a long, curvy seaweed that floats near the shore.

While the three assemble their equipment and ride the streetcar to the beach, Baachan explains how Wakame and other seaweeds are used in Japan. Gram shares stories about how seaweeds are used in Maine, and Nanami translates for them both.

By the end of the day, Nanami's two grandmothers discover that they have much in common despite being from countries that fought in the war they both remember vividly. Now, looking out across the beach at the surfers, dog walkers, and seaweed gatherers, they share an appreciation of this precious peace.

It's lovely, lovely. Both the story and the illustrations. I'm so excited it's here. The real shipment will arrive in mid-November, around Thanksgiving. So if you pre-order yours now, it will ship then. Go! Order this book!