The Wakame Gatherers - Hardcover

Holly Thompson has lived for many years in Kamakura, Japan, where she has often gathered wakame with her children and observed the harvesting of cultivated wakame. Raised in New England, she earned her M.A. in fiction writing from New York University and now teaches creative writing at Yokohama City University. She writes for both children and adults and is the Regional Advisor of the Tokyo chapter of the Society of Children s Book Writers and Illustrators. Her novel Ash is also set in Japan.

Kazumi Wilds was born in Tokyo studied art at the Women s College of Art in Tokyo and at the University of Minnesota. She has illustrated three other children s books and teaches art when she is not painting. Kazumi now lives in the mountains of western Japan, near the Sea of Japan, with her children, dog, and cats. She remembers her many trips to Kamakura fondly.

Grade 1–3—A story about an American-Japanese girl whose family lives in Japan with her father's mother, Baachan. Her maternal grandmother visits from Maine and Nanami serves as a translator for her two grandmothers. Baachan is curious about Maine, particularly about seaweed harvesting. The cold ocean waters along its shore seem like a perfect environment for seaweed, so Baachan is surprised that it is not a big crop there. Nanami and her grandmothers spend a day gathering wakame, a delicious seaweed harvested in the village. Thompson provides fascinating details about life in rural Japan and the process of collecting, preserving, and preparing wakame, including a few easy recipes. She smoothly draws cultural comparisons while adroitly addressing the women's different perspectives on their childhoods during World War II. Colorful illustrations strengthen the parallels with interesting details, although the human figures sometimes seem flat. Particularly lovely are the endpapers—watery, seaweed-green watercolors depicting different types of seaweed on cream paper. This unpretentious story provides many opportunities for further exploration and discussion: the obvious comparisons of two cultures; the meaning of family; war and forgiveness; ecology, particularly the expansion of food resources; and differences and similarities among coastal environments around the world. An excellent choice for most collections.—Mary Hazelton, Elementary Schools in Warren & Waldoboro, ME
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