by Holly Thompson
Holly Thompson's Orchards is told in gorgeous and thought-provoking prose as it explores the summer in one young girl's life as she travels to Japan. Kana is half Japanese, half Jewish, and when a classmate commits suicide, her parents send her to relatives for the summer to reflect on what happened...
This verse novel by Holly Thompson flips the perspective on bullying and shows what happens to the bullies when their bullying has tragic consequences. Thompson’s novel follows Kana’s displacement from New York to an orange orchard in Japan, her mother’s place of birth and home. The novel is particu...
If you look, you'll see that Holly Thompson is one of my Goodreads friends. I'm under no pressure to give her book a good review though. I only found her here after she visited my school. Otherwise, we are not acquainted.I am acquainted with her topic. Not suicide, but Japan. And orchards, both appl...
Orchards is about when Kana Goldberg is sent to visit her relatives in Japan after a girl in her middle school commits suicide. Once she gets there she keeps thinking of Ruth (That classmate) and wonders if she was partially to blame for driving Ruth to commit suicide. The book goes over the course ...
Interesting and often moving but this is another verse novel that seems better suited to prose than verse.
I loved, loved, loved this book! One of the best so far for the year. The quiet, reflective tone is perfect for the story, and Kana becomes a better person for her experiences.