The Wakame Gatherers [Hardcover]

Holly Thompson (Author), Kazumi Wilds (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2007 | Age Range: 5 and up

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. Holly Thompson's beautiful prose captures the exuberance of a young girl who easily traverses between two cultures and languages. It also illuminates the love and understanding that grow between two older women who are so different, yet share an unbreakable bond. Kazumi Wild's bright, vivid paintings make the Japanese landscape and the rocky shores of Maine come alive, reminding us all that we share this earth and the peace that we create.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

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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About the Author

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.

Product Details

• Age Range: 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Shen's Books (December 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885008333
• ISBN-13: 978-1885008336
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 9.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,428,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Holly Thompson was raised in New England and earned a B.A. in biology from Mount Holyoke College and an M.A. from New York University's Creative Writing Program. Longtime resident of Japan, she teaches creative writing at Yokohama City University. Holly's fiction often relates to Japan and Asia. Her YA verse novel The Language Inside (Delacorte/​Random House, May 2013) deals with language both spoken and unspoken and, through poetry that crosses boundaries, connects a Japan-raised American girl with a Cambodian-American boy and the patients they assist in a long-term care center. In her YA verse novel Orchards (Delacorte/​Random House, 2011), which received the 2012 APALA Asian/​Pacific American Award for Literature, Kana, a half Japanese and half Jewish-American girl, is sent to spend the summer with Shizuoka relatives after the death of a classmate. Her novel Ash (Stone Bridge Press, 2001), set in Kagoshima and Kyoto, has been recommended as a teaching tool in high school and university classrooms studying Japan, Asia and intercultural issues. Her picture book The Wakame Gatherers (Shen's Books, 2007) depicts a bicultural girl who goes seaweed gathering with her Japanese and American grandmothers. Holly edited, and wrote the foreword to, Tomo: Friendship through Fiction--An Anthology of Japan Teen Fiction, a young adult anthology of Japan-related fiction to benefit teens in the earthquake- and tsunami-affected areas of Tohoku. For more information about Tomo, visit the Tomo blog. Holly's short stories, poetry and articles have been published in magazines and journals in the United States and Japan and anthologized in The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan (Stone Bridge Press, 1997). She is a regular contributor to Wingspan, the ANA inflight magazine. Holly serves as Regional Advisor of the Tokyo chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI Tokyo).

Holly Thompson is represented by Jamie Weiss Chilton of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

Follow Holly Thompson on Twitter: @​hatbooks

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Enthusiastic color paintings illustrate this wonderful tale March 4, 2008

By Midwest Book Review

Format:Hardcover

Written by Yokohama City University creative writing teacher Holly Thompson and illustrated by Tokyo-born artist Kazumi Wilds, The Wakame Gatherers is a children's picturebook about a young girl, Nanami, who has two grandmothers on opposite sides of the ocean: Gram in Maine and Baachan in Japan. When Gram visits Japan for the first time, Gram, Baachan, and Nanami go on a seaside trip to gather Wakame, a long, curvy seaweed that floats near the shore. Gram and Baachan share stories about how seaweeds are used in Maine and Japan, and Nanami translates for both. Enthusiastic color paintings illustrate this wonderful tale about family togetherness and forming connections between cultures.

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful story of intercultural understanding October 19, 2011

By Tokyo Teacher

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This story is practically about our family - my daughter identifies with Nanami, just with her grandma being from New Hampshire instead of Maine, and both grandmas being a little younger than the ones in the book. While we have never gathered wakame, my daughter has served as a bridge between cultures, and it is refreshing to see that experience validated in a beautiful picture book.

5.0 out of 5 stars From an American in Japan December 8, 2007

By NeeBob

Format:Hardcover

This book is spot on when it comes to comparing and contrasting the cultures of two grandmothers from Japan and Maine (USA) as they harvest seaweed together with their Japanese granddaughter. The attention to details by the artist is a welcome treat as anyone who has actually been to this part of Japan will attest. The sweet twist at the end doesn't come as a surprise but begs for a sequel.