National Network for Equitable Library Service

Short-listed for the 2012 Pacific Northwest Young Readers Choice Award and for the 2011 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award (When the Cherry Blossoms Fell) This special bundle contains all of Jennifer Maruno’s Cherry Blossom novels about the internment of Japanese-Canadians, viewed through the eyes of nine-year-old Michiko Minagawa. Includes: When the Cherry Blossoms Fell Nine-year-old Michiko bids her father goodbye. She doesn’t know the government has ordered all Japanese-born men out of the province. Ten days later, her family joins hundreds of Japanese-Canadians on a train to the interior of B.C. She must face local prejudice, the worst winter in forty years, and her first Christmas without her father. Cherry Blossom Winter After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, ten-year-old Michiko’s family’s possessions are confiscated and they are sent to a small community. After a former Asahi baseball star becomes her new teacher, life gets better. Baseball fever hits town, and when Michiko challenges the adults to a game with her class, the whole town turns out. Cherry Blossom Baseball — NEW! After her family is forced to move by Canada’s racist wartime policies, Michiko is the only Japanese kid at school. One nice thing is that she’s a hit at the local baseball tryouts. There’s just one problem: everyone thinks she’s a boy. What is she to do when they find her out — do as she’s told and quit, or pitch like never before? “Maruno brings to life this tragic part of Canadian history while showing that, among the poverty and loss experienced by the internees, strong communities were still able to grow.” — Quill & Quire