Book Review -- Weedflower (Module 5)

1. Bibliography

Kadohata, Cynthia. WEEDFLOWER. New York: Atheneum, 2006. ISBN 0689865740.

2. Plot Summary

Sumiko is a twelve-year-old Japanese-American girl, orphaned and living with extended family on a flower farm in California in 1941. Her life is fairly content, spending her days at school, taking care of her younger brother Takao “Tak-Tak”, and grading commercially-grown flowers the family cultivates and sells for their livelihood. The world outside is changing, and the friction amongst world powers is growing more intense. Although Sumiko’s family members try to keep her and Takao safely sheltered from the repercussions of that friction, especially between the United States and Japan, the realization of its effect upon their family and community is inevitable. Sumiko's rejection at the birthday party of a wealthy white classmate marks the beginning of her own experience in the “us against them” feeling permeating relations between the United States and Japan, and the anxiety growing with her Japanese-American community. Soon afterward, Pearl Harbor is bombed by the Japanese, and the resulting hatred as well as government policy turns the lives of the Japanese-American community upside down. The family meets hardship after hardship and many unanswered questions about the future. This book shows their resilience and difficult decisions made in surviving the war in body and spirit.

3. Critical Analysis

The personalities in this story are memorable and distinctive. Kadohata describes them and tells this story in third person, from Sumiko’s perspective. The style was thoroughly engaging. This novel evokes a full range of emotions, and was difficult to put down at times. Other times, putting it down and absorbing the weight of what occurred seemed necessary. Kadohata based this book on stories she heard from her father, who was held in an internment camp during World War II. In addition, more survivors of internment were interviewed for this book, as were experts on Indian Reservations of this point in time. The Acknowledgments page in the front of this novel recounts those consulted in the writing of this novel.

4. Reviews and Awards

Publisher’s Weekly review:

"Kadohata clearly and eloquently conveys her heroine's mixture of shame, anger and courage. Readers will be inspired...."

Kirkus review:

”Kadohata combines impressive research and a lucent touch, bringing to life the confusion of dislocation.... “

Awards:
Agatha Award Finalist
ALA Best Books for Young Adults Nominee
ALA Notable Children's Book Nominee
Booklist Editors' Choice
CBC/NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book
CCBC Choices (Cooperative Children's Book Council)
Charlie May Simon Book Award ML (AR)
Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best
Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award Master List (VT)
Indian Paintbrush Book Award Master List (WY)
IRA/CBC Children's Choices
Jane Addams Children's Book Award
Kentucky Bluegrass Award Master List
Keystone to Reading Book Award Master List (PA)
Massachusetts Children's Book Award Master List
Nene Award Master List (HI)
Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award
Texas Bluebonnet Master List
Young Hoosier Book Award Master List (IN)

5. Connections

This book could be used as in a Social Studies unit about World War II, Indian Reservations, and Japanese Internment Camps. It could be used to discuss diversity.