BookDragon Blog

And then Sakura’s father begins “a new job in America,” moving the family away from Japan and Obaachan. Sakura’s initial loneliness gives way to new friendship with Luke, who shares with her his astral fascination: “‘Flowers are like stars,'” Sakura notices. “‘They blossom,/ they sparkle, and then/ they fade, so we treasure them/ because one day they vanish.'” So do grandparents, Sakura realizes too soon, and the family returns to Japan to say goodbye to her beloved Obaachan. When spring returns, Sakura will remember well her grandmother’s words, that “watching cherry blossoms bloom/ is always finest with friends.”

In his picture book debut, Sakura’s Cherry Blossoms, Robert Paul Weston pays homage to the cherry blossoms of Japan’s Mount Yoshino, the foothills of which he called home in his 20s. Using tanka – a five-lined, 5-7-5-7-7-syllabled traditional Japanese poem – Weston clearly channels his own wandering experiences (British-born, Canadian-raised, world-traveled, now London-domiciled) of navigating the challenges of new locations, languages, and cultures. Artist Misa Saburi, similarly attuned to East and West, illustrates a traditional hanami (cherry blossom viewing) and a “boisterous” morning arrival at school with equal fluency. Despite their own dislocations, Weston and Saburi’s artistic expressions align on the page in a complementary way, highlighting the bonding experiences of family, friendship, natural beauty and, of course, Sakura’s cherry blossoms.