Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata

Genre V:
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kadohata, Cynthia. 2006. Weedflower. New York. Atheneum. ISBN: 9780689865749

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Young Sumiko loves her family’s flower farm in Southern California. However, she doesn’t understand why the other children do not accept her and worries what will happen to her, her family and their farm now that Japan has attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This novel overflows the heart and human spirit. We first meet Sumiko on her family’s flower farm in the days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Unwanted by her schoolmates, she finds comfort in her grandfather, little brother, uncle, aunt and two young adult male cousins. Once the U.S. is attacked her family is divided as her grandfather and uncle are arrested and the rest of the family is evacuated to an internment camp in Arizona. Enduring the hard life that follows when her family is torn apart, and all of their civil rights are violated, Sumiko finds the true friendship she has been longing for. She also learns that she too, has prejudices and stereotypes of her own to deal with. Kadohata brings the theme of civil rights out in such a way that readers as young as third grade may understand. Readers will empathize with Sumiko’s right to live free as they also discover that we are charged to care for each other and should stand up to injustices. The novel is written with such talent that the reader can feel the unbearable heat of Arizona, the taste of its dust and see the intricate colors of Sumiko’s flowers. Readers are also able to enjoy the authentic mannerisms of each charter. Grandfather’s broken English and the use of Japanese words in the story, are expressions of Kadohata’s Japanese-American heritage. She sincerely blends the two without breaking either in half. Readers will feel they are in 1941 reading a current story. The author provides acknowledgements to her research and an end note for readers to use to find out more about this time in American and Japanese history.

4. REVIEW(S):

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: When Pearl Harbor is attacked, the lives of a Japanese-American girl and her family are thrown into chaos. Though often busy with chores, Sumiko enjoys working with the blossoms, particularly stock, or weedflowers (fragrant plants grown in a field). In the difficult days that follow the bombing, the family members fear for their safety and destroy many of their belongings. Then Uncle and Jiichan are taken to a prison camp, and the others are eventually sent to an assembly center at a racetrack, where they live in a horse stable. When they're moved to the Arizona desert, Sumiko misses the routine of her old life and struggles with despair.

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

5. CONNECTIONS
*Pair this novel with a unit about civil rights.
*Have students investigate the changes that occurred after the Japanese Americans were brought to Poston Arizona.
*Sumiko and her family were moved from Southern California to the desert of Arizona. Have students use different resources to study the differences in these two climates. Why was so hard to have a garden in the camp? What was the solution?