Name: Orchards
Rating: 3.8 (5 reviews)
ISBN: 9780385739771

Holly Thompson

Sent to Japan for the summer after an eighth-grade classmate's suicide, half-Japanese, half-Jewish Kana Goldberg tries to fit in with relatives she barely knows and reflects on the guilt she feels over the tragedy back home.

Orchards

Paula Plaza Ponte 

"...a hot wind gusts
behind us
from the south
curling over the mountaintop 
brushing tree canopies 
and rolling down the slopes
to breathe on us like dragon Fire
there
on the veranda"

Here's a beautiful verse novel about family, grief, suicide and recovery. Hats off to Holly Thompson who brings Japan's landscape to life beside such a tragic topic with simple lines and powerful imagery. Held tears back to feel the painful squeeze at the back of my throat.

Elad Schulman

Orchards is a book written in free verse. 

The book is about Kana Goldberg and the way she deals with a suicide that could have been her fault. She is sent off to Japan for the summer, being half Japanese and half American, to try and deal with her feelings. Surrounded by orange picking, Kana starts to feel at home again. Until something happens back home that rocks Kana's world all over again. 

I guess this book was good, with a very good and strong theme, but I felt like the whole book was a little TOO slow paced. I have never been a fan of free verse novels, and I guess this book didnt really change that. I really liked the character development and the theme of the book, though.

Orchards

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