Lately for bedtime reading, I have been reading more chapter books to my daughter. This month we started on a book called When the Cherry Blossoms Fell by Jennifer Maruno (Napoleon and Company, 2009). The story begins on the eve of soon-to-be nine-year-old Michiko’s birthday. It is March 1942 in Vancouver, and Michiko awaits the arrival of her father from a business trip — he works as a candy salesman for The Imperial Confectionary Company of Canada — but instead of his return, Michiko’s mother Eiko gets an alarming phone call. Michiko’s father has been put in jail!
With this vivid opening, the story of Michiko’s family’s trials through the events of 1942 that affected thousands of Japanese Canadians on the west coast begins. Soon Michiko and her family will have to move, forcibly relocated to the interior of British Columbia. Slowly it dawns on Michiko, despite her family’s best attempts to shield her, what this event signifies for her as a Canadian of Japanese descent whose country is at war with Japan.
Although my daughter is aware of her cultural background, I don’t generally foist books on her about Japanese Canadian history or culture without her first indicating interest. This is especially true now that we are entering the realm of chapter books which require a longer commitment of time. In the case of When the Cherry Blossoms Fell, when I presented it to her, she said rather astutely “Read what it says on the back.” After hearing the crib on the back page, she felt it was worth the investment of our time at night together reading this book. And so we began reading When the Cherry Blossoms Fell together. My daughter is certainly figuring out how to ‘read’ a book in more ways than one these days!