Product Description

When Yoko was very small, she and her Grandmother, Obaasan, fed the cranes in the pond at the end of the garden. When Yoko moves to California, she remembers her Grandmother and Grandfather in Japan. Every week letters go back and forth. She thinks of their garden and their cranes. And when Grandmother’s birthday comes, Yoko sends the most wonderful gift of all. Rosemary Wells celebrates the love between grandchildren and gradparents in this sequel to best-selling Yoko.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1562808 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Wells returns to the plucky heroine she introduced in Yoko with this wistful story about the green-eyed kitten and her far-away grandparents. Yoko writes weekly to Japan to her beloved grandmother, Obaasan, whose garden is visited each year by migrating cranes. Yoko's grandfather, Ojiisan, inspired by the winged visitors, showed his granddaughter how to fold cranes out of paper. When Obaasan's birthday approaches and Yoko doesn't have the money to buy her a present, she sends her some origami cranes, folded just as Ojiisan had taught her. Wells differentiates between the two homelands in palette and artistic style. She dresses the endearing grandparents in autumnal-hued kimonos cut out of silk-screened paper against backgrounds of woodblock-style ocean waves and wind-blown pines. Yoko, meanwhile, sports flowered patterns and spring-inspired colors; Wells outlines the heroine's vignettes in plaid frames. The boxed collages form the main images but, in traditional Japanese style, their borders are porous: leaves fall and cranes fly out into the white margins; Yoko's posted letters and origami diagrams prance across the bottom of the pages. "Soon I will come back to Japan, just like the cranes," Yoko's birthday greeting says, and while the book doesn't portray her return, youngsters will know that, no matter how far away their grandparents may be, their love will find them. Ages 3-7.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
reS-Gr 2-This much-anticipated follow-up to Yoko (Hyperion, 1998) focuses on the beloved kitten's connection to the grandparents that she and her parents left behind in Japan when they relocated to the United States. The story begins by recounting the treasured hours she spent in the garden with Obaasan, her grandmother, feeding the cranes. Little Yoko learns that the cranes stay only a few months in the garden. The disappointment that she feels at the birds' seasonal departure is mitigated somewhat by the origami cranes and other creatures that Ojiisan, her grandfather, teaches her to make. This backward glance continues by revisiting Yoko and her parents' eventual departure from Japan. Once in America, the child corresponds weekly via letters and then on Obaasan's birthday, sends a special present of three lovingly folded origami cranes and the promise that soon she will return to visit them-just like the cranes. This touching intergenerational story is told with a beautiful economy of language that echoes the simplicity valued in both Japanese art and culture. The stunning artwork is a marvelous pastiche created by the use of origami and washi papers, gold leaf, rubber stamps, and paint. Recognizable motifs from traditional Japanese art are found throughout the visual narrative. A perfect gem.

Rosalyn Pierini, San Luis Obispo City-County Library, CA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Ages 3-7. In the latest gentle book about the Japanese kitten Yoko, Wells shows and tells a story of origami. With her loving grandmother Obaasan, Yoko feeds the cranes in the garden. She's sad when they fly away each year, but Obaasan assures her that the birds will come back. Grandfather Ojiisan teaches Yoko to fold paper cranes and make other animals with his beautiful colored papers. When Yoko grows up and moves to California, she makes paper cranes and sends them in a package across the sea for Obaasan's birthday. The clear, lovely pictures draw on many styles of Japanese illustration and combine origami, gold leaf, rubber stamps, and paint, contrasting the wild, free-flying birds with small, framed, cozy indoor scenes of family. Children will enjoy the intricate details of the cut-paper animals as much as the double-page spread of the ship on the waves with Yoko waving goodbye. This is an immigration story, too. Like the child in Naomi Shihab Nye's Sitti's Secrets (1994), Yoko feels close to family far away. Hazel Rochman
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