Weedflower

Weedflower

Cynthia Kadohata

Simon & Schuster 2006 (hardcover), 2009 (paperback)

272 pages (hardcover), 260 pages (paperback)

Ages 10 to 14

Publisher's Website

Sumiko and her younger brother live on their aunt and uncle's California flower farm with their cousins and grandfather in the early 1940s. Sumiko's family lives happily, but often endures prejudice because of their Japanese heritage. After Pearl Harbor is attacked, Sumiko's grandfather and uncle are taken by the authorities to a detention camp. Shortly afterward, the rest of Sumiko's family is sent to an assembly center before being interned in Poston, Arizona, on the Colorado River Indian Reservation. Throughout her journey, Sumiko confronts the challenges of internment, including making new friends, enduring harsh physical conditions, staving off “the ultimate boredom,” and of course coming to terms with how the United States treats her people. Her most notable adventures include forming an unlikely friendship with Frank, an Indian boy living on the reservation, and teaming up with a one-eyed internee to cultivate a beautiful garden in the barren desert of the camp. Ultimately, Sumiko and her family find an opportunity to leave the camp, their future tenuous but hopeful.

An especially poignant part of this novel is the interchange between Sumiko and Frank, whose ethnic groups are both suppressed by the power system in different ways. In order to form their friendship, Sumiko and Frank must explain their respective cultures to understand one another. The authorities who forced the two groups into Poston could have benefited greatly from the cultural interchange these two adolescents learn to use sitting in the bean fields of the Arizona desert. Weedflower would make an excellent piece of literature for a civil rights unit. The novel would also be an excellent choice for a unit on America during World War II.

Kadohata uses highly accessible prose, and masterfully balances portraying the thoughts of her young protagonist believably with rich descriptions of the physical setting. Her characterizations are equally rich, using colorful descriptions and dialogue paired with complexity in motivation. The book also makes effective use of foreshadowing, motif, and symbolism.

Many students will relate easily to Sumiko, who is undergoing many of the social difficulties of late childhood/early adolescence but is not defined by them. The book will appeal more strongly to the younger end of its target audience, and more to girls than boys. The story does not have many escapist qualities, and is unlikely to attract readers outside of school assignments.

Weedflower received a starred review in the School Library Journal, and was nominated for “Best Books for Young Adults” by the American Library Association, in addition to numerous other awards and nominations. Kadohata is an acclaimed children's and young adult novelist specializing in stories involving Asia and Asian-Americans, having previously received the Newbery Award for Kira-Kira. Her most recent book is A Million Shades of Gray, published in 2010 and set in in the Vietnam War.

5 Hats of Historicity:

4 Quills of Quality:

3 Apples of Appeal:

About Hi-Y'ALL

The Historical Young Adult Literature Library aims to serve as a quick reference for both social studies and language arts teachers in finding great literature to use in their classrooms. We believe that literature is one of the most powerful tools for educating students about the themes and issues which have challenged people throughout time. Literature is especially effective for teaching historical themes, since it allows students to vicariously experience historical problems first-hand. This allows educators to cut past both the twin-stumbling blocks of drily abstract history textbooks and inaccessibly opaque primary texts.

Hi-YALL rates books with a 5-point scale in three attributes. Each attribute is represented by a visual symbol which hopefully also acts a as mnemonic. The attributes are:

• Historical Themes, symbolized by Hats. Rather than focusing on strict accuracy, this attribute refers to how well a work explores the social issues of a particular time period. A novel may be set in medieval Europe or the 19^th century American West, and represent those periods with exacting detail, but that doesn't mean students will gain a better understanding of the social issues in those places and periods just from reading it. Similarly, fantastical elements or historical characters who don't behave quite like their real-life counterparts won't diminish a rating in this category in and of themselves. The more "hats of historicity” a book earns, the more useful it will be as material for studying the period in which it is set. The specific type of hat will vary depending on the historical period.

• Literary Quality, symbolized by Quills. This refers to the level of craft with which a book is composed. It includes the allure of its narrative, artistry of its language, the believability of its characters, its aesthetic use literary devices, and all that other stuff that good literature is supposed to be. The higher a book's score on literary quality, the more useful it will be as material for literary study.

• Appeal to Adolescents, symbolized by Apples. This refers to how excited students will be to read the book. Low scores indicate books that are so painfully boring, typical students will only read them upon threat of failure, and even then only with the utmost reluctance. High scores indicate books that many students will devour, then order the sequel weeks before it becomes available, wait hours in line for it on the day of release, and chatter about in the hall with their peers. Your desk is much more likely to be populated with apples if you assign students to read such popular books.

The Historical Young Adult Literature Library began as a an independent project by Stephen Worthington (Mr. Double Yoo), an undergraduate student during a teacher-preparation program. Stephen, who is trained in both the social studies and language arts, was taking courses in teaching literature and in young adult literature when he realized that many of the approaches to literature instruction can tremendously enrich the teaching of history. He dreamed up this blog as a means of helping fellow educators bridge this part of the discipline gap.

Currently, all of Hi-Y'ALL's reviews are written by Stephen, but he hopes to recruit more contributors soon.