A Place Where Sunflowers Grow is one of several books reviewed in the article “A Dozen Great Books: Dealing with Disaster: Ways of Coping, Healing and Fighting Back,” in the Fall 2010 issue of the Journal of Children’s Literature. As the authors of the article state, “Our hope is that readers will be moved by these stories as they encounter characters’ hardships and ponder their paths to healing and action.”
The Journal of Children's Literature is published bi-annually by the Children’s Literature Assembly (CLA) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). The journal provides professional and extensive coverage and information of books published for children and young adults.
The journal is great reading for lovers and scholars of children’s literature. Here’s the review of A Place Where Sunflowers Grow:
Even though it has been 13 months since Mari and her family were relocated to the Japanese internment camp in Topaz, Utah, she remains withdrawn and dejected. Mari’s artist father takes her to a drawing class, but the harsh reality of living in the camp inhibits her drawing. One day, Mari’s teacher asks the class to draw things that make them happy at Topaz. Unable to think of anything, Mari remembers some- thing that made her happy before coming to the camp. She draws her old backyard with its sakura trees, flowers, and swings, and hangs it on the barrack wall above her bed. Through her drawing and happier memories, Mari slowly recovers from the trauma of uprooting and the injustice of internment. The community connections she forms because of her drawings empower her to heal and remain hopeful, like the sunflowers she nurtures in the camp garden. Inspired by the paintings of the author’s artist grandmother, Hisako Hibi, on whose experience this story is based, Hoshino’s delicate artwork evokes the fragility of the family’s desert life and of continued hope.
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