Orchards by Holly Thompson
Summary: After a classmate commits suicide, Kana Goldberg’s parents send her to live on her grandparents’s orchard in rural Japan. Kana struggles with guilt over her friend’s death as well as her clashing half-Japanese, half-Jewish heritage.
Why I loved it: Lately I’ve been interested in novels in verse. I think that Thompson’s writing is absolutely lyrical. I also think that she does a remarkable job fleshing out several large conflicts in a very small space. I felt that both the issues of identity and suicide were well addressed in the book.
