Although some story lines resolve too neatly, readers will respond to Angela’s contemporary voice as she discovers the value of evolving traditions. Aunt Janet put Angela to work in their flower shop, folding origami and creating 1001-crane displays for newlyweds. If you want to read a more detailed biography, see my main website,. Actually I think people of all ages can read 1001 Cranes. Writing books for young people is as hard if not harder than for adults. I hope to write more books for young people. Hirahara writes lyrically of folding (at one stage the paper “resembles a gold kite waiting to be released in the wind”), and as Angela learns that her father has moved out, origami convincingly becomes a “medicine.” Throughout the summer she becomes privy to the secret wounds in other people’s hearts (a tough bride, an older neighbor, her own mother and, finally, Grandma Michi), and sustains a mild injury to her own. 1001 Cranes Hirahara, Naomi 3.75 avg rating (597 ratings by Goodreads) ISBN 10: 0385905416ISBN 13: 9780385905411 Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2008 This specific ISBN edition is currently not available. 1001 Cranes is my first middle-grade book. To spare Angie, her parents send her to her grandparents, who live in a small town outside of Los Angeles. They are particularly difficult when you are only 12 years old, watching your parents get ready to divorce. She’s uncomfortable around stern Grandma Michi, an expert on things Japanese-unlike her much warmer paternal grandmother, Baa-chan, who even with that name claims to be “100 percent American.” Taught that displays of 1001 paper cranes have become a Japanese-American wedding tradition, Angela is put to work folding cranes for her grandmother’s business. 1001 CRANES Kirkus Reviews Relationships aren’t easy. Twelve-year-old Angela, the narrator, has been sent to spend the summer with her maternal grandparents outside Los Angeles, originally because her parents need to address the problems in their relationship. In her first book for young readers, Edgar-winner Hirahara examines ruptured relationships and reinforced cultural heritage.

1001 Cranes by Naomi Hirahara