Holly Thompson

Books


MG-YA Fiction
Orchards
Forthcoming from Delacorte! Orchards is a novel in verse that explores the complexities of a 14-year-old girl's Japanese/Jewish/American identity during a summer spent with relatives in Japan. To be published in spring 2011.
Children's
The Wakame Gatherers
Bicultural Nanami goes seaweed gathering with her Japanese and American grandmothers. While translating for the two women she comes to understand they were at war when they were her age.
YA-Adult Fiction
Ash - A Novel
"A wonderfully insightful novel about a young woman living within two cultures. Thompson adeptly explores the lasting bonds of friendship and the courage needed to face the past in order to embrace the future."—Gail Tsukiyama, author of Women of the Silk and The Samurai’s Garden
Short Stories
The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan
This anthology of short stories by expatriates in Japan was edited by Suzanne Kamata and features Holly Thompson's story "Bloodlines."

Books



Orchards
Holly Thompson's verse novel Orchards was sold to editor Francoise Bui of Delacorte, a Random House imprint, in a two-book deal. Orchards is a novel in verse that explores the complexities of a 14-year-old girl's Japanese/Jewish/American identity during a summer spent with relatives in Japan. Orchards will be published in spring 2011.


The Wakame Gatherers
Shen's Books, October 2007.

Bicultural Nanami goes wakame seaweed gathering with her Japanese and American grandmothers. Nanami must serve as translator for the two women, whom she comes to understand were at war when they were her age. Included after the story are an author’s note about wakame, a glossary of Japanese words used, and recipes for wakame by Nanami and each of her grandmothers.

"A Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People 2009" selected by the National Council for the Social Studies in cooperation with the Children's Book Council


Order The Wakame Gatherers from Amazon.com

Order The Wakame Gatherers from Amazon Japan

Order The Wakame Gatherers from Shen's Books


Ash - A Novel
Caitlin Ober is back in Japan teaching English in remote Kagoshima, opposite the increasingly active volcano Sakurajima. Beneath ominous clouds of ash, Caitlin travels her school rounds with waning enthusiasm. After hours she swims intently, hangs with a group of windsurfers, and attempts to keep her boyfriend, Hiroshi, at bay. She concocts lies and self-deceptions to prevent a tragic childhood incident in Kyoto from intruding on her present. But, like the ash that veils the city, guilt obscures her path. Then, in an ash-coated garden, Caitlin encounters a half-Japanese teenager, Naomi, wrangling with her double identity. Naomi seems to require Caitlin’s rescue, and by degrees the two swap morsels of self-truths. Ultimately they travel to Kyoto during the summer festival of O-Bon, when the spirits of the dead revisit the living. There, amid bonfires, temple rites, and ghostly memories, Caitlin bravely begins to embrace her future.

Order Ash from Amazon.com

Order Ash from Amazon Japan

Order Ash from Stone Bridge Press


The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan
Holly Thompson's story "Bloodlines" is featured in the anthology The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan (Stone Bridge Press), edited by Suzanne Kamata.

Order The Broken Bridge from Amazon.com

Order The Broken Bridge from Amazon Japan