After Pearl Harbor the Canadian government confiscates the possessions of all Japanese families and they are forcibly moved to small impoverished communities, including ten-year-old Michiko, her parents, and the new baby on the way.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 10-year-old Michiko's family’s possessions are confiscated and they are sent to a small community. After a former Asahi baseball star becomes her new teacher, life gets better. Baseball fever hits town, and when Michiko challenges the adults to a game with her class, the whole town turns out.

Short-listed for the 2012 Pacific Northwest Young Readers Choice Award and for the 2011 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award (When the Cherry Blossoms Fell) This special bundle contains all of Jennifer Maruno’s Cherry Blossom novels about the internment of Japanese-Canadians, viewed through the eyes of nine-year-old Michiko Minagawa. Includes: When the Cherry Blossoms Fell Nine-year-old Michiko bids her father goodbye. She doesn’t know the government has ordered all Japanese-born men out of the province. Ten days later, her family joins hundreds of Japanese-Canadians on a train to the interior of B.C. She must face local prejudice, the worst winter in forty years, and her first Christmas without her father. Cherry Blossom Winter After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, ten-year-old Michiko’s family’s possessions are confiscated and they are sent to a small community. After a former Asahi baseball star becomes her new teacher, life gets better. Baseball fever hits town, and when Michiko challenges the adults to a game with her class, the whole town turns out. Cherry Blossom Baseball — NEW! After her family is forced to move by Canada’s racist wartime policies, Michiko is the only Japanese kid at school. One nice thing is that she’s a hit at the local baseball tryouts. There’s just one problem: everyone thinks she’s a boy. What is she to do when they find her out — do as she’s told and quit, or pitch like never before? “Maruno brings to life this tragic part of Canadian history while showing that, among the poverty and loss experienced by the internees, strong communities were still able to grow.” — Quill & Quire

This special bundle contains both of Jennifer Maruno’s Cherry Blossom novels about the internment of Japanese-Canadians, viewed through the eyes of nine-year-old Michiko Minagawa. Michiko bids her father goodbye before her birthday celebration. She doesn’t know the government has ordered all Japanese-born men out of the province. Ten days later, her family joins hundreds of Japanese-Canadians on a train to the interior of British Columbia. There are no paved roads, no streetlights and not streetcars. At school Michiko learns the truth of her situation. She must face local prejudice, the worst winter in forty years and her first Christmas without her father. In the second novel, while Michiko wants to be proud of her Japanese heritage, she can’t be. After a former Asahi baseball star becomes her new teacher, life gets better. Baseball fever hits town, and when Michiko challenges the adults to a game with her class, the whole town turns out. Then the government announces that they must move once again. But they can’t think of relocating with a new baby coming, even with the offer of free passage to Japan. Michiko pretends to be her mother and writes to get a job for her father on a farm in Ontario. When the Cherry Blossoms Fell Cherry Blossom Winter

Michiko Minagawa's father is exiled and she and her family must move to a desolate internment camp in the middle of British Columbia, where she must deal with the prejudices of her schoolmates.

Looks at the life cycle of a cherry tree, the history behind the gift of the Japanese cherry trees to our nation's capital, and the association of cherry trees and spring.