The Lotus Seed

By Sherry Garland and Tatsuro Kiuchi

When she is forced to leave Vietnam, a young girl brings a lotus seed with her to America in remembrance of her homeland. “Exquisite artwork fuses with a compelling narrative--a concise endnote places the story effectively within a historical context--to produce a moving and polished offering.”--Publishers Weekly

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Aug 25, 2015
• ISBN: 9780544668638

Sherry Garland

SHERRY GARLAND is the author of many award-winning novels and picture books, including Indio, The Last Rainmaker. She lives in central Texas. www.sherrygarland.com

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Reviews for The Lotus Seed

[jenniferm14 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This historical fiction is a beautiful story that allows readers to get a glimpse of the value of history for Vietnamese people. The Lotus Seed tells the story of a woman who sees the emperor loose his throne, experience war, and immigrate to the United States. This book is appropriate intermediate readers.

[matthewbloome · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An unusual book of Vietnamese culture. I like it. It carries through the generations and outlines many of the important moments in Vietnamese history with a nice synopsis of the events mentioned within right at the end. It's unusual for its topic and it's well presented for its audience.

[nmhale_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The narrator of this book is recalling the story of her grandmother, who saw the Vietnamese Emperor cry. Snatching a lotus seed from the palace, by which to remember him always, her grandmother keeps it in a safe place with her. In elegant prose, we see a compressed history of grandmother, from marriage through her flight from Vietnam as a refugee, and the seed is always with her. In her new life in America, grandmother passes on her story to her grandchildren. Her youngest is so curious that he takes the seed and buries it. Grandmother is at first devastated, but she soon learns the regenerative power of the lotus seed.The story is beautiful, and discusses hefty subject matter in a simple and eloquent style. I love the symbol of the lotus seed as hope and rebirth, and the image of grandmother as a repository of important history and knowledge. I feel a lack of deep family roots in my own history, which makes me particularly like to read it of other families, even fictional. Also, the tale touches the heart with its understated poignancy.

[foster7_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Years ago, a grandmother (before she was a grandmother), collected and saved a lotus seed, the day the emperor of Vietnam was overthrown. Decades later, when war came, she left Vietnam, but made sure to take her precious lotus seed with her, leaving other items behind. She traveled by boat to a new country with "a language she didn't understand." In this new country, she "worked many years, day and night." After many years passed, her grandson planted the seed, and a gorgeous lotus blossom grew. The grandmother distributed the flowers' seeds, and her granddaughter saved hers in a hidden spot in her room, just as her grandmother had done many years before. This story, written by Sherry Garland, is further explained through oil paintings, by illustrator Tatsuro Kiuchi. Pages show scenes from Vietnam, including a field full of lotus plants, as well as an image from the war-torn country, with bombs causing the sky to appear black with smoke. Readers see the rough sea, on which the grandmother traveled, and the overwhelming foreign city, in which she shared a crowded home. The text tells the story of the grandmother's life, with each page marking a milestone in her journey. Garland mentions events in minimal phrases, with each sentence conveying a significant period. She notes that the grandmother, "married a young man chosen by her parents," and later, "soldiers clamored door to door." Young readers can gain insight into a period of history, which has repeated itself in many countries, in which people escape their native homes during times of war. Readers will see the importance of carrying the past into the future, and sharing memories with future generations.