Holly Thompson – författare

   Emma Karas was raised in Japan; it''s the country she calls home. But when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, Emma''s family moves to a town outside Lowell, Massachusetts, to stay with Emma''s grandmother while her mom undergoes treatment.   Emma feels out of place in the United States.She begins to have migraines, and longs to be back in Japan. At her grandmother''s urging, she volunteers in a long-term care center to help Zena, a patient with locked-in syndrome, write down her poems. There, Emma meets Samnang, another volunteer, who assists elderly Cambodian refugees. Weekly visits to the care center, Zena''s poems, dance, and noodle soup bring Emma and Samnang closer, until Emma must make a painful choice: stay in Massachusetts, or return home early to Japan.

One year after the tsunami, this benefit fiction anthology helps teens learn about Japan and contribute to long-term relief efforts.

This aptly named fiction anthology—tomo means “friend” in Japanese—is a true labor of friendship to benefit teens in Japan whose lives were upended by the violent earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. Authors from Japan and around the world have contributed works of fiction set in or related to Japan. Young adult English-language readers will be able to connect with their Japanese counterparts through stories of contemporary Japanese teens, ninja and yokai teens, folklore teens, mixed-heritage teens, and non-Japanese teens who call Japan home. Tales of friendship, mystery, love, ghosts, magic, science fiction, and history will propel readers to Japan past and present and to Japanese universes abroad.

Edited and with a foreword by Holly Thompson, Tomo contributing authors include Naoko Awa, Deni Bechard, Jennifer Fumiko Cahill, Liza Dalby, Megumi Fujino, Andrew Fukuda, Alan Gratz, Katrina Toshiko Grigg-Saito, Suzanne Kamata, Sachiko Kashiwaba, Kelly Luce, Shogo Oketani and Leza Lowitz, Ryusuke Saito, Graham Salisbury, Fumio Takano, and Wendy Tokunaga, among others.

Through understanding comes compassion and the desire to help; portions of the proceeds of Tomo will be donated to ongoing relief efforts for teens in Japan.

In a Japanese seaside neighborhood lives Jason Parker: a sixth grader one year older than his classmates a stinking foreigner to some classmates an orange belt in aikido a big brotherJason Parker is just a boy trying to get through his days with calm and courage. If only everyone around him would let him.This is a beautifully spare novel in verse about one boy''s life-a story that will resonate with anyone who has ever struggled to fit in.