Mr. Kuroki's Garden

“With pastel-hued washes loosely defined by naive pencil outlines, Hale’s art balances charming simplicity in drawings of flowers, insects, and animals, including a recurring white cat, with exuberant detail in flowing page layouts. Based on a true story of the miraculous gift of a memorable Japanese garden, Renaud’s spare poetic text illuminates this tender tale as a resonant reflection on how love, tended with care, can blossom into something that connects the whole world.” – Booklist“It’s a sweet story of a man’s love for his wife, and in the end, a tale of hope and happiness, but it tackles tough topics like visual impairment and depression … This picture book might be difficult for some but is an important read, depicting the natural decline of age and the beauty that can be found in one’s remaining days.” – School Library Journal

Anne Renaud is the author of more than twenty-five children’s books, written in both French and English. She is well known for her picture books and nonfiction works on the history of Quebec and Canada. Her books have won numerous awards, including the Prix Peuplier, the Prix des libraires du Québec, and the Fédération des écrivains du Québec Prize for children’s and young adult literature. Additionally, her poems, articles, short stories, and craft projects are regularly published in children’s magazines.

Ohara Hale is a self-taught artist born to an American father and a Japanese mother. She works with a variety of techniques and materials. She sings, writes, draws, and creates sounds, words, colors, and movements that explore themes such as love, life, nature, and everything that is invisible, unknown, and dreamlike in the in-between. Hale lives on planet Earth among the flowers.