About
Holly Thompson (www.hatbooks.com) is author of the verse novels Falling into the Dragons Mouth, The Language Inside, and Orchards, and the novel Ash, and was the editor of Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories, a collection of 36 Japan-related short stories, including ten in translation. A longtime resident of Japan, and a native of Massachusetts, she writes poetry, fiction and nonfiction for children through adults.
Featured Work
The Language Inside
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 her grandmother while her mom undergoes treatment. Emma feels out of place in the United States, 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 early to Japan.
The Language Inside is a verse novel rich in language both spoken and unspoken and poetry that crosses boundaries to create a story layered with love, loss, movement and words.
Delacorte/Random House, May 2013
YALSA 2014 Best Fiction for Young Adults
Notable Books for a Global Society 2014
Bank Street Best Books of the Year 2014
Notable Books for the Language Arts 2014
A Librarians' Choices 2013 Book
New England Book Festival Honor Book, YA Category
Nominated--2014 Sakura Medal
Other Works
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Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction--An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories
2012
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Orchards
2011
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The Wakame Gatherers
2007
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Ash
2001
Awards and Recognition
- Honorary Fellow in Writing, International Writers Workshop, Hong Kong, 2012
- APALA Asian/Pacific Award for Young Adult Literature, 2012
