The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirotas Garde..., Heather Smith
The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirotas Garde..., Heather Smith
List: $9.99 | Sale: $7.00
Club: $4.99

The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirota's Garden

Author: Heather Smith

Narrator: Kelly Nakatsuka

Unabridged: 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/16/2020


Synopsis

? “Smith spins a quietly moving narrative...Wada’s large-scale woodblock style illustrations are a perfect complement to the story’s restrained text...The graceful way in which this book handles a sensitive and serious subject makes it a first purchase."—School Library Journal
When the tsunami destroyed Makio's village, Makio lost his father . . . and his voice. The entire village is silenced by grief, and the young child's anger at the ocean grows. Then one day his neighbor, Mr. Hirota, begins a mysterious project—building a phone booth in his garden. At first Makio is puzzled; the phone isn't connected to anything. It just sits there, unable to ring. But as more and more villagers are drawn to the phone booth, its purpose becomes clear to Makio: the disconnected phone is connecting people to their lost loved ones. Makio calls to the sea to return what it has taken from him and ultimately finds his voice and solace in a phone that carries words on the wind.
The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirota's Garden is inspired by the true story of the wind phone in Otsuchi, Japan, which was created by artist Itaru Sasaki. He built the phone booth so he could speak to his cousin who had passed, saying, "My thoughts couldn't be relayed over a regular phone line, I wanted them to be carried on the wind." The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011 destroyed the town of Otsuchi, claiming 10 percent of the population. Residents of Otsuchi and pilgrims from other affected communities have been traveling to the wind phone since the tsunami.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Margaux

Get your kleenex ready. I'm on a roll today with the sad books. Honestly, if you don't emote at least a little while reading this picture book you've either missed the point or something. A little boy uses the phone booth to call his deceased father, for crying out loud. I definitely cried, and I de......more

Goodreads review by Sandra

3,5/5 -Reseña completa: [URL not allowed]......more

Goodreads review by Deborah

The touching story of a boy, Makio, and his neighbor, Mr. Hirota, who builds a phone booth to communicate to those who lost their lives in a tsunami that destroyed their village. Based on the true story of a man who in 2010 erected a phone booth with a disconnected telephone after the death of his c......more