Golden Threads by Suzanne del Rizzo illustrated by Miki Sato

Emi has a beautiful, handmade, toy fox. The pair are best friends. Fox is our narrator and he explains how one day there is a huge storm. Fox is tossed into the river.

"I churned and lurched, a blur of ragged fur and froth."

On the other side of the river Fox is found by a man, the grandfather of a young girl called Kiko. She carefully washes and repairs the damaged fox. 

In his pocket she finds the yellow ginkgo leaf Emi had placed there only hours ago. Kiko takes good care of Fox and many seasons pass. Then one day the river is littered with ginkgo leaves. Kiko knows it is time to look for her friend's home. Rowing back across the river she takes Fox back to Emi.

"Beneath our golden ginkgo, we sipped warm kukicha tea. And one by one we pieced together fragments of my journey. My stitched chest was like a seedpod filled full to the brim. Grateful. Restored. Loved."

A beautiful story of healing and strength. Kirkus

The fox’s transformative adventure invites discussion about empathy, how to overcome difficulties, and the idea that one doesn’t need to be perfect to be loved. School Library Journal

Words you need to know from this book:

kintsugi - a method used to repair rather than discard. "The art of repairing cracked pottery, joining broken pieces with gold."   金継ぎ

ginkgo Tree - a beautiful, deciduous tree with fan shaped yellow leaves appearing in Autumn. This tree is a symbol of longevity.  銀杏

obaasan - Grandmother  オバサン

ojiisan - Grandfather  おじいさん

kukicha tea - Green tea   茎茶

Wabi-sabi - finding beauty in things that are imperfect or incomplete.  わびさび 

Here is the web site for Japanese Canadian illustrator Miki Sato. Her collage art is stunning. Suzanne del Rizzo lives in Ontario, Canada. I especially love her book book My Beautiful Birds. Here is an interview with Suzanne about her book. Take a look here to see some pages from this book.

Golden Threads reminded me of The Little Boat by Kathy Henderson illustrated by Patrick Benson and also The Dress and the Girl by Camille Andros illustrated by Julie Morstad. There are so many children's books about lost toys and the joys of finding them again. Often the toy goes on an adventure. There is probably some deep psychological reason for this but I am not going to try to analyse myself - I just know I do enjoy books with this theme and emotional arc.

Here are some examples

Ducky's Nest

Finding Monkey Moon

The Lost Property Office

The Sea Saw

And here is one of my all time most favourite picture books explores the opposite idea where the boy is lost and the precious toy finds him! Along the way Felix is damaged but Alexander makes some careful repairs. 

Felix and Alexander