Sora and the Cloud

“This tale of an adventurous boy at play unfolds in a satisfying progression, and one can almost feel the delicious coolness of clouds as we ascend through Sora’s skies. There’s a sense of magic being revealed in these pages, marked by imagination and a palette of candytinted watercolors. Many of the pages are graced with minute cultural references that delicately tie the bilingual words back to the pictures. Hoshino infuses each scene with the glow of nostalgia on a textured surface—the perfect touch to a book that is as gentle as a sigh.” – Patricia Wakida, Curator, Japanese American National Museum

“This is a wonderfully warm story of the adventures of Sora-kun and Cloud-kun and how these experiences help them grow up. The author’s use of simple and choice words makes it easy for children to understand the message in a short sentence. I will like to read this story in English and Japanese to my students.” – Kumiko Inui, ABC Preschool Director

“Hoshino’s watercolor-and-mixed-media illustrations are golden, topaz-touched; their palette and composition hint of the classic nursery rhyme art of Jessie Wilcox Smith and others.” – Kirkus Reviews

“Sora and the Cloud is delicate and lovely.”
– Sara Gillingham, Author/Art Director