This beautifully-illustrated picture book features the special relationship between Yoko and her grandparents - a bond that endures even when they are thousands of miles away. It also relates how traditions are passed down through the generations, and how things we cherish return to us, in their own time.

The story begins with Yoko’s love for long-necked cranes, which she feeds in the park with her grandparents. She is saddened when they fly away in winter, yet learns that they will return again the following spring. During the long wait, Grandmother teaches her to make origami cranes, as well as other folded paper creations.

When Yoko grows up, she leaves Japan and her grandparents, but the families maintain a steady stream of correspondence. One day, Yoko suddenly remembers her origami lessons, and sends a huge package of paper cranes to Grandmother. “Soon I will come back, just like the cranes,” she says in a touching card.

The ending requires readers to make their own conclusion - it is not spoon-fed, like so many children's stories today. After Yoko's promise to return, Grandmother proceeds to hang up the paper cranes, sips her green tea, and watches snow fall outside the window...

Yoko’s Paper Cranes is highly recommended, both as a feel-good story about the bond between generations, and as a message for young and old: everything has a cycle, and like the cranes, things that we love and cherish will eventually return to us.

Rosemary Wells is a veteran writer and illustrator of over 40 children’s books, including a series featuring Max, the small, white rabbit, which has virtually become a classic over the past last few years. Yoko, the main character of Yoko’s Paper Cranes, also features prominently in several other of Wells' latest picture books: Yoko, Mama Don't Go, The School Play, The Halloween Parade and Doris’ Dinosaur.

Roseanne Thong is author of Red is Dragon and Round is a Mooncake, multicultural picture books featuring Asian culture. She has also written numerous short stories and works of non-fiction. She divides her time between Hong Kong and Los Angeles.