Cherry Blossom and Paper Planes

Some friends are much more than that. They grow up like twin cherries on the same stalk. Adin and Dina have that kind of friendship; their names are even anagrams of each other. Adin’s mother is a fruit-picker and lives in a caravan in Dina’s dad’s orchard. Dina and Adin like to help with the work and, for every cherry they pick, they eat one. They keep the stones in a bag and plant them later in the strangest places. 

At the end of the summer, Adin moves to the city with his mother. He gives Dina his tame jackdaw, and she gives him the bag of cherry stones. They miss each other very much, but when they’re reunited in autumn they soon start playing their favourite game again: planting cherry stones. Adin fills a paper plane with cherry stones, which scatters them all around as it flies. Dina cycles downhill towards the city, also planting cherry stones as she goes. When, months later, spring has sprung, the flowering cherry trees show the trail of friendship that leads Adin and his mother back to Dina.

‘Cherry Blossom and Paper Planes’ is a sensitive story about going away and coming back, and about the power of friendship: in spite of Adin’s move to the city (and the unspoken social and cultural differences), the two children do whatever they can to stay connected.