A Place Where Sunflowers Grow

The story is set during the summertime when Mari's art class has begun and explores the perspective of a child matriculating in an internment camp.

Mari wonders if anything could grow and bloom at Topaz, and finds solace and comfort through the help of her teacher, her kind parents, and a new childhood friend.

[2] A Place Where Sunflowers Grow is utilized by teachers and book clubs around the country to help teach children about this chapter of American history.

Reviews of the book are generally positive and emphasize its usefulness in connecting young readers to characters of similar age to best teach children lessons on Japanese American incarceration during World War II.

Lee-Tai explained that she derived her inspiration for A Place Where Sunflowers Grow from her grandmother's story, keeping the importance of artwork as the focal point of the narrative.

"[2] Lee-Tai was approached by Children's Book Press to write a manuscript on the Topaz Art School given her family's connection to its establishment and teachings.

[1] Mari, a young Japanese-American girl, and her family are among the 120,000 inhabitants of the United States who in 1942 had been sent to live at the internment camps during World War II.

"[1] The story begins with Mari navigating the internment camp's sandy environment as she plants sunflower seeds with her mother in her family's barracks' yard.

The narrative concludes with Mari's feelings of hope flourishing at the sight of her growing sunflowers, and she remarks that her life after the war now "didn't seem so far away.

Hoshino combined the knowledge gleaned from these snapshots with research she conducted at Smithsonian’s National Japanese American Historical Society to formulate a complete approach to illustrating the book.

[6] When asked about the effectiveness of children’s literature on the topic of Japanese Internment author Barry Deneberg writes: "Two thirds of internees were in their early twenties or younger and nearly six thousand babies were born in the camps.