Golden Threads

When a storm sweeps Emi’s beloved stuffed fox away from their mountain home, he ends up tattered and alone on a distant shore. A kind old man finds the fox and gives it to his granddaughter, Kiko. As she recovers from an injury of her own, Kiko mends the fox lovingly with golden thread.

As the seasons pass, Kiko cares for the fox as her own. But after discovering his origins, she sets out, with her grandfather’s help, to bring the fox back to its original home. Once together, Emi and Kiko piece together the fox’s journey and find delight in their newly forged connections.

Golden Threads is inspired by the Japanese art form of kintsugi, or golden joinery, where broken pottery is repaired with resin painted gold. Kintsugi values repairing, rather than replacing, believing that the cracks give the broken item its story. This book is also a warm celebration of wabi-sabi, the Japanese idea that there is beauty in things that may be incomplete or imperfect.

SUZANNE DEL RIZZO began her career in picture books as the illustrator of the award-winning Skink on the Brink. She left scientific research to make children’s books, creating illustrations with polymer clay/mixed media. Suzanne’s author-illustrator debut, My Beautiful Birds, was a New York Times Notable Book and Malka Penn Award for Human Rights in Children’s Literature winner. Suzanne lives with her family in Oakville, Ontario.
MIKI SATO is a Japanese-Canadian freelance illustrator who graduated with a degree in Illustration at the Ontario College of Art and Design. She works with different papers, fabrics, and surfaces to create three-dimensional illustrations. Miki was born in Ottawa, and currently resides in Toronto. Her work has appeared in publications including Today’s Parent, the Walrus, and Reader’s Digest.