A gorgeous book about friendship, meditation, and family.

I saw this book in the library, in Dutch, and just had to read it. The blurb sounded so sweet! And I can tell you that I am very happy to have read the book!

In this book we meet two boys, Johnny and Masato. They are playing together in the playground when Johnny tells Masato about his sick grandpa who may or may not recover. He tells Masato about all the worries that he has. And I just loved how Masato had a wonderful plan. Because Masato has a very special garden. A garden unlike most of us have. Masato’s grandpa has made the garden full of meditation. There are tiny pebbles. Lots of grass. Cute trees. Sand in circles and forms around small island of rocks and grass. I wished that I could visit it for real, I mean, the illustrations help, but I would like to step inside the story. With how my mental health is (writing this in April, hoping that in June my mental health is better) now I could use a garden like this.

We see how Johnny and Masato discover the garden, talk about their grandfathers, and more. It was just so sweet and I loved how Masato listened and helped out his friend. It made me smile. Especially when things are working and Johnny is feeling better and better with each page.

I hope that Johnny’s grandpa got all better and that Masato and Johnny still have a wonderful friendship~

The illustrations by Maya Onodera were very well done, I just love the style.

All in all, a lovely book that I would recommend!