branch, I plunged
head over paw.
I churned and
lurched, a blur
of ragged fur
and froth.
And finally ...
I stopped."
Their lives are spent together ... on a Japanese mountain under a gingko tree. Emi and her toy fox have many simple adventures until the day the fox is swept away during a storm. Luckily, a loving grandfather rescues the dirty, bedraggled fox with a gingko leaf in its pocket, and takes it home to his granddaughter. She is a young girl in a wheelchair at the time. Her name is Kiko.
Kiko has the patience to clean the fox up, knowing that there must be someone who loves and is missing it. The fox is ashamed of its appearance, and wonders how anyone would want it anymore. Kiko has compassion and a willingness to make things better. She mends the fox's wounds in stitches of gold. The two become companions, passing the seasons together. Kiko mends as well.
Two broken (and repaired) bodies enjoy seasonal changes until Kiko finds a gingko leaf like the one in the pocket, and knows it is time to return the fox to its home. Sad, but resolute, she and her grandfather follow a trail of leaves back to an ebullient Emi. The two share tea, their stories and a stitched and renewed fox.
Lovely images are constructed from cut paper, fabrics, and other materials. The little details are full of charm and delight. Readers will want to return to the book again and again. Based on the Japanese art called kintsugi and the wabi-sabi way of looking at the world, the mending of the fox with golden threads echoes the way that artisans repaired cracks in order for them to be painted with gold, while also valuing something that is not perfect.
An author's note states:
"We all fall down, get hurt, feel broken ... but the stories we have to tell from our experiences make us stronger. Mending with gold teaches us that if we choose to embrace our struggles and repair ourselves with gratitude and love, we become more beautiful for having been broken."
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