My Language Is a Garden

Written by E.G. Alaraj

Illustrated by Rachel Wada

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-4598-4065-2

32 pp.

Ages 6–8

February 2026 

 

How a child begins to learn a language is a complex process of exposure and comprehension. It involves being introduced to it from those who speak it and who cherish it. And when it's taught with love and reverence, it almost sacred. For this father sharing his language with his child, it's everything.

From My Language Is a Garden, written by E.G. Alaraj, illustrated by Rachel Wada

In evocative rhyming verse, E.G. Alaraj gives a father voice to embody his language with memories and meaning as he shares it with his daughter. It's obvious how much his language means to him, reminiscent of people and places, and tastes, smells, and sounds. E.G. Alaraj gives weight to this parent's words, both tender and passionate.  

My language roams the desert

And fills its pails with sand.

Builds castles, forts, and shelters

That stretch across the land. (pg. 12) 

From My Language Is a Garden, written by E.G. Alaraj, illustrated by Rachel Wada

This father is determined, but not vehement, drawing on images of cities and mountains, shores and markets, to convey what language can bring and conjure. There is magic in language, and he is earnest about sharing this with his child.

Our language, it will bloom—

Add sweetness to the air,

And tie my heart to yours,

 

So I'm with you everywhere. (pg. 27–29)

E.G. Alaraj's poem is emotional, as is the premise upon which it is based. Her author's note explains her husband's efforts to help their children learn and then retain their Arabic language. But My Language Is a Garden could speak to any parent or educator teaching a heritage language, hopeful of children holding that connection with culture and ancestry, as they balance contemporary influences outside of that language. But instead of drilling that language and forcing communication by using it, this father invites and illustrates with much affection and safety, coaxing his child to see and feel the language, just as the reader does with E.G. Alaraj's expressive words. The rhyming verses soothe and transport, as well as entice inwards and open worlds beyond. 

From My Language Is a Garden, written by E.G. Alaraj, illustrated by Rachel Wada

As dramatic as E.G. Alaraj's words are, Rachel Wada's illustrations give them artistic substance. Her art was created digitally and feels like watercolours, suspending people and places in different times and spaces. Rachel Wada, whose art has honoured books like I Am Wind: An Autobiography (Rachel Poliquin, 2024) and Shizue's Path (Mark Sakamoto, 2023), expresses strength and sensitivity with her use of line and shape. Whether in her gloriously lush gardens of poppies, in the rolling dunes of sand, or in the branches and stems of trees, Rachel Wada makes big locales seem personal and intimate, and the people within them connected.

 

As teachers and parents in Canada, we often use English language acquisition and learning as milestones for children, but learning a heritage language should be similarly appreciated. Beyond its purpose in communication, those languages help connect children with their families, their cultures, and their ancestors. It gives their lives colour and history, heart and identity. This father's language, depicted as a living entity that grows and feels, nurtures and responds, already enriches his life, connecting him with so much, and E.G. Alaraj makes us hopeful that he is able to cultivate that same abundance for his child.

Shizue's Path

Written by Mark Sakamoto

Illustrated by Rachel Wada

HarperCollins

978-1-44346-459-8 

48 pp.

Ages 5-8

September 2023

 

You need to know your darkness to know your light.

This is a story from history of history. It's a history too many lived and one which should not have happened and should never happen again. Still, it is a story of resilience and courage that arose from discrimination.

From Shizue's Path, written by Mark Sakamoto, illus. by Rachel Wada

Shizue, now an elderly woman, welcomes her granddaughter to hear her story. Though her memory may be less than reliable about some things, Shizue remembers vividly her father heading out to fish and worrying about his safe return. He always reassured her.

When I am on the water, I am the water. I am clear. I am flowing. I am finding a path forward. Someday you will, too.

But then everything changes with the onset of World War II.

A war from far across the ocean washed up on our new country’s shore. 

First came the anti-Asian leagues and their protests. Then Japanese Canadians had their homes and businesses taken away and Shizue's family was relocated to the prairies. It was years before Shizue was able to return to school, and longer, not until after the war, before the family was able to return home. Still, it was not the same.

From Shizue's Path, written by Mark Sakamoto, illus. by Rachel Wada

Again, Japanese Canadians were being threatened, this time with deportation to Japan. Shizue, now a young woman attending the University of Toronto, finally saw that there were those, particularly Rabbi Abraham Feinberg, who would speak against the unfair treatment of Japanese Canadians and promote messages of peace, not hate. She took from them lessons of compassion and courage that set on her own true path.

From Shizue's Path, written by Mark Sakamoto, illus. by Rachel Wada

Mark Sakamoto, author of Forgiveness: A Gift from My Grandparents, an adult fiction book that won the CBC Canada Reads in 2014, has taken a personal story–that of his aunt–and made it one of calm triumph over adversity. Shizue learned well from her father about seeing her path, to follow "Shikata ga nai" (trans. "It cannot be helped; you must carry on.") and from others like Rabbi Feinberg to create her own ripples of courage and compassion, wisdom and goodness. The stories of Japanese Canadian internment are plentiful, each providing a different perspective and context–see Mira and Baku, Naomi's Road, Torn Apart: The Internment Diary of Mary Kobayashi, Vancouver, British Columbia, 1941 and Stealing Home for just four examples–and Mark Sakamoto gives us yet another one, taking young readers along Shizue's Path from childhood to young woman and grandmother. And he gives us her story with a poetry of depth of emotion and wisdom. He makes her story beautiful, even in its darkness, just as artist Rachel Wada does.

Vancouver's Rachel Wada's first illustrated book, The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirota's Garden (written by Heather Smith), won the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award for 2020, and her success with showing the weightiness of the story with the beauty of people and place is again evident in Shizue's Path. The gravity of Shizue's family's situation because of the anti-Asian racism and the lightness that comes with reading, family, and evidence of kindness are all demonstrated in Rachel Wada's art. She uses line and colour effectively to take us on that journey of adversity and comfort, through darkness into light, triumphant with wisdom and compassion.

Just as Shizue learned from her father and others about how to be resilient and show compassion, so will young readers for whom internment may or may not be an unknown concept. Shizue's Path demonstrates that Shizue could move through hardships and take important lessons from those who had the courage to share.