What is the Sakura Medal?

2009 Picture Book Winner for “Penguin” Polly Dunbar and the Sakura Medal

The Sakura Medal program brings together students from international schools across Japan each year to vote for their favourite books.

Each year, librarians from various international schools meet and select 25-30 books in each of the Sakura Medal categories (Picture Books, Chapter Books, Middle School, High School, Japanese Picture Books, Japanese Chapter Books, Japanese Middle School, and Japanese High School).  Books are chosen that are no more than two years old and that are from a variety of backgrounds and across a wide range of reading abilities.

Students who read five books (four for Middle School and three for High School books) in any category will be eligible to vote for their favourite.  Votes will then be tallied across all participating schools and the winning author in each category will receive a Sakura Medal.  While staff and parents are encouraged to participate, voting is only open to students. The deadline for voting will vary for each participating school, so please contact your library for details.

While all are welcome to comment on any of the books on this site, we reserve the right to not publish or remove any offensive, off-topic, or unnecessary comments.

Sakura in blossom (photo ©Brian Farrell)

Sakura is the Japanese word for cherry blossoms, which are celebrated in Japan each year as a sign of spring.

This site is maintained by the Tokyo Korean School Library.

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