THE FLOWER BOY and the Origami Christmas Tree, by Kevin Woodson and Matthew Matsuyama, is a bilingual picture book, in Japanese with English translations.

About the book
Its 16 pages tell the story of a boy, whose quest to paint flowers leads him on a magical journey through Japanese and American culture.  In his watercolor adventures, he joins other children flying on origami creatures into a dream-like tapestry.  Children will love the origami tree that becomes the bridge between Japan and America, creating a Nutcracker-like Christmas for all, full of wonder and surprise. 

New ideas and new images abound in this trans-cultural celebration.

The Flower Boy is a picture book with a simple story, and illustrations that are truly objects of art.  Children, from three up will love spending hours with the art, and the poetic story can be told over and over again.  Adults will also love the detailed, colorful illustrations that create uplifting, positive worlds, full of hidden secrets to explore.

The first in a series of picture books about the Flower Boy, The Origami Christmas Tree sets a magical tone for many adventures to follow.

Get your own copy
The Flower Boy and the Origami Christmas Tree is available for purchase through Lulu.com, the web's primer independent publishing marketplace.  The 'buy' buttons here link directly to the book at Lulu.com so you can order your own book, or order a downloadable digital eBook as a PDF. 

With the PDF, you can print copies for yourself, your own children, your class, or your children’s parties.  Easy-to-follow instructions for printing the digital copy on your own desktop printer are available here.

For parents, teachers, children, and book lovers who want to preview this story, we’ve set up a slideshow of the images and the words here.

How to share your copy of this book
* The copyright on this book is accompanied by a Creative Commons license.  It’s OK to print out more than one copy – especially if you are a teacher or have lots of kids! 

If you do use this in a classroom, or you just want to share your thoughts and comments with us, Matthew and Kevin would love to hear from you!  Please email us with your impressions, comments, questions, and we’d even love some digital photos of your experiences!  If you write about this in your own blog or school publication, we’d love to know, and we’ll link to you from your sites!