Golden Threads

A sudden storm tears Emi's cherished stuffed fox from their home in the mountains and carries it far away, leaving it worn and battered on a faraway beach. A gentle old man finds the fox and gives it to his granddaughter, Kiko. While Kiko is healing from an injury of her own, she patches the fox with shining golden thread. Over the seasons she comes to love it as her own. Eventually she learns where the fox came from and, with her grandfather's support, sets out to take it home. Once Emi and Kiko are reunited, they retrace the fox's travels together and enjoy the new bond between them.

The story is inspired by kintsugi, the Japanese art of golden joinery, in which broken pottery is mended with resin painted gold. Kintsugi favours repair over replacement and holds that the cracks are what give a broken object its history.

The book also celebrates wabi-sabi, the Japanese belief that beauty can be found in things that are incomplete or imperfect.