The Sour Cherry Tree

The Sour Cherry Tree won the 2022 Governor General's Award for Young People's Literature – Illustrated Books.^[1] The book was selected by a three-person peer assessment committee, and the award was granted by the Canada Council for the Arts, which is normally presented by the Governor General of Canada at a ceremony held at Rideau Hall.^[2]

The book was generally well received. Reviewer Simone Dalton writes in the magazine Quill & Quire, "The Sour Cherry Tree lives on beyond the page. From the expanse of grief to a message of hope, it embodies what the young girl perhaps most loved about her grandfather: that he loved her."^[3] As published in Kirkus Reviews, "Hrab’s narrative captures a child’s understanding of loss with gentle subtlety and gives space for processing those feelings." adding, "Kazemi’s chalk pastel art pairs perfectly with the text and title."^[4]