(1) K-3 Translated by Michael Blaskowsky. Is Sato a boy in a rabbit costume or a rabbit with a human face and bearing? Is he a kid or a grownup? What matters is that he's an alert, curious, questing creature who follows his imagination and his heart. In this pair of adventures, Sato plays with light. On one perfect day, a narrow band of sunlight between two curtains turns into a kind of benign lightsaber or magic wand that he wields to scoop up sparkles, gather sunshine, and stir his coffee. As dusk falls, he uses his captured beam of light for a comforting campfire and as one of the ingredients for a delicious sandwich. On another memorable day, Sato wakes up to discover that his bedroom has become a floating lighthouse. He tends the light, accepts gifts from birds and fish, and pays attention to an ever-changing world. A shell becomes a boat, clouds become a whale, a sliver of moon becomes candy, day becomes night. In simple declarative sentences and compositions made of ovals and blobs in warm pastel colors, Ainoya creates a world of kindness and abundance as the background to a story that needs no conflict to be fully realized, absorbing, and sweetly funny.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2025

(1) K-3 Translated by Michael Blaskowsky. Sato is a little boy in a rabbit costume, a kind of Japanese second cousin to Max in his wolf suit. In a set of seven small vignettes that span the seasons, Sato's daily activities--watering the garden, doing the laundry, splashing in puddles--turn into magic. Cracking open a walnut reveals an inviting miniature world. Eating a watermelon turns into a seafaring adventure. ("Nothing compares to eating watermelon on the sea.") Observing a meteor shower leads to a star-collection mission. Paintings in a naive style burst with saturated color--watermelon red, night-sky blue, spring chartreuse. All the events coalesce in the final section, in which Sato goes on a winter forest walk, collecting ice in many colors. "The events of spring, summer, and fall are frozen into the waters that flowed through the forest." As he puts the various pieces of ice into drinks, he relives his travels, and the reader revisits the colors that enlivened each event. For fans of Doi's Chirri & Chirra books (Underground, rev. 9/19; In the Tall Grass, rev. 11/17; and others), this import provides another cozy glimpse into mystery, independence, and imaginative play.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2021

(1) K-3 Translated by Michael Blaskowsky. Sato, the boy in the rabbit costume from Sato the Rabbit (rev. 1/21), returns for seven cozy, dreamy, nature-based adventures. In "The Green Screw," Sato comes across a tiny, green, screwlike sprout. He turns it, and with every rotation more and more trees pop into leaf. Then he finds a daisy-looking flower, and when he rotates it like a steering wheel, green leaves shower down upon him. There are other creatures in Sato's world, mostly small children in costumes with animal ears, like his, and he even has a party where he plays the tuba to accompany the rain's "music." But for the most part, these small stories are solitary adventures in a benign, quirky setting full of soft pillows, delicious snacks (what would a bit of moon taste like?), and surprising transformations. Like many narratives that celebrate joy and harmony, it ends with a wedding. Sato, in text and (gorgeous) pictures, is industrious, curious, experimental, and focused, using the found materials around him to fashion inventions (a curtain made of rain, a rolled-up red carpet made of fallen leaves) that enhance his surroundings and provide an arena for his imagination. In other words, Sato is every child at play.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022