(2) 4-6 Japanese American Aoi Inoue takes to heart her sixth-grade teacher's advice ("You can be anything you want to be") and decides she wants to be called Annie, after years of answering to mangled pronunciations of her name. She also wants to be Annie, as in Little Orphan, and auditions for the part at the local community theater. So does her white best friend. Who gets the part and who actually deserves it spur an evolution in Annie's awareness of racism in her community. In this ultimately uplifting story set in 1980s Topeka, Kansas, Brown (While I Was Away) describes the painful racism the Inoue family faces and their differing experiences of living in the United States. Annie's professor dad is continually grateful for the opportunities he'd never find back home in Japan. Her mom, who struggles with English years after their move, is less enthusiastic. Brown conveys the dynamics of their bilingual household in small moments: one evening, Mom speaks to Annie in Japanese, "too tired to even practice her English," while Annie answers her in English, "too excited to use [her] Japanese"; younger sibling Tak understands almost no Japanese and often asks his sister to translate overheard parental arguments. While Annie's voice gets a little teacher-y at the end as she wraps up all she's learned, the newfound friendships and opportunities she earns are a warm and welcome outcome. An author's note is appended.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2022

(1) YA In this expertly crafted graphic novel, recent high school grad Nao, born in Japan and raised in the American Midwest, spends a gap year in Tokyo. "Only half" Japanese and lacking language fluency, she struggles to fit in. Nao's housemates include two other non-natives, Korean Hyejung and Chinese Singaporean Tina; they tell Nao they simply want to experience life abroad but both hide complicated backstories, revealed in sections related from their points of view. Frequent use of manga art styles adds depth and detail to the story of Naos rollercoaster year. Becker (illustrator of Takei's They Called Us Enemy, rev. 9/19) smartly uses speech balloons to re-create the feeling of being a language learner, showing, for example, only Japanese characters when Nao can't understand a word of rapid-fire Japanese but providing both Japanese characters and English translation when she does understand, with blurry lines standing in for the words she isn't getting. Dialogue balloons have characters speaking accented English with their pronunciations written out phonetically; in an endnote, Becker says, "Our accents are not a point of shame but a point of pride, because after all, what is an accent but proof of the ability to speak more than one language?" Hilarious and tender situations abound as this insightful graphic novel explores, among other topics, how language can either separate or bring people together.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Naoko Stoop. In this bilingual book, a child moving into a new home sees the girl next-door frolicking in the snow and joins her. Speech balloons (the book's only text) contain their simple conversation, starting with "Hello" and the new girl's "Konnichiwa" in response, followed by "Let's play!" and “Asobou!" Many of their words are onomatopoeic: they hear a woodpecker and reply, "Peck peck" / "Kotsu kotsu"; while packing the snow for a snowman they say, "Nade nade" / "Pat pat pat." When they "Shiver shiver" / "Buru buru," it's time to head inside. The girls dry off, fold origami, and have some tea ("Huu huu" / "Blow blow"). Back to playing, they laugh together, and their final words are fittingly the same: "Ha ha ha!" Stoop (Sun and Moon Have a Tea Party, rev. 7/20) uses mixed-media on plywood to create cozy pictures of the children's play, both indoors and out. Inside, the wood is cleverly left bare and used to depict floors; in outdoor scenes the woodgrain, lightly covered, looks like clouds. The characters' perfectly round heads, with simple dots for eyes, resemble those in the books of Gyo Fujikawa, known for her early inclusion of non-white characters; Stoop's Japanese child here befriends a brown-skinned curly-haired girl. Both author and illustrator include notes at the back on their own experiences with language and friendship. Minor quibbles: a pronunciation guide would have been helpful, and the Japanese word hashi appears incorrectly as haji.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022

(3) K-3 After explaining the different forms of the Japanese writing system, this square book features double-page spreads with between ten and twelve words arranged by subject, including animals, food and drink (mostly Japanese), colors, and numbers. Each word has a small retro-style illustration, the English translation, the kanji (originally adapted from Chinese characters), the kana (syllabic writing symbols), and the English transliteration. An attractive offering.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(4) K-3 Asian Hall of Fame series. Illustrated by Juan Calle. Ethan and Emma follow their noses to a restaurant serving noodle soup. Then, red panda Dao, "guide to the many fabulous creations from Asia," takes them on a rather hokey tour of ramen's history, popularity, manufacture, and transformation into the instant variety. Calle's matte candy colors with grainy lines create a slick but energetic anime-esque style. Romanized Japanese words appear throughout the text. Glos.

Reviewer: Jeannie Coutant

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Toshikado Hajiri. Translated by Sally Ito and Michiko Tsuboi. Part biography, part poetry collection, the book begins with Jacobson's sensitive biographical narrative of Japanese children's poet Misuzu Kaneko's grim life (she committed suicide at twenty-six). The second half features fifteen of Kaneko's child-centered, empathetic poems printed in English first, then Japanese. Hajiri's illustrations capture time and place in addition to rendering delicate close-up views of the world from a young child's viewpoint.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2017

(3) K-3 When young farm boy Norihei saves a mythical water creature's life, they become fast friends. Kyu, the kappa, later returns the favor. The simple English/Japanese bilingual story works as both a morality play about the environment and also teaches Western audiences a bit about Japanese culture and mythology. Colorful illustrations and cultural notes are a welcome addition. Japanese text not evaluated.

Reviewer: Antonio Trujillo

(3) K-3 Translated by Akiko Hisa. In a playful story presented in English and Japanese, a boy climbs onto a cloud and flies high above the city. Delicately drawn mixed-media art contains amusing details--the people below don't just look like bugs, they are bugs; cars are toy cars; construction workers build with giant wooden blocks. Speech bubbles contain common Japanese phrases, translated at the back.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander

(4) PS Illustrated by Helen Acraman. Warm, flat art illustrates these fifteen songs--rhymes traditionally sung in games and modern songs written for singing in school. Little additional information is provided, and the English translations are awkward, especially on the audio CD. But language learners will appreciate the Japanese/romanized Japanese/English text, and the CD's guitar accompaniment is a welcome alternative to the numerous widely available Muzak-like versions of these songs.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander

(3) PS Kindergartner Yoko (Yoko; Yoko's Paper Cranes) has learned to write her name and some numbers--in Japanese, not English. Teacher Mrs. Jenkins warmly congratulates her, but classmates Olive and Sylvia tease her, telling her she'll never graduate from kindergarten. Wells's familiar animal characters cheerfully illustrate this gentle story of how a small act of kindness can turn things around.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander

(4) K-3 Accompanied by lively illustrations, this bilingual English/Japanese text tells of Tokuzo, a poor toymaker, and his kindness to an injured cat. When Tokuzo is rescued by the cat's spirit after its death, he creates a beckoning cat statue to pass on his good fortune. Without any source documentation, it's difficult to know how much of the interesting tale has been invented by the reteller-illustrator. Glos.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Felicia Hoshino. In this WWII Japanese American internment story, Mari and her family are living at Topaz Relocation Center. Art classes, friendship, and sunflowers help Mari feel as if she can rise above a bleak situation and look to the future. Like the text, which is presented bilingually, the illustrations contrast the dreariness of the desert and barracks with Mari's blossoming hope.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander

(2) PS An English text illustrated by Carle runs to the midpoint of the book; a Japanese text illustrated by Iwamura runs the opposite direction. Both texts tell the same simple story--a dog on its way to visit a child is joined by various animals. Bilingual kids are the best audience, but all readers can appreciate both sets of attractive illustrations in this innovative book.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2003

(2) PS Translated by Empress Michiko of Japan. Illustrated by Mitsumasa Anno. Capturing the voice of earliest childhood with simple and limited vocabulary, Mado crafts his second book of poems available in English, each composition accompanied by the original Japanese on the verso. Although certain poems teeter on the precious, the best create strikingly childlike original images. Anno's monochromatic decorations honor the book's understated simplicity.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 1998