Materials from Japan
When everyone is asleep, Hannah wakes up and discovers the quiet, exciting night-time world. When Hannah wakes suddenly in the night, she discovers a whole new world of adventure. With nobody awake to tell her off, she can do just as she pleases. The book combines simple language with beautifully textured images, capturing the innocence and wonder of young children at play.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume VII, Issue 3
A wolf’s attempt to figure out in which of five houses he is most likely to find one of three little pigs introduces such mathematical concepts as combinatorial analysis, permutations, and probabilities.
Encouraged by the words of the Snow Country Prince, Mariko and Kazuo nurse an injured swan back to health during the long winter.
Ano Hi no Koto (The Things That Happened on That Day): Remember March 11, 2011 (2012), is a Japanese-English bilingual picture book. Through a boy’s perspective, the story invites readers to see the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that happened on March 11, 2011 in the northeastern region of Japan. The central theme of this story is loss of family, linking with the motifs of separation, social isolation, survival, and hope.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume VI, Issue 3
Come one, come all! If you love excitement and fun, step right up and join the line! Usually the ride itself is more fun than the lineup, but for these fifty animals, anticipation is part of the fun. Each animal is clearly numbered and named and readers will delight in counting the animals and choosing their favorites.
Finally, it’s time to board the ride! Through a revealing gatefold spread, readers discover the ride is a giant whale roller coaster! As the whale spins, dips, dives, and splashes, all the animals have too much fun. When the ride ends, the animals can’t wait to line up again.
Shigeru’s mother, single mother, is a truck driver. Sigeru is proud of his mother because she can do anything that seems difficult for women.
A collection of international stories–originating from such places as Japan, Canada, Africa and Eastern Europe–all share a sense of irreverence and a taste for bodily functions, loud noises, and bad manners.
When Nanami’s Gram from Maine visits Japan, Nanami’s Japanese grandmother, Baachan, takes them to the seashore to gather wakame seaweed. Includes several recipes for wakame.
Featured in Volume VI, Issue 1 of WOW Review.
Even though he has only one leg, Niya Moto is studying to be a samurai, and his five fellow-students are similarly burdened, but sensei Ki-Yaga, an ancient but legendary warrior, teaches them not only physical skills but mental and spiritual ones as well, so that they are well-equipped to face their most formidable opponents at the annual Samurai Games.
See the review at WOW Review Volume 5, Issue 4
As Himiko traverses ancient Japan in order to free enslaved members of her clan, she encounters members of many other tribes and emerges as the leader who will unify them.