The graphics in this book are just wonderful! I especially loved the Tokyo page having actually been to that city last summer. Books like this with little tidbits of information are always popular in our house.
We just came back from a 2 1/2 week trip to Japan. To say it was "incredible" is an understatement! It was like a dream- Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto. The food was amazing, the people so polite and respectful, the cities, the trains, everything was a marvel!
Years ago I had picked up a couple discarded picture books that told distinctly Japanese stories. It was fun rereading them with a new appreciation. In Taro and the Tofu, a little boy faces a timeless dilemma- to return the extra money that was accidentally given to him. We came home with extra Japanese yen and both the 10 piece and 50 piece coins are the same shape, with a hole in the middle. So the plot of Taro, and the mistake of extra money made perfect sense! It was also neat to see the drawings of the village and the marketplace and recognize them from similar places we had been to while in Japan.
Mitsumasa Anno was a prolific illustrator. He made the kinds of books that we always liked to check out of the library because you could take your time looking at them. We have four of Anno's country books- China, Italy, Spain, and Denmark. Wordless except for the scene descriptions in the back, they invite careful viewing. I'm convinced that I see something new each time I look at a page!
This book is like an illustrated version of "Children Just Like Me". It follows seven children around the world, depicting their families, their school uniforms, their dinner, their playtime and their beds. It finishes off with the beautiful sentiment that we are all under the same night sky.
