Sore shika nai wake nai desho?

TITLE: それしかないわけないでしょう (Sore shika jai wake jai desho?: There's no way that's all there is, right?)
Author/Illustrator: Shinsuke Yoshitake
Publisher: Hakusensha (7 November, 2018)​
Language: Japanese
ISBN: 978-4-592-76237-9

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Today I celebrated getting a new job by buying a new book for my Purple Book Cart. This one, with the roughly translated title (by me) "There's no way that's all there is, right?" may seem at first a strangely ironic take on the state of the job market, but actually this book is perfect for anyone (including children) who want to dream up a better future.

Firstly, a word here about the format of Japanese picture books in the book store, and how they creatively impact on the ways children access literature. See that white strip at the bottom of the book? It's called a book obi, like the silken obi (belt) of a kimono. The book obi is there to advertise the book, and to capture attention on the shelf. It's removable, but it exists not only on the sample book you can open and read in the store, it's on all the books, inside the shrink wrap so that it will go home with you and make the book appealing to your child. in this case, the large red lettering on the book obi reads "There's no way that there's only a dreadful future, right!?". Right?!? I mean, if we all really believed there to be nothing but disasters in our future, then where would we be? This book asks the question - how can we imagine our way to a better world.

The little girl in this book gets a shock when her brother gets home and lets her know what the future holds (according to his friends at school). People starving from overpopulation, sickness and war - even aliens that will chase us down in the future. The little girl runs to her Baachan (granny) who tells her that nobody can tell the future. Even Daddy who thought it would be fine today turned out to be wrong, since it is raining. Our heroine then goes on to re-imagine her future how she likes it, including strawberry-catching robots and a future where running races (hard to win) will be replaced by silly face competitions (easy to win). 

The book continues to talk about free choice, and typical of Shinsuke Yoshitake are the ever growing grids of possibility that are sure to set fire to the imagination (and inspire more than one child to build a giant Jenga tower of out of eggs). And just like other Shinsuke Yoshitake (many of which you might be pleased to hear have already been translated into English), the final page is the perfect simple full stop.

Wait, there's no way theres's all that there is, right? Well actually, there are a couple more inserts in the book that, just like the book obi, are intended to excite the book's intended audience and make this work completely interactive. It's in black and white - so imagine a classroom (or a kitchen fridge) lined with kids' different scenarios.This book is genius, and the future looks bright indeed!