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Hajimete no otsukai

10/31/2018

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Picture
TITLE: はじめてのおつかい (Hajimete no otsukai: First Errand)
Author: Yoriko Tsutsui
Illustrator: Akiko Hayashi
Publisher: 
Fukuinkan-Shoten (1 March, 1976)​
Language: Japanese
ISBN: 
978-4834005257​

While I get up my nerve to split this blog into two and write about books in Japanese, I will tell you about this classic Japanese picture book. It's been translated into English before as "Miki's First Errand" and if you're interested in that version the ISBN is 978-1741260137, but I am choosing to write about the original Japanese version because well, that's the one on my Purple Book Cart and it's the one that sings more closely to my heart.
This is a book that is quintessentially Japanese. The concept of a little girl, a tiny little girl walking off to the shop to buy her mummy some milk is not something that happens in Western countries (and if I am being honest - I am almost sure this hardly ever happens anymore in 21st century Japan). However when Mi-chan's mummy asks her if she's ready for this big task, the little tyke leaps out of her seat, more than ready for action. There are slips and trips along the way, but in the end, Mi-chan is able to successfully bring back the milk (and the change!) to her mother, waiting in the street with a smile. Did Mummy follow her to the shop? We will never know.
Akiko Hayashi's illustrations really carry the story in this book. From the furtive glance of the mother, to the flushed cheeks of Mi-chan, from the speeding bicycle and its wide open forward motion, to the page where Mi-chan falls flat on her face, sending her money flying on the road (I haven't included this spread, because I really want you to read this book!). This is a rollicking adventure tale, we are sure of that. Although the outcome is as simple as successfully purchased milk, it's so much more than that. It's about a tiny voice in the world, insisting to be heard. It's about the innate desire of children to be helpful and to grow up to be the awesome human adults they are destined to be. If Mi-chan is now grown up and has children of her own (and actually, looking at the publishing date she is just my age), I might meet her in a coffee shop for parenting advice.
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Waiting

10/30/2018

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Picture
TITLE: Waiting
Author/Illustrator: Kevin Henkes
Publisher: 
Greenwillow Books (September 1, 2015)​
Language: English
ISBN: 
978-0062368430​
Sometimes I'm not so fond of being an adult. On days like that, I can always count on my Purple Book Cart to provide just the book I need in order to love my life again. Kevin Henkes' Waiting is just that - just the book I needed on a day like today.
Waiting is about a group of five friends who are waiting for the things that they love to happen outside their window. The pig with the umbrella loves the rain while the puppy on a sled loves the snow. The bear with a kite wants the wind to blow while the owl is the luckiest of all, because the moon that he's waiting for comes along every night.
I wish I could be more like the rabbit. The rabbit is also waiting patiently, but not waiting for anything in particular. If I was this rabbit I would be wringing my hands, maybe enrolling in more graduate school because this concept of waiting is something that grown-ups are really quite terrible at doing.
My life has been thrown a little off kilter recently with a major international move, and in this book too, not everything is smooth sailing. The visitor who comes from far away falls off the shelf and is broken into pieces. The rabbit peers over at the visitor with a tear in his eye. But there is nothing to be done. More waiting is the only option. Outside the window, some wonderful and things happen, all illustrated in Henkes' soft pastel style. It's such a beautiful book and the passage of time is illustrated so gently that it is impossible to stay sad for long. It will most likely mean something different to every child (and unwitting grown-up) who reads it. 
Children (and sometimes grown ups) can feel as though like the toys in this window, they are powerless to do anything but wait. As we grow up we are told we have to follow our dreams - we have to get things decided so we can leap along the path to success. Nobody ever thinks about the wisdom of waiting, and that things will sort them out if you give them time. Thank you Kevin Henkes for making the world a softer and kinder place with this book.
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    Author

    An Australian who lived in Japan with my bicultural family  now living in the USA, I believe that there are more different realities than there are books to be written.

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