This impressive picture book combines the little known true and tragic story of a Japanese poet, Misuzu Kaneko with her own poems presented bilingually, inlaid on unmistakably Japanese art. It's not a picture book for tiny little children, but like the last two books I've written about this week this is a book that shows depth. It tackles difficult topics in ways that are respectful of children's intelligence and yet gentle enough to allow space for thoughtful conversation.

The book starts with the story of the young poet who had read one of Misuzu Kaneko's poems and set out on a quest to find her. The last known copy of her collected works had been destroyed in World War II, but the young man eventually finds her brother who is still alive and in possession of her diaries. As you can see from the artwork below, the book is long and rectangular, creating a vast scape of art and words on each page.

* cover art and other artwork provided by the author with permission

I hope you're not reading this on a mobile device because it would be very hard for you to see the words and feel the art from this tiny narrow space. In fact, I really think you should just run to a library or a book store right now so that you can have this very substantial book in your hands. This impressive project is much longer than the average picture book. It is in fact a kind of double picture book in format, with the first half of the book being the story and the second part dedicated to the original poems in Japanese with their translation in English. Look at these excerpts below to realize why you really need to have a copy of this book in your hands.

This book would be perfect for older readers who are studying poetry, but it is also a book that informs without being didactic. Women's issues and domestic abuse are mentioned, as are venereal disease and suicide. It may seem like a hard sell if you have parents at your school who would object to such topics for children, however the topics are approached in such a way as to bring it to the foreground of the picture without explaining it. For example, mentioning that Misuzu caught a disease from her husband is not the same as saying that she caught a venereal disease, but it is. On the page where Misuzu decides to end her own life, she is faced away from the reader, private with her own pain. Her poems remain thoughtful but hopeful throughout the whole book, and the ending to the story shows how one person's life can positively impact a whole community in turmoil. In the aftermath of the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, Kaneko's poem "Are You an Echo?" was also shown as a public service announcement in place of advertisements on television. 

My children still remember the time after that earthquake as a really strange time. Some of their teachers at International School went home, but some of their classmates remained. Those of us who remained either stayed at home and worked remotely - an uncomfortable thing for the middle schoolers they were, or showed up to school and combined classes with whichever teachers remained. During that time, the pictures on the TV seemed to be on repeat - houses washed away, debris piled up and spilling inside windows of buildings. One oft-shown footage of a boat that is wedged on top of a house has been burned in my memory forever, and is mentioned in the book like a little tragic after note. However the thing that I most remember during those days was the spirit of the Japanese people just to keep going, and just to keep being in the world, imperfect as it was. The spirit of helping each other by whatever means possible is one that shines though this book in which a woman, mistreated in her own life, is able to still heal the hearts of the children she loves with her words; even from her grave.

I made it to the auditorium a little later than the enthusiastic throng of people who had turned up to hear what Kwame Alexander had to say, and I was disappointed to see that I would have to carry my heavy bags up a substantial number of the unquestionably steep steps they torture people with in auditoriums. I started the climb, and my knees didn't really agree that the effort would be worth it. Not wishing to be talked out of anything by my arrogant knees, I kept going and found some rows that were more thinned out. I sat down, politely one seat away from a well dressed older man who kindly let me through.

One thing you must know about me is that I know nobody. Not a part of this children's literature world for very long and with a shocking memory for names and faces, I have no real hope on any given day of recognizing anyone important. However, I had a feeling about this impeccably dressed gentleman. He had a quiet way that both commanded respect but reminded me of my own father who might sit with me and read me a book when I was young. I wondered who he was, because he seemed rather remarkable.

The presentation commenced and the audience were immediately all asked to participate. I love, love, love interactive presentations like this on a normal day. However the invitation to interact with the unknown yet intriguing well-dressed gentleman next to me sounded like an enchanting adventure (no matter who he turned out to be) so I smiled inwardly to hear our first task, to share with the person next to us how we became a reader. 

How did you become a reader? It's a story that we should think about more often. Our own perceptions of ourselves as readers, as writers and as consumers of words is so important to how we will interact with others in the world. Dogs and chickens and dolphins and unicorns have their own ways to interact with each other I suppose, but humans have words. We communicate with each other, choosing our words from the shelves and the catalogues that we have built, and largely we have added to our collection through reading.

When I headed to the restaurant this morning, I thought about that man again, and about Kwame Alexander (whose book I had with me) and about knowing ourselves as readers, and our own unique story. I also thought of my father who was my no means a world-famous educator or writer, but had been my whole world growing up. He had his own story about how he became a reader too, but now it's too late to ask what that was. He was a remedial teacher, a label with which he had a complicated relationship. He loved being a teacher and seeing the spark of cognition in a student, but didn't like the labels that get put on students: "remedial student", "slow learner", "not really a reader". This was my takeaway from the panel discussion, that we need to be so careful about the language we use around our young readers, because everyone's story as a reader is still being written.

I know I haven't talked very directly about this book yet. The official publication date isn't until April 5th, 2016. Let me just say this. This book is for you if you:

* Have kids or teenagers in your family
* Were (or are) a teenager in your family
* Consider yourself a reader
* Consider yourself a non-reader

If you can check any one of the above boxes, I believe that you will love this book. As for me, I can check all of those boxes at once, so this is the book that is making me weep - in a good way - today.