THE BOY IN THE GARDEN By Allen Say (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Children, 2010, 32 pp., $17.99, hardcover) Reviewed By Twila Tomita, Nichi Bei Weekly Contributor If you are a fan of Allen Say, you’ll be happy to know that he has a new book, “The Boy in the […]
Hard luck Himiko
MAD AT MOMMY By Komako Sakai (New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2010, 40 pp., $16.99, paperback) Do you remember feeling angry with your mother? This little picture book tells the story of a bunny who is angry with his mom. She doesn’t let him watch cartoons. She always tells him to hurry up, yet […]
Away game
THE LUCKY BASEBALL: My Story in a Japanese-American Internment Camp By Suzanne Lieurance (Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2009, 160 pp., $14.95, paperback) Twelve-year-old Harry Yakamoto lives for baseball. Growing up in Cedar Grove, a small town in Central California with only a handful of Japanese Americans, his peers do not allow Harry and […]
API writers connect through the power of poetry
No Choice but to Follow Linked poems by Jean Yamasaki Toyama, Juliet S. Kono, Ann Inoshita and Christy Passion (Honolulu: Bamboo Ridge Press, 2010, 149 pp., $20, paperback) Four poets committed 48 weeks in 2008 to composing linked poems, in part, in celebration of Bamboo Ridge Press’ 30th anniversary. The culmination of Jean Yamasaki Toyama, […]
The skin of a killer
VILLAIN By Shuichi Yoshida (New York: Pantheon, 2010, 295 pp., $25.95, paperback) At first glance, Yoshida’s story of a murder mystery seems like an open-and-shut case. The story sounds predictable and sometimes even clichéd. The “who dunnit?” feel pours over the pages and lets the reader wait for the inevitable twist end; however, the twists […]
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