New York Launch of TOMO

Details for the New York launch of Tomo can be found here.

Click on the image for its amazon page. Proceeds of the sale of the book will benefit teen programs in the tsunami affected areas of Japan.

World Poetry Day on YARN

My poem was selected for World Poetry Day on the Young Adult Review Network (YARN).
Have a look here.

Check back in April. YARN will celebrate National (US) Poetry Month.

Holly Thompson wins APALA Award for Her YA Novel!!!

The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) awarded their Young Adult Literature Award to Holly Thompson's novel Orchards. Holly is our SCBWI Tokyo chapter advisor and editor of our newsletter Carp Tales. Congratulations!

Click here to see other APALA award winning books.

Anniversary of Bob Hayes' Gold Medal Win

On this day in 1964, Bob Hayes won the Gold Medal in the 100 meter race in the Olympic Games here in Tokyo. He was drafted as a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys after the Olympics. He won a Super Bowl ring and was later elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Running like Bob Hayes is mentioned in J-Boys: Kazuo's World, Tokyo, 1965, the middle grade novel written by Shogo Oketani and translated into English by Avery Fischer Udagawa. I read it this summer and really enjoyed it!

The story takes place in 1965. You might be surprised to find American TV shows and products mentioned in daily life here back then. It is a great look into the world of Japanese boys and Japanese culture of the time. I highly recommend it. For all ages.

For more information about the book go to the website, J-Boys.
To buy the book go here.

To watch a clip of the race from Kon Ichikawa's documentary, Tokyo Olympiad 1964, click here.

Holly Thompson's ORCHARDS

Holly Thompson's book, Orchards, launches today. Click here to get your copy. Mine hasn't arrived yet. I believe most of the story takes place on a a mikan orchard in Japan. Click on the label below for HTJ posts about mikan, Holly Thompson, SCBWI and other books by authors and illustrators who have come through Japan.

J-Boys: Kazuo's World, Tokyo 1965

J-Boys: Kazuo's World, Tokyo, 1965, a middle grade novel written by Shogo Oketani, has been translated into English by SCBWI member Avery Fischer Udagawa. It will be available this July. It sounds really interesting and I can't wait to read it!

Click here to find out more about it and how to pre-order it. Click here for a website devoted to the book.

Kerry Martin's SCBWI Presentation

Kerry Martin, senior design editor for Clarion Books, was in Tokyo this month. She visited our SCBWI chapter and gave a presentation about the process of bringing art and text together for picture books. Some of her favorite picture books are The Boy Who Couldn't Swim by Deb Lucke, Wave by Suzy Lee, The Gardener by Sarah Stewart, A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams and I am Dodo by Kae Nishimura.

Author/illustrator Kae Nishimura was in the audience! Here she is with Kerry Martin. They went to Parsons School of Design in New York together. Click here for Kae Nishimura's website. It is in Japanese but maybe you can switch it over to English through Blogger.

SCBWI member illustrator Midori Mori was also in town. Click here for her website.

SCBWI member illustrator Patrik Washburn translated from English into Japanese. His website is here.

The Bamboo Cutter's Daughter at The Dallas Arboretum

There are storybook playhouses on display this summer at The Dallas Arboretum in Dallas, Texas. This house is based on the Japanese story "The Bamboo Cutter's Daughter".

Read what Kids Web Japan says about "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter".

Jon Agee's Workshop

Jon Agee came to Tokyo to visit international schools. He visited our SCBWI Tokyo chapter, too. Here he is with advisor, Holly Thompson, and illustrator member, Patrik Washburn. That's member illustrator Patrick Gannon looking on.

He gave a presentation showing us how ideas evolve. He talked and drew at the same time! It was amazing. His stories are great. They are funny and have surprise endings. Look at his books on his website. More of his books are available at Amazon.

Here are some of the people who attended the workshop. Most of them are holding up the work they did at the workshop. We all enjoyed it. He is very entertaining. He does school visits. To find out more click here.

BTW, that's not the moon shadow that's been following me around lately. It's Holly's arm. She was standing on a chair to take a picture of the group.

John Shelley's In Town

Author & Illustrator John Shelley did a presentation for our Tokyo chapter of SCBWI, Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators. I was able to get him to autograph a copy of his book, The House of the World (Bennesse). It's not available in the United States but maybe it will be in the future. It's a nice story and the illustrations are fantastic. Check out his other work here.

Moribito wins the Batchelder Award !

Congratulations! Moribito was written by Nahoko Uehashi and translated into English from Japanese by Cathy Hirano.

Click here to read about The Batchelder Award .

Playing for Papa

Playing for Papa was written by Suzanne Kamata and Yuko Hamano. It was published by a publisher in Spain called Topka. The book is in English and Spanish. Check out their website here.

As you can tell by the cover, the story is about playing baseball. The book features a Japanese Papa who is a high school baseball coach. I like this story! I'm going to order it for Christmas.

Linda Gerber's Now and Zen

Linda Gerber was in Tokyo on the 18th of October. She gave a workshop on SCBWI's Writers' Day. She has written several books. Here's one that is set in Japan. It is for young adults so you may want to put it on your list of "books for future reading."
It's worth the wait!

Kids Web Japan--Book Week

Author/Illustrator Keiko Kasza

Author-illustrator Keiko Kasza had lunch with us yesterday, too. Check this link to see her books.

Kids Web Japan--Book Week

Author Kierin Meehan

Australian author Kierin Meehan is visiting Nagoya for several months. She was in Tokyo today. Some SCBWI Tokyo members and international school librarians met her for lunch at Fujimamas in Omotesando. It's a great restaurant.

Ms. Meehan's first book, Hannah's Winter, is coming out in the United States in March 2009. Check out her other books here.

Kids Web Japan--Book Week

Tanya Robyn Batt

Tanya Robyn Batt, author of The Princess and the Bear King (a Sakura Medal 2006 nominee) told us stories at the SCBWI Writers' Day on October 18th. She is a great storyteller. Click on the book title in blue to link into her website. She does school visits and workshops. I bought this book for her to sign. It's a great story and the illustrations are lovely.

Click here to find the list for the Sakura Medal picture book nominees for 2009. The Wakame Gatherers by Holly Thompson, SCBWI Tokyo Advisor, is on the list!

It's still Book Week here in Japan.

Kids Web Japan--Book Week

Irene Smalls

Today marks the first day of Book Week here in Japan. SCBWI Tokyo had a Writers' Day on the 18th. Several writers held workshops. This week I will post about their books.

Irene Smalls is an author, teacher, and presenter. She talked to us about using all of our senses while creating and writing. Look at her website for more information about her workshops, presentations, and books.

I ordered her book Don't Say Ain't from http://www.amazon.co.jp/ before the workshop. What I really like about the book is that a young girl, Dana, lives in two worlds. One is her neighborhood and home where she's herself, and the other a school where she feels she has to speak and act differently. The author does a good job of showing us both worlds especially in the language differences. We (Little Brother, Big Sister, and I) can understand how Dana feels.

And there's jump roping! Jump roping is part of kindergarten and elementary school life here. It's part of the curriculum. You have to count and record how many times you jump.

Kids Web Japan-- Book Week

Moribito

I just got a copy of Moribito by Nahoko Uehasi. The English version came out this summer. It was translated from Japanese into English by Cathy Hirano. The English version was published by Arthur A. Levine in the United States. I found out about the translation from Cheryl Klein's blog. She edited the translation. (She also edited the Harry Potter books.) In a blog post, she showed all the care and detail that was involved in making the book. The artwork is great and the book itself is beautiful.

I've read half of Moribito and it's great! Click here to read the description from the publisher. Click here to read about the production of the Japanese anime.

It is advertised on amazon.com as a young adult book. I'm halfway through the book and so far I think it's appropriate for all ages. How old were you when you read Harry Potter? Anyway, you may want to get a copy to keep for future reading! The beautiful hardcover edition would be great to have in your personal library.

When we were in Texas, we looked for Moribito at bookstores and it wasn't on the shelves. I asked at Barnes & Noble in Dallas and in Fort Worth and the clerks said they could order it for us. We waited until we came back to Japan and ordered it from amazon.co Japan.

We'll get the Japanese version, too. In the Author's Note at the end, the author describes the setting as a "fantasy world that carries the scent of Japan." I'd like to hear Big Sister's impression. Maybe she'll report here on it. She's going to have exams soon so it may be a while.

Station Library

I had never seen anything like this before! We saw this library of books in a train station. As you wait for your train, you can read a book. You can't take it with you. You have to put it back before you run to your train!

Martha Hamilton & Mitch Weiss

What's this all about? They're telling a story! Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss, Beauty and The Beast Storytellers, came to Japan to visit international schools. They travel around the world telling stories and teaching children and teachers how to tell stories. They were great! They have also written many books, too. Check the post below.