The Essential Reading List for 2024
BY CORINNE KENNEDY
Dokusho no Aki - 読書の秋, or “Autumn, The Season for Reading” is a common saying in Japan, and it’s a popular time of the year for all kinds of themed reading lists to be published. As the days grow colder and the nights get longer here in Seattle, books are a welcome companion. For your fall enrichment, Corinne Kennedy has compiled an eclectic list of ten titles, including fiction and non-fiction books for children, teens and adults.
The beautiful golden fall color of ginkgo’s fan-shaped leaves (Ginkgo biloba). (photo: Mary Ann Cahill)
I continue to be amazed and inspired by the wonderful selection of children’s books at the Elisabeth C. Miller Library, where I volunteer! So, like my Essential Reading Lists for 2022 and 2023, this year’s article includes titles for children and teens as well as adults. Listed here are ten works, two translated from the Japanese. Four are children’s picture books, two are memoirs for older children and teens (one set in Japan, the other the graphic memoir of a Japanese American boy incarcerated during World War II), and four are fiction and non-fiction books for older teens and adults. Included in the latter: a contemporary Japanese novel, an anthology of Japanese American writings by those who experienced the World War II incarceration, and books featuring Japanese plants and contemporary designers of Japanese gardens. Most of this year’s books are available at local public libraries; five are also available at the Miller Library (as noted by ***).
PICTURE BOOKS FOR CHILDREN:
• A Boy Named Isamu: A Story of Isamu Noguchi, written and illustrated by James Yang (2021).
Author James Yang imagines the boyhood artistic inspirations of renowned Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi, famous for his stone sculptures and delicate paper lanterns. In this charming book, Noguchi is a young boy exploring the magic of nature and the world around him, especially the power of stones, which he will later fashion into monumental works of art. Beautifully illustrated by the author. Ages 3-7.***
• A Carp for Kimiko, written by Virginia Kroll and illustrated by Katherine Roundtree (1996).
On the fifth day of the fifth month, Japanese families have traditionally celebrated Boy’s Day, flying a colorful carp (koi) windsock for each of their sons. Although the holiday was renamed Children’s Day, this tradition has been slow to change. Kimiko protests that a koi windsock should be flown for daughters too, but her father does not want to break tradition. Her mother, though, observes that Kimiko is like a carp struggling against the current, and finally acknowledges that “bending [the tradition] a little” will be acceptable. On the morning of the holiday, Kimiko finds a fishbowl by her bed—and swimming in it a beautiful orange, black and white carp. With brightly colored, realistic illustrations of traditional Japanese scenes and interiors. Kindergarten-Grade 3.
• Chirri and Chirra, written and illustrated by Kaya Doi; translated by Yuki Kaneko (1st in a series, 2016).
The first in a series of picture books about two young girls who spend the day bicycling together. The sound of their bicycles, “dring-dring, dring-dring,” marks their movement from each stage of their forest journey to the next one. In a woodland café, they sip acorn coffee and clover blossom tea “at a table that’s just right for them.” A little later, they visit a bakery along with a bear and a rabbit, then play in a pond and nap under a big tree. When the sun begins to set, they arrive at a forest hotel, where everything is just the right size and a forest concert is about to begin. Together with many forest animals standing on their own balconies, Chirri and Chirra sing along with the orchestra in the courtyard below them. “La-la-la, La-la-la, What a wonderful night in the forest!” Illustrated with charming colored pencil drawings, this is an enchanted journey, evocative of childhood dreams. Preschool-Grade 1. ***
• Trees: Haiku from Roots to Leaves, written by Sally M. Walker and illustrated by Angela Mckay (2023).
Bold, colorful illustrations and the three short lines of haiku poems bring to life the science and poetry of trees. In the publisher’s words, this unique book “introduces readers to the wonder of trees, with poems that engage with every season and stage of a tree’s life cycle, from seed to photosynthesis, in a comprehensive exploration of this majestic subject.” Poetry, art and science are combined to effectively present the beauty and interconnectedness of nature. Includes a timeline, author’s note, glossary, bibliography, and resources for further exploration. Grades 2-5.***
MEMOIRS FOR OLDER CHILDREN AND TEENS:
Maple fall color in the Seattle Japanese Garden. (photo: Mary Ann Cahill)
• They Called Us Enemy, written by George Takei, Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott, with drawings by Harmony Becker (2019).
A compelling graphic memoir by Star Trek actor George Takei of his family’s incarceration during World War II, when Japanese Americans living on the West Coast were forcibly removed from their homes and imprisoned in “relocation camps” far from the coast. Co-written with Justin Eisinger and Steven Scott and powerfully illustrated by Harmony Becker, the story begins when Takei, the oldest of three children, was just four years old. He turned five in the spring of 1942, when the family was first sent to temporary horse-stall quarters at the Santa Anita Racetrack, followed by incarceration at Camp Rohwer, Arkansas, and later at Tule Lake, California, after both parents answered “no-no" to the loyalty questionnaire they were forced to sign.
In text and drawings, Takei’s memoir juxtaposes his childlike wonder at the family’s “adventure” with the trauma and worry experienced by his parents, who nevertheless tried to shield their children as much as possible from the realities of imprisonment under legalized racism. Years later, during talks with his father, Takei gains insight into the incarceration and its effect on his parents, including his mother’s forced renunciation of her citizenship and subsequent regaining of it. Influenced by his father’s faith in democracy, he learns to express his own feelings of anger and betrayal but ultimately commits to hope, perseverance, and working for justice and equality. Includes references to multiple experiences and viewpoints, including present-day realities of misinformation, racism, and hate crimes. Grade 7-up.
• While I Was Away, by Waka T. Brown (2021).
A memoir of 12-year-old Waka’s experiences in 1984 when she is sent away from her Kansas home for five months to live with her grandmother (Obaasama) in Tokyo and attend Japanese school. Her parents, who had immigrated from Japan to the U.S. before she was born, believed that Waka no longer understood Japanese or felt connected with her Japanese ancestry. At first Waka resists going to live with her strict grandmother and missing the end of 6th grade, summer vacation, and the beginning of 7th grade, but eventually she agrees to go. This moving memoir of a young girl pulled between two cultures reveals both her emotional turmoil and her inner growth—as she confronts the difficulties of adapting to a very different culture, learning to speak and read Japanese, making new friends, and forming bonds with Obaasama and with her aunts, uncles and cousins. A captivating read, even for adults, that beautifully presents Waka’s youthful perspective, enriched at times by later insights. Grade 4-up.
FICTION AND NON-FICTION FOR OLDER TEENS AND ADULTS:
The beautiful autumn fruits of persimmon (Diospyros kaki) in the Seattle Japanese Garden. (photo: Mary Ann Cahill)
• Garden Plants of Japan, by Ran Levy-Yamamori and Gerard Taaffe (2004).
This isn’t a book to be read cover to cover, and I confess that I haven’t—and won’t—do so. However, I recommend it as a wonderful resource for lovers of Japanese gardens who are curious about the plants used in Japanese-style gardens throughout the world. As the publisher points out:
“Japanese plants have had an unmistakable influence on the gardens of the world. Who can imagine gardens without flowering cherries, hostas, Japanese maples, or magnolias? For all the popularity of these plants in international gardens, however, few gardeners know the full story of Japanese plants—their history and uses in gardens in Japan, their horticultural merits for gardens of all kinds, even the meaning and symbolism of their native names. Now for the first time, a color encyclopedia provides an authoritative overview of the Japanese garden flora….
Garden Plants of Japan serves as a manual for horticultural advice, a source of inspiration for armchair gardeners, even a guidebook for travelers to Japan. Sumptuously illustrated, it explores the entire palette of plants cultivated in Japan… carefully noting which plants are authentically Japanese and which are transplants. The selection of plants and the amount of detail and insight are unprecedented.” ***
• The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration, edited by Frank Abe and Floyd Cheung (2024).
This unique anthology captures the voices and experiences of Japanese Americans during World War II, when the US government forcibly removed more than 120,000 first-generation Japanese immigrants (Issei) and their American-born children (Nisei, who were American citizens) from their West Coast homes and incarcerated them in concentration camps far from the coast. Without hearings or “due process,” they were imprisoned solely because of their Japanese ancestry. In the words of the publisher:
“This anthology reclaims and reframes the writing [they] produced… Through fiction and nonfiction, prose and poetry, you will hear a collective voice telling of the shared struggle to retain personal integrity in the face of persistent injustice and increasingly dehumanizing government edicts.
The selections here favor the pointed over the poignant, and the unknown over the familiar, with several new translations among previously unseen works. Together they form an epic narrative with a singular vision of America’s past, one with disturbing resonances with the American present.”
• Mina’s Matchbox, by Yoko Ogawa (2005), translated by Stephen Snyder (2024).
This is the third Yoko Ogawa novel that I’ve recommended in my Essential Reading List articles. Despite their differences, memory is a theme that runs through all three novels.
In this recently translated work, a Japanese woman looks back 30 years to 1972, when she was 12 and lived for a year with her aunt’s family in the coastal town of Ashiya. Tomoko’s widowed mother was attending a dressmaking course in Tokyo and couldn’t afford for her daughter to live there with her. So, Tomoko moves into the magnificent mansion owned by her charismatic half-German, half-Japanese uncle, the wealthy owner of a soft-drink company, and her dignified, reserved aunt. Other members of the household include Tomoko’s German great-aunt Rosa, her slightly younger asthmatic cousin Mina, two devoted servants, and Mina’s pet, a pygmy hippopotamus named Pochiko. Tomoko is captivated by her new environment and bonds with Mina over her cousin’s stories and books in general, but ultimately she uncovers her aunt’s and uncle’s painful secrets. As summarized by the publisher, “Mina’s Matchbox is an evocative snapshot of a moment frozen in time—and a striking depiction of a family on edge of collapse.”
My own response to the novel echoes that of Ruth Ozeki, author of The Book of Form and Emptiness: “Yoko Ogawa is a quiet wizard, casting her words like a spell, conjuring a world of curiosity and enchantment, secrets and loss. I read Mina’s Matchbox like a besotted child, enraptured, never wanting it to end.”
• Visionary Landscapes: Japanese Garden Design in North America, The Work of Five Contemporary Masters, written by Kendall H. Brown, with photography by David M. Cobb (2017).
This is the second non-fiction book by Kendall H. Brown that I’ve included in one of my annual Essential Reading List articles. In The Essential Reading List for 2019 — Seattle Japanese Garden, I recommended Brown’s Quiet Beauty: The Japanese Gardens of North America (2013).
Visionary Landscapes is also characterized by comprehensive research, compelling detail, and beautiful photos. What follows is the book cover’s excellent summary of its content and importance:
“Japanese gardens are found throughout the world and their unique forms now considered a universal art form. This book examines the work of five leading landscape architects in North America who are exploring the extraordinary power of Japanese-style garden design to create an immersive experience promoting personal and social well-being. Hoichi Kurisu, Takeo Uesugi, David Slawson, Shin Abe, and Marc Peter Keane have each interpreted the style and meaning of the Japanese garden in unique ways in their innovative designs for private, commercial, and public spaces.
Recent gardens by each designer are presented, with detailed descriptions and captivating photos. Essays are included on the designers as well as commentaries about the gardens in Japan that have inspired their work and by visitors to their North American gardens. The book reveals how the art form is currently evolving and how Japanese garden design principles are being adapted to suit the needs of people living outside of Japan.” ***
Corinne Kennedy is a Garden Guide, frequent contributor to the Seattle Japanese Garden blog, and retired garden designer.