It's my Rubber Band by Shinsuke Yoshitake

A young child finds a rubber band (or as we call it here in Australia an elastic band). 

"Yay! I have a rubber band. This is MY rubber band! ... And I can do anything I want with it. Isn't that great? This rubber band is just for ME and not for anyone else!"

The little girl imagines all the fun she can have with this special object - it might be a useful fashion accessory; or it could secure all the love letters she receives; or it could catch all the bad people; defend earth from aliens; it can be used as a sling for a broken arm; or for exercise; and it might even be useful as a way travel far away and then play with all the animals of the world. But do rubber bands last forever?

Bookseller blurb: Have you ever wanted something that was just yours? Not someone else's hand-me-down... Not something that you had to share... Not something that you could only borrow for a little while... Something that was yours and yours alone to play with, to dream about, and more... It's My Rubber Band explores how a cherished everyday object can become a catalyst for curiosity, play and a profound sense of connection. With a special object of one's very own, the possibilities are as limitless as the imagination!

A message to savor, delivered with a light touch and contagious glee. Kirkus Star review

I smiled through every page of this book and then laughed at loud with the terrific twist on the final page. The retail price of this book is AUS$30 but I found an online seller here in Australia with a better price. When I first read this book, I thought it might be fun to give each child in the library an elastic band but then I thought about the safety issues if the young children decided to try using the band as a catapult or to flick around the library so I guess this might not be a good idea. Putting these concerns aside, I do think this book would be a good addition to your school library because it is such a joyous celebration of imagination and finding delight in small things. 

In the US this book has a slightly different title.

Check out my previous post about Shinsuke Yoshitake.

The Bear and the Wildcat by Kazumi Yumoto illustrated by Komako Sakai translated by Cathy Hirano

You might like to begin with my post about Komako Sakai.

Grief is a complex emotion. It is complex for the person left behind and it is complex for friends and acquaintances who do not know what to say or do. When little bird dies suddenly, Bear feels so alone in his grief.

"Bear cut a tree from the forest and made a little box. He stained it with berry juice and lined it with petals. Then he gently laid his friend inside."

There are so many tender emotions in this three short sentences. He made a little box. He lined it with petals. And he gently laid his friend. 

"Yesterday I had no idea that today you would be dead! ... If only I could go back to yesterday morning, I wouldn't need anything else in the world."

When Bear shows the little box to his friends they try to be pragmatic explaining little bird cannot come back but Bear is too consumed by grief. He goes home and locks his door and retreats to his bed. After some time has passed Bear opens his window and sees the sunshine outside. He sets off on a walk and meets a wildcat with a violin. The wildcat says just the right words:

"This little bird bust have been a very special friend of yours, ... You must miss him a lot."

Now is the time for healing. Bear allows himself to remember his friend and all the precious times they shared. 

Together they bury the little box and then decorate the spot with flowers. Bear WILL always remember his friend but now life CAN go on. And so he sets off with his new friend with a promise of adventures and happier times. 

Gecko Press published the English translation of this book in 2011 and in 2022 it was republished. 

This post is in memory of Joan Henderson who sadly reached the end her long life journey earlier this week. Sending gentle healing thoughts to her special daughter Pam. 

Here is a very new Australian book which covers similar feelings and themes. I will talk in more detail about this book later in the year:

You might also look at some previous posts which talk about grief and the death of a loved one.

The Last Goodbye

The River

Ida Always

The Big Princess by Taro Miura

A geometric kaleidoscope of digital images 

and collage forms the bones of this winsome tale. Kikus

"Once upon a time in a land far, far away, there lived a king and queen. The king and queen had no children of their own, but they had a beautiful garden full of all kinds of flowers."

A white bird comes into the king's dream and tells him they will find a child in their garden but she is under spell and if the spell is not broken "your kingdom will fall to ruins and be lost forever."

The king and queen do find a tiny baby in their garden. She is almost as small as a dew drop but each day she grows bigger and bigger until she is as tall as the tallest tower beside the castle. Everyone is in despair but the king notices something strange.

"There in the tower window! It was the princess's belly button and something was hidden inside it ... something shiny."  It is a seed!

Image source: Garden Tech

This is a book which uses a fairy tale story form with very appealing illustrations designed around geometric shapes. Perhaps it is also a fable that explains the origin of huge sunflowers and why they are so tall.  This book was originally published in Japan in 2013 and then Walker books published the English version in 2014. 

Illustrated with colourful cutouts, this book is a visual delight. The unique digital collage artwork will inspire a host of related art activities. School Library Journal

I would love to pair this book with a very old book that I once had in a school library. It is a book I search for at every used book sale - The Story of Imelda who was Small by Morris Lurie illustrated by Terry Denton.

Taro Miura is a Japanese-born author and illustrator of many books for children, including The Tiny King and The Big Princess. He graduated from Osaka University of the Arts, and his work has featured in both domestic exhibitions and international book fairs. He was awarded the Sankei Children's Book Art Award in 2011 for his picture book Chiisa na osama (The Tiny King). He lives and works in Tokyo.

Once upon a time there was a tiny king who lived in a big castle guarded by lots of big soldiers. Every day the Tiny King eats an enormous feast at his big dining table (he can never finish it all), he rides on his big horse (he is so tiny that he's thrown off every time), bathes in his big bath (not much fun), and sleeps, not very well, in his big bed all alone. Everything is just too big, and the Tiny King is sad and lonely. Until one day he meets a big princess and asks her to be his queen. Not long after, they are blessed with children - lots of children! Now everything is just the right size. The enormous meals are always gobbled up, his horse is just the right size for family outings, bath time is a real riot, and the Tiny King sleeps soundly at last.  Here is a review in Seven Impossible things.

Taro Miura has a very distinct art style that really appeals to me though sadly many of his books are now out of print. I do like the look of his board books. I wish more of them were available in English.  Here are two I found along with some in Japanese.

Mitsumasa Anno 20 March 1926 – 24 December 2020

All in a Day was one of my most treasured books in my former school library. It features art by the best children's book illustrators from around the world including Ron Brooks from Australia and Akiko Hayashi from Japan. In this book we follow eight children over the course of one day beginning with Oliver in Chicago where the time is 6pm on 31st December; Aki in Japan where it is midnight; and meanwhile for Ben in Australia it is 11am the next day January 1st. Mitsumasa Anno devised the idea for this book. "This is a book I made with picture book authors from eight different countries."  "We have made this book with the wish that by the time you grow up the earth will be a better place for you to live in, a place where everyone can always be happy and friendly." These final words were written in 1986. I'm not sure the wishes expressed by the creators of this splendid book have been fulfilled.

Mitsumasa Anno is a Japanese children’s book author and illustrator who is famous for telling stories in books that contain little to no text. Instead, they rely on visually arresting artwork to portray not only his characters’ stories, but also higher-level math and science concepts, jokes, optical illusions, and the author’s appreciation for travel and discovering foreign cultures. He’s created more than 35 popular children’s books, including Upside Downers, Anno’s Journey, Anno’s Counting House, Anno's Magic Seeds, and more.

Anno’s densely detailed illustrations are most often pen and ink and watercolour, but they sometimes feature woodcuts and collage, too. Because his work can include visual tricks, illusions, jokes, and math references, he is regularly and rightly compared to M.C. Escher. In 1984, he received the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest lifetime achievement honour in his field, in recognition of his “unique [gift] for communicating to both East and West” and his important, lasting contributions to children's illustration and literature." Skill Share.blog 15 Iconic Children's Book illustrators.

You can read more about Mitsumasa Anno:

Books and Boots - reflections on books and art "Anno’s Journey: The World of Anno"

Japan Times

I think one of the earliest picture books I ever collected for myself was Anno's Mysterious Multiplying Jar. It is a terrific visual way to explain multiplication. Anno's Hat Tricks shows how probability and logic work. Mitsumasa Anno taught maths in Japanese elementary schools prior to becoming an illustrator. Anno's Magic Seeds is another of his books to explore for your maths lessons. Here are some ideas for using other titles by Anno.

If you can find a copy of The King's Flower it would be good to compare this with The King who Banned the dark. 

High School art students would enjoy exploring The Unique World of Mitsumasa Anno Selected Illustrations 1968-1977.

If you are exploring Escher with a class try to find this one:

Mitsumasa Anno is one of several Japanese illustrators whose work I adore:

Allen Say   Tree of Cranes

Akiko Miyakoshi  The Piano Recital

Yutaka Kobayashi  The Most Beautiful Village in the world 

Satoshi Kitamura  Ned and the Joybaloo by Hiawyn Oram; Millie's marvellous Hat.

Kazuo Niizaka  Clouds by Peggy Blakeley

Shinsuke Yoshitake  It might be an Apple

The Piano Recital by Akiko Mitakoshi

When I picked up this book at Gleebooks as a title to include in a talk I am giving for IBBY Australia next week I knew this was a title (of the twenty I am showcasing) that I just HAD to include. Why? Because the little girl, the main character, is named Momo!

It is the day of Momo's first piano recital. She is naturally very nervous. As she stands watching the other children playing on the huge stage, a small mouseling echoes her words "I'll be okay, I'll be okay." The mouseling is part of her own recital. She invites Momo to come and watch.

The tiny mouse leads Momo to a secret space under the theatre. There she sees an audience of mice watching acrobats, magicians, a mouse orchestra, a huge mouse choir, and a beautiful mouse ballerina. 

Finally the mouseling takes to the stage herself. "You'll be okay,' Momo reassures her. 'I'll go with you onstage.' The mouseling's face lights up. Momo's own racing heart and worries are long forgotten."

Momo plays the tiny mouse sized piano while Momo sings. The audience love the performance and they all jump up and begin to dance. As the page turns the scene changes. We see Momo herself on the human stage. She is taking a bow. She isn't at the mouse recital. She has just played her own piece perfectly and the "sound of applause fills the room."

I especially love the page where we see the mouse audience. The mice are eating sweets, reviewing the program, chatting, holding hands, sleeping, and one is even looking through a small pair of binoculars. This scene reminded me of the audience in the Jan Ormerod book The Story of Chicken Licken.

This is a Japanese picture book which was first published in 2012 with the title Piano Happyoukai. 

ピアノはっぴょうかい

The imaginative narrative is woven around the common childhood experience of anxiety, felt by performers but also by every child who faces a new life challenge. Momo serves as a wonderful example to children, using the power of her imagination to understand and work through her feelings. The Ladybug Reads

... the beauty of the mice and their environment is a feast for the eyes. Kirkus

The English language edition was published in 2019 by Kids Can Press. Akiko Matakoshi received a Special mention at the Bologna in 2016. Here are some of her other books:

Polar Bear's Underwear by Tupera Tupera

Polar Bear has lost is underwear. His friend Mouse offers to help. The search begins. The pair do find some amazing underwear but none of it seems quite right for Bear. Each owner is revealed via different die-cut pages where we see sneak peaks of colourful, large, frilly and even teeny tiny underwear.

I am currently searching for and reading books translated into English from around the world. I won't feature this book in my presentation because it was published in 2015 and may be difficult to obtain and also this book is for the youngest child which is slightly outside the scope of my presentation but I wanted to share this book with you here because it is just a delight. I would love to put this book into the hands of a young child aged 2 or 3 and sit back and enjoy their laughter. My library copy of this book was covered in plastic but I think those red undies on the cover might actually come off! When first published in 2012 this book had the title Shirokuma no pants. Preschools might like to investigate this cute flannel board resource which you could use with this book.

Tatsuya Kameyama and Atsuko Nakagawa have been working together as Tupera Tupera since 2002, and are known for their original, humorous, and colourful picture books and illustrations.

Here are two of their new quirky and distinctive books which are due for publication in 2021:

It might be an apple by Shinsuke Yoshitake

This is a funny book!  I am going to say that again with emphasis this is a FUNNY BOOK! I mentioned recently a conference I attended entitled At Least they're laughing. The conference organisers should have included this book and its creator Shinsuke Yoshitake. Do you recognise that name?  Probably not if you are from Australia. Shinsuke is Japanese. And here is another wonderful thing about this book. It was originally written in Japanese and so I am reading the English translation but despite cultural differences and nuances of language which may have been difficult to translate this book made me laugh and laugh.

...this is cleverness and fun in one crunchy bite. Kids Book Review

I am not going to tell you too much about the 'plot'.  This is a book to just read and enjoy - nothing deep except perhaps the idea of looking at the world in a different, quirky and very creative way.  You can judge it for yourself.  Here is a video of the whole book. Take a look at this review. You can also see the whole book in Japanese here.  I think this book is a must add purchase for all school libraries. Here are some other books by Shinsuke Yoshitake: