Rena Krasno, illustrated by Toru Sugita,
Floating Lanterns and Golden Shrines: Celebrating Japanese Festivals.
Pacific View Press, 2000

This is an excellent resource for children, parents, and community people who want to know about many of the customs, foods, holidays, and history of the Japanese. When I read through the beautifully illustrated picture book, I thought of a time, many years ago when I was a child and my mom would celebrate Hina Matsuri, Girls’ Day. I was the oldest of seven daughters so it was the perfect holiday for my mom to highlight. She would place on the mantel the few dolls that she had been given by her mother which we kept specially wrapped and stored. The book explains that the dolls represent the empress and her ladies-in-waiting, but it also talks about ho the hina (dolls) are family treasures that are handed down from great-grandmothers to grandmothers to mothers just like at our house.

This is a fun book to share with children. It is not a story, so parents might want to read only a page or two at a time. A father might want to read the fold tales of Momotaro, the Peach Boy, or Tsuru, the Mysterious Stranger, for bedtime stories. This wonderful resource could be used by parents, grandparents, and others to keep many of the customs of Japanese culture alive for our new generation of young Nikkei.

Valerie Pang