Rebecca Kool and David Namisato,
Fly Catcher Boy
Gumboot Books, 2009.

Age:5-9

Fly Catcher Boy is a picture book about a boy named Kenji and his pet cat, Neko.  Neko shows up one rainy day at Kenji’s house and befriends the boy.  Soon Kenji realizes that Neko is no ordinary cat; in fact, the first night of his stay, he jumps right into the bath with Kenji.  As Kenji and Neko spend more time together, Neko observes Kenji and takes on a special skill Kenji possesses – catching flies with his bare hands – with aplomb. 

This book is unique insofar that it uses a lot of Japanese terms embedded right into the story.  The terms appear in slightly larger print in a different color (purple).  Some of these words get a direct translation followed in italics in English, but others do not because the context of the surrounding sentences and the illustrations make the meaning clear.    Since I understand Japanese, I did not have any difficulty keeping up with the story and the embedded terms, but occasionally I did wonder if a non-Japanese reader might stumble on a term now and then without understanding it: however, there is a glossary at the back containing all the words.

The illustrations in Fly Catcher Boy are superb and give a very accurate picture of life in Japan.  Illustrator David Namisato spent two years in rural Japan teaching English and he has captured the country well.  His pictures provide the visual context for most of the Japanese terms used in the story successfully and succinctly.  This book would be an excellent resource for any child studying Japanese to get a sense of the language and the culture.

Sally Ito
February 2010