I found this at the Fort Rouge Library book sale for 30 cents. I really liked Obasan by Joy Kogawa and this book is based upon that. I was going to keep it for the 2007 Canada Day release challenge but it was the only book with a doll on the cover in my collection and that's the challenge for Week 4 of NJABBIC

RELEASE NOTES:

I left this book on the bookshelf. Le Garage is so cozy on a cold winter's day.
This is a double release: maggiemuffet's challenge for Canada's Family Literacy Day and the 2007 Never Judge a Book by its Cover challenge - Week 4 (doll) as Naomi is shown holding a Japanese doll.

Waiting on my shelves to be taken home and enjoyed!

Come and visit my public bookcrossing shelf at Le Garage Cafe, 166 Provencher Blvd. Winnipeg.

I picked up this book at the OBCZ in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. I don't have children to share this with, but the back write-up sounded too good to pass up. I'll read it and return it to the wild as soon as I can.

Naomi’s Road is a great children’s book about the life of a Japanese-Canadian little girl during the 1940s when Canada and Japan were at war. It is written from her point of view and depicts her life and journey during that “important and painful episode in Canadian history”.

This book is beautifully, yet simply, written and was an absolute joy to read. I know very little about the subject matter so I was very interested in the story. It makes me sad to think that this happened in my own country.

I’ll be looking for more of Kogawa’s work as well as some non-fiction material on the treatment of the Japanese in Canada.

This book will be released into the wild as soon as possible. Maybe when it warms up a bit. Brrrr…

By the way, I love the front label (I found the link in the forum). I’ll have to try it out on some of my releases of kids' books.

RELEASE NOTES:

Left the book on the baby change table in the women's restroom.

I moseyed over to St. Andrews River Heights United Church when I learned they were having a used book and DVD sale. When I go to these sales I keep my eyes open for BookCrossing books and I'm always amazed that I never find any. You'd think with the thousands of books released in Winnipeg, some would find their way into rummage and garage sales. Well, today, what did I spy but one of lazydaisy's bright orange "Take Me. I'm Free!" labels! Woo Hoo!

I scooped it up before anyone else could grab it. It occurred to me later that I *could* have left it for a potential new member to find, but I think I'll read it and release it for the Canada Day challenge, as was gypsysmom's original intention. That is of course unless "dolls" crops up again for the NJABBIC release challenge before then. :)

I have learned a lovely new word. Yasashi. Naomi says that when her mother sings, her voice is yasashi - soft and tender. Even when Naomi accidentally sets the bedroom curtains on fire, her mother's voice is yasashi when she explains about the danger. Because her mother isn't afraid, Naomi's not afraid either.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if every child's parent knew and remembered that when speaking to their children.

Paraphrasing and quoting from the back cover, this is the story of six-year old Naomi and her Japanese-Canadian family during the 1940's when Canada was at war with Japan. "We follow Naomi and her older brother Stephen from their home in Vancouver to an internment camp in the interior of British Columbia, and then to a farm in Alberta, seeing the effect of war through the eyes of a child growing up with hardship and prejudice."

During that time Naomi's mother goes to Japan to care for a relative and then is not allowed back in the country. Her father is taken away to work and Stephen and Naomi are cared for by an elderly aunt, Obasan. Of course Stephen and Naomi suffer through all the normal rites of childhood like starting school, learning things the hard way (rafting is not a good idea when you can't swim), losing a favourite possession. But these things are all the more poignant and heartbreaking when taken with all of the other loss and change the children suffer.

What is truly remarkable is that the story is told without any animosity, accusation or bitterness. It is told simply, matter-of-factly, and authentically through a child's eyes. Because of that it is all the more touching. Here's Naomi describing their "new" house:

"It looks like a giant toadstool. It's surrounded by tall weeds. Is it a real house, I wonder....

...Everything looks gray. I've never seen such a dusty little house. Maybe it's the home of the three bears. But there's no porridge waiting in a great big bowl, or a middle-sized bowl or a wee little bowl. There's only a dead bee by the gray window, and the weeds outside that look as if they want to come in."

But not everything is gray. While the sadness and loss touch your heart, so too do the moments of pure joy and hope, as when Naomi and Mitzi become blood sisters. Because we all know, "A blood sister is forever."

I can quite imagine reading this story aloud to children. I would make sure that my voice was yasashi.

This is my first book read for the 2nd Canadian Book Challenge.

I'll be releasing it into the wild shortly for the Canada Day release challenge. I've had to add a bit of tape and make some repair but gypsysmom's label and Lazydaisy's bright stickie note remain intact. So I'm hoping it will find a new reader soon.

RELEASE NOTES:

waiting patiently in the sunshine on the bench in the middle of the garden, which by the way looks lovely with all the flowers that have been planted.

This book was released as part of the Canada Day release challenge in celebration of Canadian books and authors. I hope the finder enjoys this book as much as I did!