The journey to the Creation of the Picture Book, A Wild Windy Night —The interviewer, Hasegawa, Editor for the original Japanese book (November 2021) Hasegawa: Thank you for your time today. In this interview, we’ll be exploring the creation process of A Wild Windy Night. Can you recall when the initial planning meeting took place? I believe it was just ... Read More »
The sweet magical tale from Japan highlights the power of reading aloud and the joy of creating a story. under a tall maple tree, a young Japanese girl reading stories attracts some animal companions. Though Yuka can read on her own now that she’s in first grade, she loves listening to her mother tell stories in different voices. When her ... Read More »
RANSHIN: Tokimune would become eighth Regent at age 18. The Hojo Regents at this time were the de facto rulers of Japan, effectively controlling the figurehead shogunate. Hojo Tokimune (1251–1284) was born an elite warrior and statesman, destined to rule his clan and country, on June 5, 1251, to the fifth Shikken (Regent) to the Shogun, Hojo Tokiyori. Tokimune would ... Read More »
RANSHIN, the fictional Edward Gawain is among the 225 knights who arrived with Edward Longshanks in Akko in 1271. The Crusades—a series of religious wars carried out by Christian soldiers from Europe during the Middle Ages—are among the most significant events in the history of Europe and the Middle East. Beginning in 1095 CE, European knights and noblemen traveled to ... Read More »
Forest Friends Series, Book 2 by Kyoko Hara & Kazue Takahashi Summer arrives, and once again Mayu goes to the forest near her grandparents’ house. The mailbox is still there. Mayu and Konta, a fox child, write letters to each other and explore the forest together. Mayu keeps this mysterious forest friend a secret. But one day while they are ... Read More »
A whimsical story about an unusualfriendship, and one girl’s discovery of thejoy that letter writing can bring. While spending a vacation with her grandparents, Mayu, a Japanese first-grader, finds a mysterious mailbox in the forest near their house. She writes a letter and leaves it in the box. The next day she is surprised to find a letter addressed to ... Read More »
TED TAKASHIMA Berlin, July 2008. After giving a lecture, Max Knight, a Nobel Prize candidate and professor of genetic research, is kidnapped. His captors show him part of a corpse, a left hand, discovered when a bomb exploded at a neo-Nazi rally. Although the hand appears to be that of a male in his forties, it actually belongs to a ... Read More »
1980s. El Paso, New Mexico, USA In the spring of the year I graduated from university, I visited the embankment of the Rio Grande River. The towns, and the river itself, often appear in Westerns. Upon crossing the river, I found myself in the Mexican city of Juárez. On the opposite bank, I spotted many young Mexicans sitting around. “They’re ... Read More »
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