Tsunami!
by Kimiko Kajikawa (Author) Ed Young (Illustrator)
A wealthy man in a Japanese village, who everyone calls Ojiisan, which means grandfather, sets fire to his rice fields to warn the innocent people of an approaching tsunami. Ojiisan, the oldest and wealthiest man in the village, doesn't join the others at the rice ceremony. Instead he watches from his balcony. He feels something is coming; something he can't describe. When he sees the monster wave pulling away from the beach, he knows. Tsunami! But the villagers below can't see the danger. Will Ojiisan risk everything he has to save them? Can he?
Illustrated in stunning collage by Caldecott winner Ed Young, here is the unforgettable story of how one man's simple sacrifice saved hundreds of lives. An extraordinary celebration of both the power of nature and the power each of us holds within.
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This handsome book will enlighten and inspire young scientists and dreamers alike.
Kirkus Review - Children
Kirkus Reviews
A visually powerful and dramatic tribute to one man’s willingness to sacrifice everything for others.
Hornbook Guide to Children
Publishers Weekly
An earthquake, a fire, a tidal wave and selfless heroism, all packed into 32 pages, guarantee that this story will hold the attention of even the most restless listeners. Four hundred villagers are saved from death when Ojiisan, a wealthy old rice farmer on the mountainside, feels tremors, sees the ocean recede and realizes a tsunami is coming. Caldecott Medalist Young's ("Lon Po Po") collages elaborate combinations of media ranging from cut and torn paper to photos of straw and bamboo build steady tension as Ojiisan, disregarding his grandson's horror, sets his ripened rice fields alight in order to lure the villagers to higher ground. The double-page spread in which the monstrous, cresting black wave looms conveys real terror. Kajikawa's ("Yoshi's Feast") portrait of an old man who acts unhesitatingly against his own interests delivers a forceful message, and the moral does not get in the way of the action. Ages 3-5.
Copyright 2008 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.
School Library Journal
K-Gr 3 Wealthy Ojiisan suffers a feeling of foreboding as he watches colorful rice festival celebrations from his cottage high above his village by the sea. In his mountaintop home, he feels a spongy earthquake and observes bizarre movements in the sea: tsunami! How can Ojiisan alert the townspeople? Young uses a panoply of papers to create collages that tell the story of a sacrifice that saved hundreds of lives. Patterned and marbled papers, fibrous grass cloth, translucent rice paper and tissue, photographic magazine papers, and even corrugated cardboard are keenly cut, roughly torn, layered, wrinkled, mounted, and manipulated to produce images that range from dead calm to the sea-spittled tumult of a roiling vortex that promises to consume everything in its path. The art reflects the frenzy of the events and is a departure from the more serene, controlled, and balanced work we know of Young. Kajikawa has based the character of Ojiisan on Japanese hero Hamaguchi Gohei, who in 1854 set his own rice-stack harvest ablaze, diverting the attention of revelers and drawing them away from impending disaster. A simple story of the power of a simple act."Kathy Krasniewicz, Perrot Library, Old Greenwich, CT"
Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Mr. Young has been illustrating children's books for more than twenty years and has won many awards. He received the 1990 Caldecott Medal for his book Lon Po Po, and his much-lauded collaboration with anthologist Nancy Larrick, Cats Are Cats, was named one of the Ten Best Illustrated Books of 1988 by The New York Times.
Mr. Young studied at the University of Illinois, the Art Center of Los Angeles, and Pratt Institute in New York City. He and his family live in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.
copyright 2000 by Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. All rights reserved.
JUV030020 - Juvenile Fiction | People & Places | Asia
Japan
Tsunamis
