Toddler Play by Dr. Wendy S. Masi

While browsing through a bookstore this spring, Misty, Mama to three toddlers including twins born on Jun’s birthday, recommended this book.  I got it and started flipping through it as soon as we got back to the hotel.  Before I knew it, Jun had taken over possession of it.  We have folded over the corners of her favorite songs so we can find them quickly.  There are lots of activities other than songs, but, so far, I have mostly used the songs. 

I have simplified some of the songs for my Toddler’s class too.  I like it that they are all to familiar tunes!  Being somewhat musically challenged, I appreciate that a lot!  It makes it easier for my Mama’s in class to remember them too.

The book is broken down into age groups also, which is convenient as your Toddler grows up.  Well, I’d tell you more about the book, but Jun noticed I had it out, and has absconded with it again and is singing the train song somewhere behind me!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr / Eric Carle

When I saw my niece, Mollie Ann, reading this book to Junnie, I was smitten.  Then, when I heard Junnie “reading” the book to herself, well, the book got an A+ from me.

It teaches the names of animals and colors in a SIMPLE, repetative, sing-song kind of poem verse.  Japanese kids were repeating after me in class the first time I brought it out!

The pictures by Eric Carle are familiar to many who love The Hungry Caterpillar.  This book is also in Japanese, so was familiar to some, and was very easy for the Mama’s in my Toddler’s English Class to learn to read to their kiddos at home.

A Painted House by John Grisham

Oh so many years ago a friend forced me to borrow her latest John Grisham lawyer novel.  I protested and protested, but ended up bringing it home.  And have read 99% of what he has written since.  Often I have been impressed.  Sometimes disappointed.  A Painted House is a keeper.

This book is completely unrelated to lawyering.  It talks about life on a cotton farm a long time ago.  It talks about perspectives, dreams, reality, community, relationships, classes of people, and life.

Through the thick and the thin, the author keeps a sense of humor that has made this one of the few books I’ve read again.

I think this will become one of my summer reading novels, year in and year out.

I Love You Through and Through by Rossetti-Shustak

I chose to use this book for Jun and my new Toddler and Mama class, for the two months we will be teaching the names of body parts.

Ryu and I bought it for Jun’s six month birthday.  It brought tears to my eyes as I read it through in the store.

I have been teaching kids classes for a long time.  One little boy and his Mama live in our building, so we play a lot and talk a lot outside of class as well.  She once told me how lucky I was because I could tell her little guy I loved him (in English).  She said that she wants to be able to tell him this, but it just isn’t natural to say in Japanese.

So, that’s why I chose this book to share with the Japanese Mama’s.  Yes, it teaches the words for hair and toes, walking and talking.  But, it most importantly uses the words “I LOVE…” over and over. 

I really hope the Mama’s and kids come away a tad bit closer through using this book.

Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers

“Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.”  For some reason, I just wanted to read Mary Poppins, so bought a copy at our expensive bookstore.

Now, I don’t know what I was looking for – some advice on child rearing or flying with umbrellas, but…as my student said, whom I presented with the first book in the series…Mary wasn’t all that nice to the kiddos.  I simply CANNOT imagine her giving them a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.

That being said, their adventures are quite amusing.  But, even more than their adventures, I enjoy how the other “regulars” in the neighborhood end up on peppermint ponies, or flying balloons.

Believe it or not, Mary Poppins made me think a bit about being a Christian in Japan, or, the world.  How will my actions or affiliations or beliefs rub off and affect those around me, without them even realizing it at the time?

I recommend Mary P, but, as my student also said, these aren’t really books for kids – are they?

Toto-Chan, The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

A few years ago I took a Standardized Japanese Language test.  Good thing that one of the categories is Listening!  For the Grammar and Kanji (Chinese Character) sections, I did not resort to coloring in a pattern in the little circles, but I might just as well have.

So, though I passed the test, and now that I know it is really meaningless to pass it, I decided to continue studying kanji through reading interesting things.

This book was a truly wonderful story.  I plowed through it in Japanese with my teacher’s help, and the depth of the nuances left a deep impression in my heart.

A little girl (mid or pre-WWII) was put into first grade.  Into a standardized class.  But she wasn’t a standard child.  She loved nature, loved socializing, loved life outside of the classroom.  Her teacher despaired of her and she was removed from the school.  Her wise mother took her to another school, out in the country, where classes were held in old train cars. 

This wonderful story about the true education of the core of a little child, is really a must read.  Amazon has it in English! 

Pay It Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde

I was listening to the military radio station, we get here in the Tokyo area, and they told a story of a military man in Kansas who saw a car accident and pulled a man from a burning car.  The message he left with the rescued man was, “Just pay it forward.”

This sent me right back to my bookshelf where I have had this book saved for a few years.  I bought and read the book before I knew it was a popular movie.

When I did see the movie, flying over the Pacific Ocean, to or from Japan, I was a bit disappointed.  The book is THAT much better.

A few things that touched me I didn’t really notice in the movie.  First, in the book, the teacher is a black man whose face was severely injured during the Vietnam war.  This injury is a big deal in the book, as it is the root of many of his feelings of insecurity.  The mother in the story is a recovering alcoholic (in the movie she is always stashing booze in the kitchen lights and under the wet clothes in the washer) who stays dry for the duration of the book.  Her insecurities about her status in the world mesh and clash with the teacher’s as they build a romantic relationship.

So, I really liked the book without even the part about paying it forward!  But, Paying it Forward is a great concept.  While living in Japan I will have to practice paying back as it is SO important culturally here.  But, I can encourage others to NOT pay me back, but Pay it Forward to someone else.

Isabel Dalhousie Series by Alexander McCall Smith

After I got hooked on McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, whenever my sweet husband stopped by an English bookstore, he would pick up whichever McCall Smith book they had that I didn’t have yet.  Regardless of the series.

Thus, I was introduced to all four of his series.  While each series is different, and the detective agency one seems to be the best selling, I enjoy all of them.  The main characters make the books.  The way McCall Smith writes, we hear all of the thinking that goes on inside the heads of the main characters.  They are very open with their thoughts.  Maybe even innocent in expressing their opinions and feelings. 

In the Isabel Dalhousie series, the main character edits a magazine.  A magazine on applied ethics – versus moral theory.  Not only does she edit the magazine, she is constantly thinking about the ethics of each decision she makes each day, and shares these mini “dilemmas” with the reader freely. 

While the plots of the books are slow moving, there is enough there to make me want to read the next book sometime.  Isabel Dalhousie’s  thinking challenges me to think ethically about my daily life.

I love novels with a purpose.

Kitayo Kitayo by Natsuko Gonmori

First of all, this is not a book that I think you will ever see if you are not in Japan.  You may never see it if you live here either, but, then again, you may own it.  What do I know?  It could be a best seller.

But, as I don’t think it is, I will tell you the story here.

Two big yellow flowers are the main characters.  As they sit there, a little blue butterfly comes by, rests on one of the flowers and drinks the nectar from the flower.  Next a large yellow and black butterfly comes up.  The blue butterfly flies away and the big one sips on the nectar.  Then a honey bee flies up and drinks the nectar as the big butttterfly flies away.

When the honey bee flies away, the flowers are left sitting there all alone wondering if anyone else will come to see them.  Then, the little blue butterfly comes back!  Followed by all the other insects and some new ones to boot!

The flowers are not roses or other nice smelling flowers.  The two yellow blossoms are dandelions!  That’s why I like this book.

Pajama Time! by Sandra Boynton

This lovely board book was another gift from the twins and big sister in the States.  Just because SLEEP has become the second most important thing in my life over the past year or so, is not the only reason I love this book.  (The first most important thing changes at quick intervals.)

I like this book because of the resounding message – it doesn’t matter what kind of pajamas you wear- we can ALL Pajammy together in whatever we’ve got.

I don’t know how inclusive I really and truly am.  But, I know that as a kid growing up, I often felt on the outside of the included circle.  (The more blogs I read the more I wonder if there really was an included circle, but, I digress.)  So, I really want my little girl to not judge nor be judged by outside appearances.  I want her to look at the heart of each person.  The Bible says everyone was made in God’s image, regardless of what condition their pajamas are in now.  That’s what I mean by inclusive.