Genre: Realistic FictionCopyright date: 2009I felt underwhelmed by the plot of this story. The plot was cute, but I expected more. I do see the potential for this book in my classroom though. My students mentioned an interest in doing a reading unit on other countries. I feel like this book can really help a student grow in his/her understanding of different elements of the Japanese culture. So even though the plot wasn't what I was hoping for, the plot allows for several conversations about the Japanese culture. Thematically this has a lot of similarities with other Say books (why yes we have been doing an author study as our relaxing language arts work during this horrifying ISAT two weeks) although it was the first we read that focused on an American/Westerner (but she is obsessed with and moves to Japan, so it's not like there wasn't the strong Japan emphasis regardless!). It was fine, the kids liked it as much as the rest, I thought it was just OK.
it was pretty good, but I think other people would enjoy it more than I did.
—Bubster
"Japan, life in Japan, living in a foreign country"
—Ann
A very sweet romance...I love it.
—Bookworm
super sweet!
—Florence
