The Park Bench

I originally bought this book for my daughter when she was in grade school. We loved it as the story was also written in hiragana (Japanese) which is our nationality. The book was lost when she moved out and I recently purchased it again for her as she really missed it. She loves reading it in Japanese as it keeps her in practice. A great book all the way around.

My daughter and I love this book. The illustrations are gorgeous, and the text charming (I disagree with the reviewer's opinion that the translation is over-literal). One thing I particularly like is that although the illustrations and setting are clearly Japanese, they do not draw on stereotypes or excessively well-known icons of Japan. As a student of Japanese, I enjoy the fact that the Japanese language portion is written in kana. People who do not read kana, however, might prefer a book in which the Japanese is phonetically spelled out in roman letters.

A beautiful book. Great drawings, and the story is written in Japanese and English. My son is 1 going to be 2 soon and we enjoy reading this book together. He talks about the book sometimes during the day, specially when we walk in the park. He says "grandpa in the tree." I know he is talking about this book ...