The Way We Do It in Japan

I read this book to my 3 year old this morning, and he sat absolutely still and couldn't take his eyes off the page. We counted to five in Japanese together which was easy to do as the book has Japanese words with a wonderful pronunciation guide scattered throughout the pages. I highly recommend this wonderful, uplifting story.

This book is so cute. We are Americans living in Japan and my daughter has lived here her whole life (since she was a few months old) so she attends Japanese school, is bilingual, and deeply Japanese-cultured. I know she will be culture-shocked when we return to the States in a year and a half, and I thought this book would be a different way to help her with the differences she will experience when we move to the States. This book is the reverse of what we are doing, but the principals are all the same. She says maybe she should translate this book and read it to her classmates so that they can understand what American children are feeling when they move here (in case they become classmates with future American children). She doesn't yet understand that her bilingualism is the only reason her elementary school accepted her into the school as an American, but I thought her idea was so emphatic and sweet! Overall, I think this book applies to an array of educational areas. I'll be waiting for more like it!

I am a director of a childcare center and I am running a multicultural program for our children. It is sooo hard to find good materials for small children that discuss other cultures. This book was excellent. The children loved it and so did I. It not only taught about the differences but it also had Japanese words strewn throughout the book. It also had a very simplistic pronunciation key so that I didn't need to skip a beat while reading. One of our children who is from Japan and his mother came in while I was reading. The mother understands very little english but was very pleased with the book. The book ends on such a loving note. I wish they had books like this for every culture. I thank the authors for such a book.

Gregory moves with his Japanese father and Caucasian mother from San Francisco to Japan. The author captures the boy's eagerness for adventure, yet his timidity as he faces the unknown. While Gregory and the reader learn "the way they do it in Japan," they will learn to speak some Japanese words. The author has depicted loving parents who do all they can to help their son fit in to a new way of life. The surprise comes in the end when Gregory's classmates learn "the way they do it in America."A great book to encourage children to value another culture. Adult and child will gain information about Japan that could lead to a whole unit of study. But what I liked best was the author's theme of love and friendship, where there could be fear and alienation. The principles of the book could be applied to the study of any culture.

The Way We Do It In Japan is a warm story relating a child's honest and positive reactions to his family's move fromSan Francisco to Tokyo, Japan. Gregory's experiences and reactions to new and unfamiliar situations prompted much discussion in my first grade classroom. Every child identified with Gregory on some level. This book was a welcome re-read in my classroom!