Where Are You Going? To See My Friend! ~ A Story of Friendship in Two Languages (English and Japanese)

love the 2 illustrator's distinct styles and the english/ japanese "stories" that are songs that start at opposite ends (Japanese start their books opposite the american way so it fits perfectly) and meet in the middle...really cute and well put culturally accurate. My students love it.

Eric Carle and Kazuo Iwamura, Where Are You Going? To See My Friend! (Orchard, 2001) Once again, Eric Carle shows why he's one of the longest-standing, best-known and loved names in kids' books-- a bilingual (English/Japanese) book obviously aimed at the preschool set, but is also wonderful for adults trying to learn Japanese. Carle and Japanese kids' book artist Iwamura take pains to make sure the reader gets the picture that this is, in fact, a bilingual edition (the English moving left to right from the front of the book, the Japanese right to left from the back of the book, the two meeting in the middle) with graphic clues next to the words to let you know who's speaking (and how to look it up on the other side). The Japanese text also comes with pronounciations. Great stuff, as always. If you're learning Japanese, no matter how old you are, you'll want it. ****

In Where Are You Going? To See My Friend!, Eric Carle and Japanese artist Kazuo Iwamura combine their considerable talents to present an engaging artistic story of a dog, cat, rooster and child who embark on a journey to see their friends. A bilingual presentation of Japanese and English enhances this engaging and entertaining story of diverse creatures and unusual friendships.

I use this book in my ESL classes for elementary school kids in Japan. The repetition of "Where are you going?" is great for teaching a grammar point and the kids love getting to read the Japanese after I read the English. It's also fun for learning the animal sounds in English/Japanese. Reading the roman-ized Japanese might not be that interesting for someone who doesn't know any Japanese but older kids can start to learn easy Japanese writing by looking at this book.

What A Wonderful Way To Expose Your Child To A Different Culture. This is a great book. I am happy to read both the English and the Japanese to my child. It has 2 different forms of art, 2 different languages, all connected together in the middle as they all meet together, in this lovely childrens book. One side starts with Carle's art as the animals meet other animals, remminicient of the "musicians of Bremmen" who all love to sing and dance. Then they meet their friend, a little boy. Then you flip the book to read it backwards (traditional japanese style) which follows the same animals as drawn by Iwwamura. They follow Carles matching each animal on each page (dog to dog/bug to bug) but the artwork is light and contrasting to Carle's. They meet their friend, a little girl, then the boy and girl and pairs of animals meet in the middle to sing a song together. It is a wonderful way to expose your child not only to another culture, but great way to get a child interested in learning another language (the animal sounds in Japanese are great fun.) For those who are looking for bi-lingual books (other then spanish) know that they are hard to find and I am glad such a wonderful and famous writter has made a great example to help bring about awareness and teach children.