Yotsuba&!, Vol. 5: Volume 5

I absolutely love Yotsuba! Her cute, fun, quirky adventures will delight all readers. There is no plot; the books simply follow the Koiwais, their neighbors, the Ayases, and other characters in their daily lives. The humor is witty, clean, and (occasionally) dead-pan. However, some of the jokes, especially the puns, rely on subtle oddities of the Japanese language. (For example, Yotsuba is shown drawing a picture of a 'tsukutsukuboshi', 'boshi' being homonym fo 'cap' or 'hat' and accordingly draws it as a person with a hat resting on a tree.) But this is the only reservation about the majority of the books, but cautious parents beware: in volume five there is one profanity; Yotsuba embarasses her father in front of a sales clerk by quoting him and (unconsciously) swearing in the process. Age appropriateness: All Ages

This is a wonderful series. The special thing about Yostusba's perspective is she may be a 5 years old, but she's also a touch weird for a 5 year old. This opens the door for a lot of humor between her innocence and weird nature. When it's not being funny, it's downright sweet.

5 volumes of Yotsuba, can we ever get enough of her? Apparently the answer is no (and we are not even up to date since there are 7 volume released so far, 8th volume is not released since it is still being serialized). Volume 5 includes some of my favorite stories, Cardbo and Yanda just to name a few. In this volume we are introduced a new character named Yanda (who was mentioned back all the way at volume 1 for those who want to know) and he instantly becomes Yotsuba's enemy. This marks the first time you will see Yotsuba being very angry at one person and you don't want to miss this. Yet another slow release, but I am glad this was released, hopefully the next volume will come out within the range of 3-4 months (hopefully). As always, do yourself a favor and get this volume if you are fan of the series, want to try something new, or just tired of same old manga stories.

There are plenty of laughs and surprises. The caracter Yotsuba makes you reminensce on your childhood, very innocent plot line and good for kids.

For those who enjoyed the first 4 volumes this brings the same cuteness and hilarity. Cardbo the cardboard robot that runs on money and Yanda, Yotsuba's arch nemesis, are great chapters that gave me bouts of sidesplitting laughter. As all the previous volumes reading Yotsuba Vol. 5 brightens my day every time I read through them.