Wabi Sabi

Wabi Sabi. Mark Reibstein. Illus. By Ed Young. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008. 36 pages. $16.99 (Hardcover). ISBN 978-0-316-11825-5. Grades K-8 

My Thoughts...

This may be one of the coolest looking books I have ever read! I love that it opens like a calendar and I love that all of the pages are double paged spreads. The illustrations too are phenomenal! I love the end papers and how they look like spilled tea, especially after reading the Haiku about the tea house and the history behind the wabi sabi and tea masters. The mixed media illustrations are amazing and I love how Young plays with textures and materials. I love how haikus and wisdom are included with each piece of the story so we can understand one story and be confused about the other. It makes me feel like we are learning along with Wabi Sabi of her name’s meaning. I think the illustrations are the highlight of this book before. I mean they are AMAZING! I can’t even get over it. The culture and history that shape the story itself makes this identity quest different than others that children may have heard or read before. I think the fact that the main character is a cat is neat too, since cats are special symbols in Japanese culture. I also loved the fact that there was a whole section on haiku and haibun at the end of the story as well as translated examples. Including this information helps this book lend itself to program incorporation, classroom use, or curiosity sparkers. I couldn’t decide who I thought this book should be for. I saw some reviews that said it was for children as young as kindergarten. I think young reader would love the pictures, but I don’t know that they would understand or appreciate the story that much. I think it might work better for upper elementary and middle school students. I do think that the pictures will wow anyone, however. I was very impressed by this book