Gr 1-3- A story about an American-Japanese girl whose family lives in Japan with her father's mother, Baachan. Her maternal grandmother visits from Maine and Nanami serves as a translator for her two grandmothers. Baachan is curious about Maine, particularly about seaweed harvesting. The cold ocean waters along its shore seem like a perfect environment for seaweed, so Baachan is surprised that it is not a big crop there. Nanami and her grandmothers spend a day gathering wakame, a delicious seaweed harvested in the village. Thompson provides fascinating details about life in rural Japan and the process of collecting, preserving, and preparing wakame, including a few easy recipes. She smoothly draws cultural comparisons while adroitly addressing the women's different perspectives on their childhoods during World War II. Colorful illustrations strengthen the parallels with interesting details, although the human figures sometimes seem flat. Particularly lovely are the endpapers-watery, seaweed-green watercolors depicting different types of seaweed on cream paper. This unpretentious story provides many opportunities for further exploration and discussion: the obvious comparisons of two cultures; the meaning of family; war and forgiveness; ecology, particularly the expansion of food resources; and differences and similarities among coastal environments around the world. An excellent choice for most collections.-Mary Hazelton, Elementary Schools in Warren & Waldoboro, ME
