This book spoke to my inner child.Crow Boy by Taro Yashima is a Caldecott Honor Book for children, my second book for Dolce Bellezza's Japanese Literature Challenge 3. Bellezza wrote a beautiful review of it, and I do not wish to compete with her, but I decided to post on this charming book because I was equally entranced by the storyline and pictures. In this story a young school boy in Japan called Chibi, which means tiny boy, is taunted by the other kids who call him "stupid" and "slowpoke" because he's different and because they don't understand him. He's quiet and doesn't fit in, and keeps to himself most of the time. It's not until he's in the sixth grade and has a kind and perceptive teacher that things begin to change for him.
Through colorful pictures and simple prose, Crow Boy illustrates that many children lack the maturity to think for themselves, and are often cruel to those who don't fit in. I have three children, and have heard the meanest things said to them by other children--and it makes my blood boil. (Thankfully I've also experienced the opposite, and have been astonished by the kind words and acts of their peers.) When I was a young child, other children would make fun of me for being skinny, which was dreadful. It's never easy being a child. Luckily the tiny boy in the story is able to nurture his own gifts in nature, and when these unique gifts are finally recognized and acknowledged, it's that much sweeter.
I'll share this book with my children. If I were an elementary school teacher, I'd read this to my students on the first day of school like Bellezza does.
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