Customer Reviews

Carp for Kimiko

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Having lived in Japan, I enjoyed to authenticity of this book. The carp flags do indeed fly high on flagpoles during the Boy's Day (Children's Day) celebrations. This book give great cultural information about life in Japan.

I am half Japanese and have lived in Japan as well. I did not buy this book but found it at our local library. I do intend to buy it for two reasons-1) Kimiko is the middle name of our 3 1/2 yr old daughter. 2) It's an acurate part of her history.
An above reviewer didn't like the tradional Japanese sterotyping. Well, it's not sterotyping if it still exits in millions of families. My family just visited my parents in Seattle the last weekend of April(My Mom is Japanese). We went to the Big Japanese store(I can't spell the name). They had lots of candy filled tubes with the carp draped on them. Our daughter really wanted them(finally gave in to prevent a major fit). All the Japanese people around (even young 30's moms like me) asked her if she was getting that for her brother(which she doesn't have). Even the cashier said "that's for boys-not girls" (she looked around 24). Moral of the story above is the first reviewer is totally wrong!! The idea of separate boys and girls day is alive and strong even with young Japanese americans living in Seattle Washington in the year 2006. Personally I always liked the separate gender holidays better.

Fabulous book, goes well with a unit on Asia/Japan. Makes it easy to compare customs for children of Japan to customs for children of your country.

Very fast shipping. I really liked this book. It's easy to read. I even used it alongside a carp kite activity in a college classroom.

There are many mistakes in this book. The following is an excerpt from my letter to the publisher. There were at least five other description mistakes that I counted in this book:

"This is the last item on my list, but it is the most important because it involves an old stereotype that just is not correct: I cannot think of one contemporary Japanese family, cosmopolitan or rural, where the father would not grant a wish of his daughter's to have a carp streamer for Kodomo no Hi. Frankly, I am worried and offended that such a "Mr. Miyagi" (or maybe "Meeyahghee" if the author spelt it) type, a cultural dinosaur, is depicted (wrongly at that) in a book for children introducing Japanese culture. I am disappointed by the lack of more thorough research by the author."