Hannah's Winter [Hardcover]

Kierin Meehan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2009 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

Hannah would much rather be back in Australia, starting high school with her friends. But Japan turns out to be nothing like she d imagined, and when Hannah and her new friend Miki find an ancient message in the stationery shop, they are drawn into solving a mysterious riddle. Why do the beans go berserk during the bean-throwing festival? Who is the evil-eyed woman at Sarumaru Shrine? Why is Hannah attacked by flying donuts? Is the ocean boy really trying to tell her something? A compelling combination of fact, fantasy, and humor, this middle-grade novel is filled with intriguing characters, exotic locations and baffling events.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–8—When Hannah's writer mother travels from Australia to Japan to do research for a new book, she takes her reluctant daughter with her. While Liana travels throughout the country, the 12-year-old stays with her mother's friends, the Maekawas. She is able to converse with the family as she spent time in Japan when she was younger and has been studying Japanese at school. Hannah is soon swept up in a mystery with her new friend, Miki Maekawa. Opening an old toy box, the family finds a riddle that appears to be an appeal for help from "the ocean boy," a lost soul seeking peace. The girls and their friend Hiro set out to solve the riddle, traveling to markets, temples, shrines, and an ancient castle and meeting people from the past who aid or hinder their quest. Following the realistic and likable characters on their journey gives insight into the beauty of Japanese culture and tradition, and the fast-paced action as the children figure out the clues will appeal to many readers.—Denise Moore, O'Gorman Junior High School, Sioux Falls, SD
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Review

(STARRED)
Twelve-year-old Australian Hannah has been sent to spend the winter with Japanese family friends in Kanazawa so she can improve her ability to speak the language. She and 13-year-old Miki find a written message in an old box of papers. It outlines a series of mysterious steps that both girls quickly realize they are inadvertently following, after a nighttime tour of a temple and a strange encounter with a singing monk. As readers raptly follow the deepening fantasy, they will find themselves flipping pages time after time to reread the message. Determined to fit in, Hannah makes a few humorous missteps (bowing self-consciously and smacking her head on a table that s in the way), all of which keep the tale lighthearted and make her seem endearingly real. Meehan utilizes beautifully crafted similes and metaphors as she creates a loving and detailed portrayal of Japan and its people. Told in the first person, the tale remains so grounded in reality that it never defies belief. A fine fantasy debut (first published in Australia in 2001). (author s note) (Fantasy. 10 & up) --Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Kane/Miller Book Pub; First American Edition edition (March 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933605987
• ISBN-13: 978-1933605982
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,452,917 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Oh, the weather outside is frightful . . ., June 24, 2009

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hannah's Winter (Hardcover)

I run a bookgroup for homeschooled kids between the ages of 9 and 14 out of my library. They're good kids and voracious readers but they serve as a strange litmus test of what kids out there are reading and enjoying today. I often will bring them new books out of curiosity and once in a while, they surprise me with their insights. For example, I got a bunch of Kane/Miller books in the other day so I spread `em out on the table to see who bit. Considering how jaded I am in general, I assumed that the classy cover bereft of even a hint of glitter would make little to no impact on them. How wrong I was. One of my girls zeroed in on "Hannah's Winter" and plucked it up right there and then. For a fantasy, Kierein Meehan's novel sports a pretty tasteful and serene cover. Next week my homeschooler was back, and she informed me in no uncertain terms, "It's really good." From the horse's mouth. Who was I to argue? Her vote plus the starred Kirkus review this book has garnered were enough to get me reading it as well. And darned if she wasn't right all along! Steeped in extensive details about modern small town Japanese life, "Hannah's Winter" is like nothing out there on American bookshelves for kids. Got a kid who loves fantasy? Got a kid that loves Japan? Meehan delivers the goods in spades.

Worst. Mother. Ever. Maybe that's a bit harsh. But believe you me, Hannah is not feeling particularly charitable towards her mom when she finds herself picked up from Australia and left in Kanazawa, a city on the west coast of Japan's largest island, Honshu. Forced to stay with one of her mom's friends and a girl roughly her own age, Hannah quickly finds herself immersed in an entirely new world. The Maekawas are nice people who run a paper shop. When Mr. Maekawa receives a mysterious box containing a piece of paper with instructions on it, Hannah suddenly finds herself plunged into a historical mystery and the ghost of a young boy. With her friend Miki and the boy next door, the three kids work to decipher the riddle and help the ghost, even if it means going against an unknown evil. An extensive Author's Note gives further information on Kanazawa and offers commentary on the real life places and people mentioned in the book.

The crazy thing about this book is that in spite of its fantasy elements, this is the kind of story fans of realistic fiction will also dig. Meehan has a dead keen talent for conjuring up the feel of different places, temperatures, colors, and sights. You don't just get a sense of Japan in this book. You live it. You're there. Heck, on top of that I've hardly ever read a book that did as good a job at describing wet snow. Meehan has conjured it up perfectly here, getting down its dampness and the sheer annoyance of slush. Or when discussing having to take off your shoes in a poorly heated building, "my feet snap-froze to blocks of ice as soon as we took off our shoes." Slightly less keen is her skill with people and their emotions. I'm not saying Meehan is bad at them or anything. Certainly Hannah is a three-dimensional character, full of sparkle and energy. I think it's just that when compared the love lavished on the setting, Meehan's strength clearly lies in putting you in a character's eyes, if not shoes.

The written language itself serves as sufficient enticement for picking this book up, I think. I took particular pleasure in sentences like, "Its light quivered across walls and floors, across the other papery patterns and shapes around it, bending their sharp edges and colors into hazy uncertainty." Or how about this look at a city's downtown area during snowy dusk: "Along the footpaths, tiny gold lights shone from spindly, naked branches of thin trees, like delicate hands in black jeweled gloves."

As with any book that takes place in another country, there is the little matter of communication. But the language barrier is cleverly covered here by allowing Hannah to be proficient in speaking Japanese (her mother taught her). Just not at writing it. Of course there is the occasional moment when I'm not entirely certain if there's a Japanese equivalent for what she says. For example, there may well be a way of saying, "No problems, Mr. S" in Japanese, but it sounds pretty particular to English for my tastes.

This book was originally published in Australia, a fact that you can mostly forget. However, there are a couple moments when Hannah's speech (and she is Australian herself, remember) utilizes words or phrases not usually thrown about in American conversations. There may be some American kids that can parse the sentence, "Wild Wattle is the world's pongiest," or "She's like David Suzuki and Ita Buttrose rolled into one," but it's definitely not a given. I liked that, though. I like it when publishers bring in books from other countries and don't Americanize the speech. It gives the books a distinctive flavor when they contain the occasional Australianism. Wakes `em up.

The homeschooler I handed this book off to left me a note in the front when she gave it back to me. In it, she mentions that the author got the Japanese character for winter slightly wrong. The character appears at the beginning of each chapter and, according to my twelve-year-old source, lacks two little slash marks. However, due to the fact that this is my only source of Japanese written know-how, you will need to consult with your own expert in the field to determine whether or not this is correct. I trust her, but suspect there might be another reason why the character looks the way it does.

With the rise of manga amongst kids today, fascination with Japan has reached an all-time fever pitch amongst our tween and adolescents. I know kids who study the language with the sole dream of someday getting to visit Japan themselves someday. But if I look on my library's shelves, I don't see much of anything speaking to this need. How many contemporary novels for kids can you name that take place in Japan? The pickings are slim to none. This book stands as a delight, mixing realism and fantasy in a believable fashion. There is a need for this title on our library's shelves. Those kids meant to find it, will. Like nothing else you can name.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting look into Japanese Culture, April 22, 2009

By 

Leslie Blount "leslibrary" (Addison, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hannah's Winter (Hardcover)

Hannah isn't sure if she wants to go live with a family in Japan while her mother is traveling around the country. She lived there when she was small, and has always done well in Japanese class, so she is familiar enough with Japan to try. What she finds there is not only people that she comes to love as a family, but also a supernatural adventure that teaches her more about Japanese culture than she could have imagined. The story moves along quickly, Hannah has just arrived in Japan when strange things start happening. This made the story good in some ways, but it is also my main criticism. I wish the author would have spent a little more time developing the characters and describing the settings. Overall, however, I found the book enjoyable.