Honda: The Boy Who Dreamed of Cars [Hardcover]

Mark Weston (Author), Katie Yamasaki (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 7 and up | Grade Level: 2 and up

One day in 1914 when Soichiro Honda was seven years old, an astonishing, moving dust cloud appeared in his small Japanese town. The cause was a leaky, noisy automobile--the first the boy had ever seen. At that moment Honda fell in love with cars, and a dream took hold. He would one day make them himself. It took Honda many years to reach his goal. Along the way he became an expert mechanic and manufacturer of car parts. After World War II he developed a motorized bicycle, the forerunner of his innovative motorcycles. Eventually Honda began manufacturing cars, first race cars and then consumer cars. Constantly seeking ways to make his products better than his competitors', Honda grew into a global industry leader. Soichiro Honda had an inventive mind and a passion for new ideas, and he never gave up on his dream. A legendary figure in the world of manufacturing, Honda is a dynamic symbol of lifelong determination, creativity, and the power of a dream.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 3–5—This picture-book biography follows the life of Soichiro Honda, born in 1906, from his beginnings as a boy working in his father's smith shop to his international success as a manufacturer. Weston's writing is clear and accessible, even to those who might not know any automotive lingo. The book reads like a story, with fictionalization of Honda's thoughts and dialogue and emphasis on his persistence and ingenuity. Yamasaki's acrylic illustrations dominate each page. At first glance they seem representational, but on closer inspection readers will find little men climbing on the engine parts and pieces of machinery swirling up into the air like dust, miniature cars going around a globe and down Honda's arm, and figures on tiny motorcycles on mountains as a backdrop to modern, colorfully clad men and women riding on the road. Yamasaki's creative composition makes the pictures interesting and dynamic. There has been very little published about Honda for children. This story takes a step toward filling that gap.—Donna Cardon, Provo City Library, UT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Rightly noting that people today may never have heard of Soichiro Honda, but almost everyone knows his last name, Weston presents the first stand-alone biography for young readers of this Japanese blacksmith’s son, who fell in love with cars the instant he first laid eyes on one in 1914. He went on to become a mechanic, inventor, race car driver—and, of course, a tycoon. Yamasaki helps to keep the tone light with fanciful painted illustrations that depict her subject set amid flying car parts and streams of tiny automobiles and motorcycles. Honda is neatly portrayed as someone who was smart enough both to stay in touch with his employees (it was a worker’s suggestion that convinced him to go with water-cooled rather than less powerful air-cooled engines) and take early retirement. Though a demanding boss, Honda was not so much a driven, Olympian business leader, but rather a human being who found his bliss early on and stuck with it through thick and thin. Grades 2-4. --John Peters

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 7 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Lee & Low Books (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600602460
• ISBN-13: 978-1600602467
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #219,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #55 in Books > Children's Books > Education & Reference > Business & Money
  • #75 in Books > Children's Books > Transportation > Cars & Trucks

More About the Author

Mark Weston's new book Prophets and Princes - Saudi Arabia from Muhammad to the Present, was published by John Wiley & Sons in the fall of 2008. Britain's New Statesman magazine called it "always intelligent," and Saudi Aramco World magazine said Weston "writes sensitively about the post-9/11 era." While researching his book, Weston was a Visiting Scholar at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh. Weston's interest in the Muslim world began when he lived in Lahore while writing his first book, The Land and People of Pakistan (HarperCollins 1992.)

The Los Angeles Times called Weston's second work, Giants of Japan: The Lives of Japan's Greatest Men and Women (Kodansha 1999) "a superb new book." Foreign Affairs called it "vivid, an excellent introduction to Japanese history." Walter Mondale wrote the foreword, and the book went into paperback in 2002 and again in 2008.

Weston grew up in Armonk, New York and graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in history. He spent a year at the London School of Economics, then earned a law degree from the University of Texas. He has been a lawyer for ABC Television and a journalist for ABC News, and has written articles for The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. His one-character play, "Meet George Orwell," has been performed at Trinity College, Oxford and the John Kennedy Presidential Library Theatre in Boston, among other venues.

In 1991 Weston won enough money on TV's Jeopardy! to start a company that makes geographical jigsaw puzzles for children. He sold his firm to a larger puzzle company three years later, then lived with a Japanese family in Tokyo while researching his second book. He has also written a children's book, Honda: The Boy Who Dreamed of Cars, that Lee & Low Books published in the autumn of 2008.

Weston gives lively talks on the Middle East, Islam and Japan. Venues have included the White House Fellows, the Middle East Institute, the Toyota Motor Corporation,. Columbia University, and a cruise ship, the Clipper Odyssey.
P.O. Box 892, Armonk, NY 10504-0892

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children, September 9, 2008

By 

Yana V. Rodgers "econkids.rutgers.edu" (New Brunswick, NJ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Honda: The Boy Who Dreamed of Cars (Hardcover)

Already as a young child, Soichiro Honda had an inquisitive mind, and he enjoyed standing in the harbor, with the majestic Mount Fuji in the background, observing boats in the harbor and wondering how they worked. One memorable day in 1914, young Honda saw the first car he had ever seen, a Ford Model T, and he was so enthralled with this mechanical wonder that he vowed to make a car himself when he was older. Honda's desire to learn about cars and his mechanical skills led him to find work at a garage in Tokyo. It took more than six years for him to work his way up from floor sweeper to a thoroughly-trained auto mechanic, but the experience proved invaluable in starting his own garage, and later, designing race cars.

Over the years, Honda's work included innovations in producing piston rings, airplane propellers, motorcycles, engines, and cars. He also started his own business, the Honda Motor Company, which competed against more established companies and grew into one of the world's largest car manufacturers. Although his temper in the workplace led to the nickname "Mr. Thunder," he offered his employees good salaries and benefits, and he was careful to listen to their suggestions for improvement.

This interesting book offers children a unique opportunity to learn more about the person behind the household name "Honda." Along the way, teachers and parents can use examples from Soichiro Honda's story to reinforce some useful lessons in economics related to entrepreneurship, innovation, and competition. Honda: The Boy Who Dreamed of Cars will appeal to readers who enjoy carefully-illustrated picture books that feature informative biographies of people we otherwise may not know much about.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Richie's Picks: HONDA: THE BOY WHO DREAMED OF CARS, November 15, 2008

By 

Richie Partington "Richie's Picks" (Sebastopol, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Honda: The Boy Who Dreamed of Cars (Hardcover)

"A year later Honda took an important step toward making his dream come true. He began manufacturing the metal rings that surround pistons. These small steel cups in a car's engine move up and down quickly inside cylinders as they convert the energy in gasoline into the force that turns a car's wheels.
"Honda thought it would be easy to make piston rings, but his first ones were too rigid. They did not bend, and they cracked under stress. Ring after ring broke. So Honda went back to school to study metallurgy, the science of working with metal. Determined to figure out how to make his piston rings more flexible, Honda tried one technical approach after another. By 1940 his piston rings worked perfectly. He sold them to Toyota, one of Japan's first car companies."

As I demonstrate during so many booktalks at middle schools, picture books are not just for little kids. Given the level of sophistication needed to understand the technology and history illustrated in the above snippet, it is easy to recognize that HONDA: THE BOY WHO DREAMED OF CARS is a picture book that is far more age-appropriate for older readers.

In fact, every middle school would benefit from a copy of HONDA: THE BOY WHO DREAMED OF CARS, a well-researched 32-page picture book biography written by the author of the adult book, GIANTS OF JAPAN: THE LIVES OF JAPAN'S GREATEST MEN AND WOMEN. At this juncture in history, when the level of success attained by those who will develop the future of energy and transportation technologies could make or break the habitability of the planet for humanity, it is so vital that educators and parents catch the imagination of young people in the hope that some of our most talented young people opt for studying the applied sciences and grow up to become part of the planet's technology salvation.

HONDA: THE BOY WHO DREAMED OF CARS is just the sort of book that can help catch these imaginations. Amidst the incoming stacks of picture books, this one immediately caught my attention because, hey, I didn't know the first thing about Soichiro Honda, and I am very worried about energy problems and global warming.

Honda was born in a Japanese harbor town during the same year -- 1906 -- as the San Francisco earthquake. He (like me) was the oldest kid in the family. His father was a blacksmith, his mother a weaver. Honda was amazed at the age of seven when "a man drove a rumbling Model T through town," and that experience affected his life and, in turn, the world. Eventually, Soichiro Honda first became one of the world's premier manufacturers of motorcycles. Then, back when I was eight, during the year when JFK was assassinated and the Beatles were on the verge of their first foray to America, Honda achieved his lifelong dream: He began building cars.

The guy was a listener and an innovator, a determined guy who worked hard to find a better way of doing things. He collaborated with his young engineers to develop a radically new automobile engine called the Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion engine, or CVCC for short. (Take a look at those initials and you'll understand where he got the name for his most famous car.) When Civics arrived in America in 1972, they "were the first cars to meet the stricter emissions standards of the Clean Air Act passed by Congress." Then a gasoline shortage in 1973 caused many Americans to run out and buy Hondas because they were far more fuel efficient than American cars.

As the author concludes, "Many people today may never have heard of Soichiro Honda, but almost everyone knows his last name." Now Soichiro is dead, but his car company has spent decades putting GM to shame and his name lives on. Thanks to this excellent picture book for older readers, many young people will have the opportunity to learn about Mr. Honda and, hopefully, some will be inspired by his example to become innovators and entrepreneurs and might, themselves, become the topic someday of a picture book biography.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very cute for a Honda lover, March 31, 2009

By 

K. Pecina (San Antonio, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Honda: The Boy Who Dreamed of Cars (Hardcover)

My husband and I bought this book because we are pregnant with our first child...a boy...due any day now. My husband is a Honda man, and he wants our son to know all about Hondas and how great they are. It is a cute story but also a nice collector's item for Honda fans. Awesome illustrations!