Where Are You Going? To See My Friend! [Hardcover]

Kazuo Iwamura (Author), Eric Carle (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

Legendary author/illustrator Eric Carle pairs with Kazuo Iwamura to create a picture book full of rhyme and repetition, in a question and response format that will delight young readers.

Acclaimed author-illustrator Eric Carle and Japanese artist Kazuo Iwamura have created a unique bilingual book, half in English, half in Japanese, with each half illustrated respectively by Carle and Iwamura. Carle, using his distinctive collage technique, and Iwamura introduce a colorful cast of characters who join one another, one-by-one, on the way to see their friends. The two parts meet in the middle, in a beautiful eight-page gatefold. Here, Carle and Iwamura's stories and art come together, as the friends finally meet, joining English and Japanese.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-This lively and rhythmic, bilingual picture book is told in dialogue, with rebuslike symbols used to identify speakers. It details an energetic romp with a dog, cat, rooster, goat, rabbit, and a child, all of whom become friends. Carle's familiar collage technique is employed in the book's first half, while Iwamura's gentle watercolor illustrations, combined with the Japanese text, make up the second half. The two texts are divided by a gatefold that includes the music and lyrics to the song "Where Are You Going? To See My Friend!" in English and Japanese. An irresistible, spirited ode to friendship.
Andrea Tarr, Corona Public Library, CA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

K-Gr. 2. Starting at opposite ends of this bilingual collaboration, two popular children's book artists work toward the middle while telling the same tale in English and Japanese. A dog, off to meet a friend, invites a cat to come along, because "my friend is your friend." For the same reason, a rooster, a goat, and a rabbit end up tagging along; the "friend" turns out to be a child. Eventually, everyone meets to dance and sing across a central double-foldout spread. The text is brief and repetitive (speakers are identified by icons), and the Japanese text is transliterated, which allows monolingual American children to "read" along in either direction. Each artist illustrates his half in characteristic style; Iwamura's fetching, naturalistic paintings are softer looking and feature smaller characters than Carle's familiar painted-paper collages, but the artists' work merges without jarring contrast. The authors' remarks printed on the inside dust jacket will be lost to most children, but the tale's simple theme and unusual format make an inviting celebration of social and cross-cultural connections. John Peters
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Orchard; Bilingual edition (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439416590
• ISBN-13: 978-0439416597
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 11.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,898 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Bi-Cultural Book, May 21, 2003

By 

zoomer (AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Where Are You Going? To See My Friend! (Hardcover)

What A Wonderful Way To Expose Your Child To A Different Culture. This is a great book. I am happy to read both the English and the Japanese to my child. It has 2 different forms of art, 2 different languages, all connected together in the middle as they all meet together, in this lovely childrens book. One side starts with Carle's art as the animals meet other animals, remminicient of the "musicians of Bremmen" who all love to sing and dance. Then they meet their friend, a little boy. Then you flip the book to read it backwards (traditional japanese style) which follows the same animals as drawn by Iwwamura. They follow Carles matching each animal on each page (dog to dog/bug to bug) but the artwork is light and contrasting to Carle's. They meet their friend, a little girl, then the boy and girl and pairs of animals meet in the middle to sing a song together. It is a wonderful way to expose your child not only to another culture, but great way to get a child interested in learning another language (the animal sounds in Japanese are great fun.) For those who are looking for bi-lingual books (other then spanish) know that they are hard to find and I am glad such a wonderful and famous writter has made a great example to help bring about awareness and teach children.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for those learning Japanese., November 15, 2005

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Where Are You Going? To See My Friend! (Hardcover)

Eric Carle and Kazuo Iwamura, Where Are You Going? To See My Friend! (Orchard, 2001)

Once again, Eric Carle shows why he's one of the longest-standing, best-known and loved names in kids' books-- a bilingual (English/Japanese) book obviously aimed at the preschool set, but is also wonderful for adults trying to learn Japanese. Carle and Japanese kids' book artist Iwamura take pains to make sure the reader gets the picture that this is, in fact, a bilingual edition (the English moving left to right from the front of the book, the Japanese right to left from the back of the book, the two meeting in the middle) with graphic clues next to the words to let you know who's speaking (and how to look it up on the other side). The Japanese text also comes with pronounciations.

Great stuff, as always. If you're learning Japanese, no matter how old you are, you'll want it. ****

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An engaging artistic story of a dog, cat, rooster and child who embark on a journey to see their friends, July 6, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Where Are You Going? To See My Friend! (Hardcover)

In Where Are You Going? To See My Friend!, Eric Carle and Japanese artist Kazuo Iwamura combine their considerable talents to present an engaging artistic story of a dog, cat, rooster and child who embark on a journey to see their friends. A bilingual presentation of Japanese and English enhances this engaging and entertaining story of diverse creatures and unusual friendships.