Biracial (Japanese/white) Nao moved to the United States from Japan as a young child. As a new high school graduate, Nao returns to Japan to reconnect with the language and culture of her birth. Spending a gap year at Himawari Sharehouse and attending language school is an immersive experience, rooted in Nao’s longing to feel truly Japanese. Her housemates, Hyejuno (Korean) and Tina (Singaporean), and Japanese brothers Shinichi and Masaki, each have their own distinctive stories, while the believable friendship that develops among the group feels authentic to their age and experience. Nao’s year in Tokyo is filled with shared meals, television drama viewing, language school stress, late night conversations, and a romance. It’s also marked by her expanding Japanese language skills and growing sense of belonging. The graphic novel format is well suited to incorporating the range of languages spoken (English, Japanese, Korean, and Singlish) in predominantly bilingual speech bubbles, while also giving visibility to accents, mispronunciations, and moments of incomprehension. An Author’s Note addresses the inclusion of accents and mispronunciations, acknowledging their historically stereotyped use as comic relief in one-dimensional characters. Her intent here was to create “fully actualized, three-dimensional” characters whose accents are “not a point of shame but a point of pride, because after all, what is an accent but proof of the ability to speak more than one language.” Her success extends to visual depictions: the well-developed characters are always clearly identifiable in the finely crafted illustrations, which also deftly convey memories and emotions.
(Age 13 and older)