Sato catches stars during a meteor shower, and the yellow glow guides a family of bears on a moonless night he eats delicious watermelon which becomes a boat in the sea while cracking open walnuts, he discovers miniature treasures inside each shell - loaves of bread, a warm bath - and when he covers his eyes with the shells, he finds himself beneath a sky full of stars. STARRED REVIEW, Publishers Weekly Dreamlike and fanciful, each adventure is as much a flight of fancy as it is a plunge into gorgeous colors and shapes. Each episode is over in a few pages, and every one offers kaleidoscopic, pleasingly sensorial images made for dreaming on. He waters his garden, and a spread traces the water along a twisting, turning course through the forest back to its source, a pond that, in Blaskowsky's natural-sounding translation, is blowing water into the hose as hard as it can. 11/17 and others), this import provides another cozy glimpse into mystery, independence, and imaginative play.įrom the January/February 2021 issue of The Horn Book upright through a natural world reminiscent of the Chirri & Chirra series-one that offers enchanting and sometimes droll revelations. For fans of Doi’s Chirri & Chirra books ( Underground, rev. “The events of spring, summer, and fall are frozen into the waters that flowed through the forest.” As he puts the various pieces of ice into drinks, he relives his travels, and the reader revisits the colors that enlivened each event. All the events coalesce in the final section, in which Sato goes on a winter forest walk, collecting ice in many colors. Paintings in a naive style burst with saturated color - watermelon red, night-sky blue, spring chartreuse. (“Nothing compares to eating watermelon on the sea.”) Observing a meteor shower leads to a star-collection mission.

Eating a watermelon turns into a seafaring adventure. Cracking open a walnut reveals an inviting miniature world. In a set of seven small vignettes that span the seasons, Sato’s daily activities - watering the garden, doing the laundry, splashing in puddles - turn into magic. Sato is a little boy in a rabbit costume, a kind of Japanese second cousin to Max in his wolf suit.

Sato the Rabbit by Yuki Ainoya