“Nontan”

Do you know “Nontan”?

Here’s one sample of Nontan.

The main character “Nontan” seems to be a cat, and I think this is a boy ( just a guess).

He has many friends like the rabbits,bears, birds and piggies.

The illustrator Sachiko Kiyono started this book in 1976 and she has died in 2008.

“Nontan” was read to many infants since the stories are about learning to get along with friends, how fun it is to swim, how wonderful it is to have your own birthday or celebrate one’s friend’s birthday, and so on.

It gave us Japanese kids ideas of basical important morals.

“Nontan” is not perfect and sometimes does mistakes but always somehow learns his lesson naturally through his experience, sometimes through his friends or sometimes from the weathers and sometimes he just realizes afterwards.

I have always loved his stories since all of them are very colorful and bright.

Even when Nontan is making mistakes, it doesn’t make you feel sad but make you feel like “what comes next? What is he going to learn from this??” You know that there is something better in the next few pages that always give you hope.

I can still remember how exciting I felt when I was reading this book as a young baby girl.

They are  simple illustrations with simple stories but very profound.

 

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How about a complete original picture book,

your own story,your own message,

to your love ones, families and friends for,

Birthday, Wedding ceremony, Farewell party, and so on.

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Kamishibai

Have you heard of “Kamishibai”?
This literally means “paper drama” and is a typical form of storytelling originated in Japan.

 

The storyteller holds up a huge size of pictures which size is about A1, and on the back of the pictures, the story is writtten so the story teller can read the story by showing the pictures to the audience in front while reading the story.

 

The great thing about this is that kids can share the story with their friends just by sitting in front of the storyteller and enjoy the pictures and the story realted to it. The story somehow feels always new every time  it is read, this is from my experience, so kids never get bored of it if the storyteller keeps changing his/her way of reading.

 

 

Aboves are the images of kamishibai in Japan. Even now, kamishibai interests most of the kids, even kids playing Nintendo may stop and switch off the device and gather in front of the storyteller.

 

 There are some links that introduces kamishibai in English so if you are interested in it, plese take a look at the site.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamishibai

http://www.kamishibai.com/

http://www.janm.org/janmkids/kamishibai.php

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

How about a complete original picture book,

your own story,your own message,

to your love ones, families and friends for,

Birthday, Wedding ceremony, Farewell party, and so on.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Bam & Kero

Have you ever heard of the picture book series “Bam & Kero” ?

If you have not, this might be a good chance to know a very cute kids book, pretty much famous in Japan. It is quite a new touch compared to traditional Japanese kids book.

The illustrator, Yuka Shimada now lives in Toronto, Canada, and absorbs in her work.

Bam & Kero series starts with a dog named Bam, the protagonist, and his frog friend  Kero. The stories are all very short and simple, and adorable!

 

They are few English versions that I could find so only Japanese readers are available to fully enjopy these books but since Ms.Shimada lives in Toronto, I am hoping that she will have more English versions for Bam & Kero series so that more kids (and moms and dads!) can enjoy them!!

Hope you like this new touch of picture book from the Japanese culture!!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

How about a complete original picture book,

your own story,your own message,

to your love ones, families and friends for,

Birthday, Wedding ceremony, Farewell party, and so on.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *