Yuko-chan and the Daruma Doll: The Adventure of a Blind Japanese Girl Who Saves Her Village

Seki’s (The Last Kappa of Old Japan) friendly illustrations supply a wealth of visual information about pre-WWII rural Japan, showing farmhouse interiors, a temple with a rock garden and a schoolroom, and a village festival. His story is a character-building tale about an orphan girl named Yuko, whose blindness doesn’t prevent her from participating fully in village life. (Shown with closed eyes, tapping along with a cane, she may be perceived as a bit of a caricature.) Lost in the snow one winter day, she realizes that the tea frozen in the bottom of her tea gourd makes the gourd reorient itself when it’s knocked over, reminding her of the Buddhist teacher Daruma and his encouraging words: “If you fall down seven times, you should get up eight times!” Sales of the Daruma doll she designs save her village, whose crops have been ruined by a volcanic eruption. With Japanese text that parallels the English on every page, this is likely to find its most enthusiastic audience among students of Japanese language or culture. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)