Tokyo lives in a small house between giant buildings with his family and his cat, Kevin. For years, highways and skyscrapers have been built up around the family's house where once there were hills and trees. Will they ever experience the natural world again?
February 22, 2016
In this haunting modern-day fairy tale from newcomer Lappano, nature, long pushed out of a city, pushes back. A boy named Tokyo lives with his parents, grandfather, and cat in a white house dwarfed by crammed-together buildings. Tokyoâs grandfather remembers when the house âlooked over hills and forest and meadows and streams,â but âthe city had eaten it all up. Cities had to eat something, after all.â The story takes on a magical, fable-like quality after an elderly woman gives Tokyo three seeds that âwill grow into whatever you wish.â His wish recalls The World Without Us as wildflowers rapidly grow into moss, shrubs, and trees that overtake buildings, crack sidewalks, and bring wild animals to city streets. Hatanakaâs crisp collages revel in the vivid colors and spiky shapes of the encroaching vegetation (besides Tokyoâs family, humans are absent until the final spread), and while Lappano suggests the importance of balance, itâs clear that humans are the ones with work to do. âI think,â Tokyo says, looking out at a city remade by nature run rampant, âthat we will just have to get used to it.â Ages 3â7.
January 1, 2016
First-time writer Lappano and illustrator Hatanaka (Work, 2014; Drive, 2015) combine to envision a built world magically giving way to an almost out-of-control natural one. Tokyo, a small boy, lives in a small house in a crowded city with his parents, grandfather, and "a cat named Kevin." The house, his grandfather's childhood home, is, Little House-style, engulfed by the city, which had also "eaten up" the surrounding forests, meadows, streams, and animals. "Cities had to eat something, after all," observes the text fatalistically. One day an old woman rides by on a bike, pulling a cart full of dirt. She stops and directs Tokyo to plant the seeds she drops into his open, only somewhat-eager hand. They will "grow into whatever you wish." He plants the seeds in his barren backyard and wishes. Over the next days, green things sprout, flowers bloom, rivers flow, bison stamp, and more, until the city has been transformed into a wild garden. While the drama of burgeoning nature is affirming and visionary, it is a little scary too. Bright, collagelike, geometric, Japanese-inflected landscapes seem at once welcoming and hopeful and thrilling and unsettling. Tokyo and his grandfather, both pale-skinned, have no eyes, just round, blue-rimmed spectacles. While this fascinating tale pays a debt to Virginia Burton, it also gives off a strong whiff of dystopia: "Gardens have to grow somewhere, after all." A challenging 21st-century fable sure to spark discussions. (Picture book. 4-7)
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February 1, 2016
K-Gr 3-Young Tokyo lives with his mother, father, grandfather, and cat in a small house that his grandfather has lived in since childhood. When Grandfather was a boy, the house was on a hill surrounded by the beauty of nature. Now, the house is surrounded by the tall buildings of a city. One day, Tokyo is gifted three seeds, which he plants in a tiny space by the house. The very next day, there are wildflowers growing. The following morning, the city is overtaken with trees, shrubs, and flowers. Throughout the week, the garden grows so much and so many animals move in that it is difficult for the people of the city to go about their business. Grandfather suggests that Tokyo come up with a solution. His decision is one that he feels is best for all. This bright and colorful picture book inspires imaginative thinking. Readers will wonder what the three seeds could possibly produce and will be thrilled as they see the lush garden begin to grow. The illustrations, created digitally with watercolor, ink drawings, and collage, are big and blocky and could be used in and of themselves as an art lesson on the illusion of space through collage. The text is neither too simple nor too complex but just what is needed to relate this imaginative tale of environmentalism. VERDICT This title could be used in a wide variety of academic disciplines, including science, art, social studies, and language arts.-Amy Shepherd, St. Anne's Episcopal School, Middleton, DE
Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 1, 2017
Tokyo lives in a huge city built over a natural landscape that his grandfather wistfully recollects. When a mysterious older woman gives Tokyo magic seeds, he's able to grow that remembered world back into existence with unexpected results. Though the ending feels a bit rushed, Hatanaka's digitally constructed watercolor, ink, and collage illustrations vividly embody the metropolis's shift from dreary to cheerful and plant-filled.
(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)