A Japanese-American Girl Travels to the Land of Trendy Fashion, High-Tech Toilets and Maid Cafes
July 4, 2016
Inzer drew this graphic novel, newly expanded and colored, on a two-month summer trip to Japan when she was in high school; an earlier self-published version, published in 2014 as Halfway Home, generated impressive buzz. Each short, punchy episode combines drawings, photos, observations, and guides: who’s who in Japanese TV comedy, typical festival snacks, etc. Though Inzer’s mother is Japanese, Inzer grew up in the U.S., and she’s always conscious of living between two cultures. Her Japanese grandmother resists letting her explore Tokyo on her own, but Inzer persists, only to find that creepy guys sometimes harass her (“Look disgusted!” Inzer instructs readers. “Death stare!”). At the same time, she’s attracted to boys her age (she beams a thought toward a cool boy on the subway: “Love me!”); sadly, the boys are all glued to their phones. In one sequence, Inzer pictures herself holding conversations with her 10-year-old self (inspecting a coquettish dress, little Christine sighs, “I wish Mom would let us wear this stuff!”). Readers won’t just want to go to Japan by the end of this memoir—they’ll want to go with Inzer. Ages 10–up.
August 1, 2016
Gr 7 Up-Born in Tokyo in 1997, Inzer grew up there until her family moved to the United States in 2003. While the book refers to her as a "Tokyo teen," she in fact has revisited different neighborhoods and provinces and shares accounts from urban and rural locations. This offering will attract a wide range of Japanophiles, both for the humorous stories and her charming and colorful drawings. This is a visually engaging selection, and photographs from Inzer's visits help to ground this narrative in reality. Readers will appreciate the amusing tales about unfamiliar foods, far-out fashion, and intriguing traditions and will enjoy reading something by a teen author. One minor drawback is the title-while it has lots of teen appeal, it's not entirely accurate, because Inzer's experiences take place all over Japan. This work is a newer version of Halfway Home: Drawing My Way Through Japan, which featured a more accurate title. The main difference between the two versions is that this one has additional illustrations and is also in color. VERDICT A sweet and funny book that will entice those with an interest in Japan, as well as fans of Lucy Knisley's Relish: My Life in the Kitchen.-Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library
Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
August 1, 2016
Grades 10-1 This funny travelogue is a portal to both modern Japan and the life of a teenage girl experiencing new things while traveling. Inzer chronicles her travels to Japan, where she was born, to spend summer with her grandparents. There she fumbles with high-tech toilets, illustrates the delicious foods she likes to eat, spends time people-watching, and even ventures on a day-trip alone to Harajuku, Tokyo's fashion and shopping district. Her travels also take her to Kyoto, land of beautiful shrines and elusive geisha, and one very early morning to Tsukiji, Tokyo's world-famous fish market. While the whole package oozes charm, it's her appealing, expressive, and comically self-deprecating doodles and artful cartoons (on such things as trying and failing to meditate while counting rocks at a zen garden and her gushing enthusiasm for a good bowl of ramen) that will endear her to readers. Teens hoping to travel to Japanor anywhere, for that matterwill have a lot to gain from Inzer's warts-and-all account of her journey.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)