Kind people sent us some some children's books to review. I got two books and one is called Ten Oni Drummers by Matthew Gollub, illustrated by Kazuko G. Stone.
It's a counting book about these Oni monsters that crawl out of the sand. They grow bigger and bigger as they drum. Your children can learn how to count from 1-10 in Japanese and it has a section in the last few pages that has the actual kanji characters and how to pronounce them.
The drawings remind me of Korean monsters or dokkaebi (도깨비). I had no ideal about this Japanese story/fable/children's tale before reading this book. My son is obsessed with drumming so he really liked this book. He even took it to his preschool and the teacher commented on what a cute book it is.
Writing a review of this book reminds me of some of the 도깨비 stories I learned when I was growing up.
Too bad my memory sucks and I can't think of any actual stories... and a quick google search proved fruitless.
The pictures seem a little low quality and the colors are kind of drab but overall, a cute book.
I'll post later about the other book I got that is about a Korean immigrant family called The Have a Good Day Cafe.
Know of any great children's books? Perhaps one with a kimchi theme?
- Mary
