Yoko's Show-and-Tell (A Yoko Book)

Yoko's grandparents send her a special doll from Japan, and Yoko wants to take it to school for show-and-tell - but some of her classmates take the doll and break it. Yoko and her mama take the doll to a doll hospital, and Yoko's mama sews it a new kimono, so when the grandparents visit, the doll is good as new. The boys who broke the doll do yard work in apologize.

Even though all of the characters are animals instead of people, Yoko's family has a distinct Japanese culture that is different from her classmates.

The big idea of Yoko's Show and Tell is sometimes people make mistakes, but they can be mended, and you should always learn from your mistakes. In my opinion this was an okay book. One reason I liked the book was the plot was well paced and had a clear problem and solution. The book involves a Japanese holiday called Girls day, and her grandmother sends her a doll and without asking she take the doll to school which ends up getting broken. The solution to her problem was her mom told her she made a bad mistake, but she would still take the doll to the doll hospital. I thought the plot was realistic however it was a bit too simple and boring. A second reason I liked the book was the illustrations enhance the story. The illustrations show show more many traditional aspects of Japanese cultural, and without the photos I might not know what the author is talking about. For example, I never heard of red bean candy, but the illustrations depicted what that would look like. Finally, the language and writing style in the book is descriptive, yet clear. The language is simple for children to understand yet provides detail. An example of this is the following: "Yoko's mama helped Yoko arrange the red carpet for Miki. Yoko placed Miki in the window and brought her candy each morning. By evening, the candy was gone." The language and writing style helps the reader understand the tradition of what the doll does during Girl's Day. show less

The central message in the story is to treat family valuables very carefully. I like this book because of how the author’s diction. She chooses to use Japanese phrases, but translates them into English. For example, she writes, “halmoni” for grandma. In addition, I like the plot of the story. Yoko wants to bring her family’s special porcelain doll into show-and-tell really bad. However, her mother says, “No. because it is very breakable.” Yoko does not listen, and takes the doll to school anyways, and it gets broken. Luckily, her mother knows who can fix it! I think this plot is a great way to show readers the intentions their parents have good intentions for their children. The third reason I enjoyed this story is because show more of the illustrations. I like how the author uses red patterns throughout the story to help capture Yoko’s heritage. show less

37 months - O loves Yoko books and I have to admit I enjoy them too. Who hasn't taken something to school that they shouldn't have and had it either stolen or damaged. We can all relate.

Lovely book with beautiful illustrations. Picture book