As our children have opportunities to meet kids who are different than they are, there are possibilities for new perspectives, ideas, experiences, and awareness. Encouraging them to make friends with those who are different — no matter how big or small the difference — is an excellent way to encourage acceptance of diversity and participate in friendships that bridge cultures.
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This sweet and gentle picture book celebrates summer in Japan, as one little girl shares her love for bugs with her cousin who is visiting from America.
NATSUMI’S SONG OF SUMMER
Robert Paul Weston – Author
Misa Saburi – Illustrator
Two young cousins who are separated by language, continent and culture meet for the first time when Jill’s family travels from America to Japan to stay with Natsumi’s family during the summer holidays. Natsumi’s nervousness about meeting her cousin from across the sea quickly disappears when she discovers that her cousin is a lot like her: they both love summertime’s hot sandy beaches, cool refreshing watermelon, festivals and fireworks. Then Jill asks Natsumi about the strange buzzing sound that comes from the nearby trees, and Natsumi is nervous once again. What if Jill is frightened of Natsumi’s cherished cicadas, the insects that sing the music of summertime? Fortunately, Jill loves the cicadas, and when she learns that the insects wait for years before emerging “to meet their friends,” she spots the parallel: “Just like us,” she tells Natsumi.
Natsumi’s cross-cultural friendship with Jill centers on a shared love of natural life and models openness to new experiences. Their friendship unfolds page by page as they build a summer of memories together.
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CICADAS
Cicadas hold special significance here in Japan, and are considered to be almost synonymous with summer. Even with the intense heat and humidity of the rainy season in June and July, it is not until the cicadas start chirping that people consider summer to have truly arrived.
There are some 30 different types of cicada in Japan, and each one’s song sounds that little bit different to the last.
LISTEN TO CICADAS
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OTANI HARUHIKO, 1941, STYLIZED CICADA SUITEKI
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TANKA POETRY
Natsumi’s Song of Summer is written in a popular form of Japanese poetry, Tanka.
Tanka is similar to haiku, but it has two additional lines of seven syllables each. Tanka depends on the number of lines and syllables, instead of rhyme. They are five lines long and are often about nature.
I have chosen to honor Nature’s Red-tailed Hawk.
RED-TAILED HAWK
Soaring high above
Slowly turning in circles
On broad rounded wings
Eyes fixed on the field, hunting.
Captures prey to feed its young.
