Himawari House
Ratings17
Average rating4.3
Winner of the 2023 Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Fiction Literature Winner of the 2022 Kirkus Prize for Young Readers' Literature A 2021 Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year A 2021 School Library Best Books of the Year A young adult graphic novel about three foreign exchange students and the pleasures, and difficulties, of adjusting to living in Japan. Living in a new country is no walk in the park—Nao, Hyejung, and Tina can all attest to that. The three of them became fast friends through living together in the Himawari House in Tokyo and attending the same Japanese cram school. Nao came to Japan to reconnect with her Japanese heritage, while Hyejung and Tina came to find freedom and their own paths. Though each of them has her own motivations and challenges, they all deal with language barriers, being a fish out of water, self discovery, love, and family.
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This graphic novel is beautifully crafted. Great characters, a lot of comedy, really pulls at your heart strings. The whole nine yards. I have to admit, I don't think I've think I've read a single fiction book with a Singaporean character so this was a fascinating introduction to Singlish and other Singaporean cultural norms.
Artwork is cute but the plot is predictable. I skipped over a big chunk of the middle cause I just didn't care enough and this has to go back to the library.
Such a lovely graphic novel and funny at times! It hit me with all the feels, I could relate to Nao's character so much of feeling like an imposter in your own culture and the struggle to find the right words to cross that divide. Late last year I started to try to learn Spanish (again) and I continued in January but feeling hard on yourself when you make mistakes is something i need to overcome.
