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When the Cousins Came, written and illustrated by Katie Yamasaki, chronicles the adventures of Lila and her visiting cousins, Rosie and Takeo.

What I liked:

• I appreciate Yamasaki’s inclusive approach to portrayals of nikkei/Japanese people. For example, Rosie and Takeo appear to be Black, though Yamasaki never explicitly addresses race on the page, choosing instead to make her point through illustrations. Yamasaki takes it for granted that nikkei families can be multiracial and never offers the reader a moment to question otherwise.
• The bird’s eye illustration depicting Lila, Rosie, and Takeo looking at the firefly is adorable. I always enjoy unexpected perspectives, but I especially liked this illustration because it struck me as “cute” in a way I often associate with Japanese and other Asian aesthetics. Maybe fellow nikkei readers who grew up with a mix of Japanese and non-Japanese media will best understand this, but there are certain forms of “cute” which I see frequently in Japanese and other Asian art, but which rarely exist, or which are not deemed “cute” in non-Japanese and non-Asian art. (There is, of course, also plenty of variation in “cute” across Asian art.)
• Yamasaki’s book might be an effective tool for teaching Japanese students about nikkei/Japanese American life. I wonder if there is a Japanese edition, or a bilingual Japanese-English edition. (On a side note, how often are bilingual nikkei recruited to work on Japanese and/or English translations of children’s books intended for educational use?) Additionally, Yamasaki’s use of bright, warm colors and appealing character design remind me of what I loved best about the books the elementary school librarian read to us. I hope today’s educators have taken note of Yamasaki’s books (and books by people of color in general) as must-haves for their shelves.

What I learned:

• Are there actually nikkei/Japanese families where having “chopsticks” means having only disposable restaurant chopsticks, in cases where financial hardship is not the reason? It took me a bit to understand the illustration in this part of the book because it never occurred to me to think the red shapes on the table might represent the disposable chopstick wrappers. My family does save the disposable silverware from takeout, which we use for work lunches, picnics, road trips, and so on, but it would never occur to me to put out disposable chopsticks for houseguests. Fellow nikkei readers – do you keep disposable chopsticks in your house and/or do you know many other nikkei families who do so? If yes, when are the disposable chopsticks typically used?

Questions I had:

• As far as I know, Yamasaki does not identify as Black. How did Black readers – both Japanese and non-Japanese – feel about Yamasaki’s portrayal of Black characters?
• How do multiracial/mixed race readers, specifically mixed race nikkei readers, feel about the characters portrayed in this book? Do mixed race nikkei readers consider Yamasaki’s book to be “good” representation of mixed race nikkei?
• Who was Yamasaki’s intended audience for this book? Did Yamasaki envision any particular takeaway for her readers?

Follow-up:

• I would love to see Yamasaki create a graphic novel or comic. Fingers crossed!