To learn more about Book Spotlight, read this.

Phew, wasn’t sure I was going to get this up while it was still April.

I remember following Jem Yoshioka back when the book community of color was still active on twitter (maybe it still is – I’m not able to be around as much as before, so I’m not sure) and I’m so glad to see her work getting published. Folk Remedy is a fun, colorful story and an interesting example of one expression of nikkei creativity and creation.

For my fellow (is it more gender-inclusive to use a different word here?) nikkei readers, did anyone else think some of the dialogue and the ways some of the characters behave felt as if they were being presented/socialized as white? Or perhaps not necessarily white – I don’t have the experience of being mixed race, so I can’t say if they were being presented/socialized as mixed race (also, obviously not a monolithic experience) – but not Japanese in the way I’m accustomed to thinking of as Japanese. It reminds me a bit of what I saw another Asian person say online once about ATLA – the visual elements feel Asian, but the characters act white. (Of course, this all very much depends on how you define ‘Asian’, which is a worthwhile discussion, but not one for this post.) I’m still unpacking my thoughts, but I think my initial reaction has to do with how I see the white default becoming extremely pervasive in certain elements of certain nikkei communities, sometimes but not always correlated with how many generations those spaces are removed from Japan. I can only speak for myself, but I think it’s worth considering, because if we consider the broader cultural context (milieu?) as we move forward in times and places as nikkei, and who we want to be aligned with, or learn from, or work together with, we should probably take a hard look at trends like this and see if we’re equally – and equitably – implementing influences from Black, Indigenous, Latinx people, etc. (hint: 50% white people and 50% everybody else is not the answer).

To bring it to back to Folk Remedy, I’m not saying Yoshioka was wrong to depict her characters this way. For all I know, I could be wrong in my interpretation of how she intended these characters to come across. Rather, I just hope everyone in our communities is being thoughtful and intentional about not just their work but also the broader (and maybe sometimes harder-to-see) influences that may be underlying certain choices. Also, hey western publishing, don’t encourage the ripple effect of ‘Japanese’-work-by-nikkei-creators-but-only-if-understandable-to-white-readers.

I’m out of time for this post, but as a final note of clarification, I really did enjoy Folk Remedy and look forward to the sequel, it just brought up a lot of other wider thoughts about our communities and some trends I’ve observed – I know I’m not the only nikkei reader out here thinking about these things.

Title: Folk Remedy

Author: Jem Yoshioka

Genre: Fantasy

Book Type: Graphic Novel

Would read this author again: Yes

To learn more about Book Spotlight, read this.

Moving forward, I think I’ll use this format for Book Spotlight posts as well. I like it better than my original format.

It’s been a while since I read poetry and I’m glad I got back into it with Sky Country. Sometimes it takes time for me to finish a book of poetry, but I read Sky Country in one quick sitting. I’m still not entirely sure what was so compelling about these poems. Maybe the feeling of home? I didn’t necessarily identify a lot of parallels between Kitano’s and my experiences, but nevertheless the experience of reading felt comforting and familiar. Reading Kitano also reminded me that it’s been a bit since I read any nikkei historical fiction and it’s probably time to get back to it. Work has seriously cut into my reading time – more precisely, my reading brain – lately and I’m realizing I do better overall when I consistently read a solid mix of books.

Title: Sky Country

Author: Christine Kitano

Genre: Poetry

Book Type: Poetry

Would read this author again: Yes

I can’t remember if I already said this, but I’m going to try switching to this format for Book Spotlight posts as well as Interlude posts. My thoughts seem to flow more naturally in this format and lately I’m trying to be better about testing new ways of doing things for better results. Now, to business.

I regret not picking up this book sooner! It was one of those cases of pushing it further down the TBR after reading the back cover, as it sounded like it might be a theater story, and I wasn’t really in the mood for a theater story. I really liked Abby as a character. I wouldn’t mind reading more of her future adventures.

The color palette of the art was interesting. Initially, I found it rather stark and unappealing, but as the story progressed, I realized the colors were doing an excellent job of setting the atmosphere of various scenes.

At the end of the story, I realized I’d been waiting for some explicit reference to Abby’s nikkei-ness, but I also think including such references would have made it a very different story, and it seems that was not Tamaki’s goal here. There appear to be racial undertones to many of Abby’s experiences with the other students, but nothing that seemed specifically Japanese and/or nikkei. I did wonder about Jessica, as she appears to be Asian, but I didn’t see this confirmed anywhere in the text.

The most ‘explicit’ othering of Abby by her peers seems to focus on their assumptions about her sexual orientation. No one says anything outright about her race and I wondered about the reason for this. If we assume that at least some of the students’ pointed exclusion of Abby is, consciously or not, driven by their perceptions of her race, I wonder if these initial, more subtle (but not less harmful) behaviors laid the groundwork for the students’ subsequent, very pointed speculation about whether she is gay. If my interpretation is correct, it’s an excellent depiction of how layered prejudices operate in a school setting.

Lastly, I appreciate the moment when Abby says she is questioning her sexual orientation, as I can’t immediately recall any examples of this in the nikkei-authored books that were around when I was her age. It’s great to think today’s young nikkei readers have a much better chance of seeing their diverse identities reflected in books.

Title: This Place Kills Me

Author: Mariko Tamaki

Genre: Contemporary

Book Type: Graphic novel

Would read this author again: Yes – past readers of this blog will know this isn’t my first Mariko Tamaki book and I very much doubt it’ll be my last!