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Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - Away, away, ever so far away, near the western shores of the Ocean of Peace, lie the Happy Islands, the Paradise of Children. Some people call this ocean the "Pacific" and they call the Happy Islands "Japan," but the meaning is just the same. Those are only their grown-up names, that you find them by on the map, in the geography. They are truly Happy Islands, for the sun shines there so brightly that all the people go about with pleasant, smiling faces, and the children play out of doors the whole year through without ever quarreling. And they are never, never spanked! Of course, the reason for that is that they are so good they never, never need it! Or maybe their fathers and mothers do not believe in spanking.… (more)
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The text is simple and the illustrations, by Perkins, are really quite cute. The content is very much in the context of the time period and the culture. Taro and Take live with their mother, father, granny and the new baby, Bot Chan. They are descended from samurai. Taro is the boy and is taught he has a great legacy to fulfill. His sister, Take, is told that she's just a girl and her goal in life is to marry, bear her husband's children, and eventually become a mother-in-law. Accurate for 1912? Absolutely. Made me cringe to read (and type just now)? Absolutely.
That aside, the book does have its charms. It tells stories about the day the meet Bot Chan, their special journey to the temple for Bot Chan's one month celebration, and how girls and boys celebrate their birthdays all together on certain days of the year. It's not a bad book when it's regarded in the proper context of the time, but I certainly wouldn't read it to a younger child now, especially a girl.