Issues with a Picture Book

     I was recently asked to read a certain picture book at a kindergarten where I regularly teach. While I acquiesced to the request, I also had certain reservations about the book itself.

     I know a lot of this relates to my own personal thoughts on educational materials but I think my logic here is pretty sound.

     When you're choosing an English language book to read to a classroom full of your average Japanese kindergartners, one of the first things you should look for are big, easy to understand pictures.

     If all the pictures on the page are smaller than the palm of my average adult sized hand (as was the case with the book I was asked to read) the kids in the back of the class will not be able to see the pictures clearly. Detail work, if you're going to ask about it in class (i.e. what color is it? What is he doing?) also needs to be big and easy to see for this kind of class. 

     Picture books with smaller pictures or smaller details would be great for very small class lessons of five or fewer children who are gathered very closely to the page. Books like that are fine for one on one lessons also, provided the student can get close to the page.

     When you're observing social distancing, and there are between 20 and 30 children in the class, there is no way for any kid in the back to know what is happening in a small illustration unless they've already memorized the book. In the case I encountered recently, the kids had read the book previously in Japanese and a few of the littlest ones were excited about it anyway.

     Another thing that upset me about the book was the story. The star of the book in question is a little mouse who has a lovely hand-knit vest. One friend asks if he can try it on, so the mouse lends it. The vest doesn't fit the new friend, who smiles uncomfortably in the too-tight vest before lending the vest to the next in a long line of increasingly large creatures. The mouse eventually stumbles upon the vest being worn by an elephant, at which point the vest is so stretched out that the mouse cannot use it as a vest. A smaller picture on a wordless subsequent page shows the mouse now using the vest as a swing with the help of the elephant's trunk. 

     My first issue is the friend lending the vest to another animal. Lending someone else something that is not yours is wrong and should not be presented to kids as normal behavior.

     My other big issue is the fat shaming. Making each animal bigger than a mouse stand there in the too small clothes, looking uncomfortable while the kids are encouraged to laugh at them, is also bad. You can tell that the writer and illustrator either never had issues with weight loss or finding clothes in their sizes, or have such serious issues with body size that they think kids should learn early to laugh at anyone whose clothes are tight. Honestly that isn't so surprising for Japan, but that doesn't make it okay.

     The one redeeming point of the book doesn't resound loud enough as it doesn't even have words. It's a sad mottanai afterthought and it's not enough.

     Needless to say, I won't be recommending this book to others.