CCBC Booklists

CCBC Review:

Japanese American Emi is making mochi with Obachaan. While the rice cooks, Obachaan tells her granddaughter about bringing the recipe she learned from her mother and grandmother when she came to America from Japan. When they put the rice in the mixer to pound it into a sticky mound, Emi recalls how Obachaan pounded the rice by hand with a wooden mallet when she was young. As they form the sticky rice into small cakes, stuffing some and leaving others plain, “the way Ojichaan liked it,” they remember when Ojichaan tried to help and dropped mochi on the floor. “Not so good at making, very good at eating.” They package mochi for family and friends before sitting down to eat some at a table set with lacquered dishes Obachaan brought from Japan. “Mochi is how we share love. … Mochi is how we pass on our family traditions. … Mochi is how we say thank you. … in our hands, it feels as warm and soft as love.” A deliciously detailed narrative is paired with digital collage illustrations that incorporate the author/illustrator’s family photographs, as well as softly rounded images and a soothing, mochi-like palette full of pinks and golds. An author’s note and recipe follow, while tasty endpapers are dotted with different kinds of mochi in this warmly filling story. ©2025 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 3-7
Age Range: Babies/Toddlers (birth – 3) PreK-Early Elementary (Ages 4-7)
Format: Picture book
Subjects: Asian Americans Food and Cooking Grandmothers Immigration and Immigrants Japanese and Japanese Americans Traditions
Diversity subject: Asian
On CCBC Booklist: Asian in America: Selected Books for PreK-Grade 12 to Support Hmong and Asian American Studies in Wisconsin 

Publishers: Beach Lane, Simon & Schuster
Publish Year: 2024
Pages: 32
ISBN: 9781665931540
CCBC Location: Picture Book, Fujimoto-Johnson

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