My Japan Dream

 

 

 

Camille, from a mixed-heritage family, has a French father and a Japanese mother. However, Camille hates Japanese, and even more so her weekly Japanese lessons, always feeling she'll never learn it. The only exception is that Camille always asks her mother to tell her stories before bedtime, including traditional Japanese folk tales like "Urashima Taro," "The Married Trees," "The Crane's Return of a Favor," and "Princess Hachikazuki." In the end, one day, Camille surprisingly spoke Japanese in her sleep!!

 

This book is the author's autobiographical story, using playful and rustic materials to showcase childhood sights and sounds. From a young child's perspective, it depicts the daily life of growing up in a bicultural family with pencil drawings, including bullying and ridicule from peers at school due to her mixed heritage, as well as her confusion over her mother's homesickness and the family's misunderstanding. Bedtime stories and her dreams, rendered with colored washes, express a child's sense of mystery and whimsical imagination towards these unfamiliar stories.