Tag: Maggie Tokuda-Hall

Posted in Graphic Novels, Teen, Young Adult/New Adult

Nimona fans will love The Worst Ronin!

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

The Worst Ronin, by Maggie Tokuda-Hall/Illustrated by Faith Schaffer, (May 2024, HarperAlley), $18.99, ISBN: 9780358464938

Ages 14+

Sixteen-year-old Chihiro Ito’s father is a famous samurai; she’s eager for the chance to get into the prestigious samurai school, Keisi Academy, to follow in her father’s footsteps – and meet Tatsuo Nakano, the first woman to be accepted into the school. Chihiro logs a lot of fangirl time on social media following Tatsuo, but what Chihiro doesn’t see is that Tatsuo isn’t as picture-perfect as her socials would indicate. Flashbacks enrich Tatsuo’s story and help readers understand her belligerence, alcohol use, and swearing. Tragedy strikes and Chihiro, bent on revenge, joins forces with Tatsuo. A buddy comedy enveloped in a samurai adventure, Tokuda-Hall and Schaffer’s combined talents give readers a smart, funny story with depth. Schaffer brings Tokuda-Hall’s incredible worldbuilding to colorful life and the action sequences will have readers white-knuckling through the pages. Don’t miss this one. Give this to your Nimona fans (and add Nadia Shamas and Sara Alfageeh’s Squire to the pile, while you’re at it).

The Worst Ronin has starred reviews from The Horn Book and the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books.

Posted in picture books

“The miracle is in all of us”: Love in the Library

Posted on by Rosemary Kiladitis

Love in the Library, by Maggie Tokuda-Hall/Illustrated by Yas Imamura, (Feb. 2022, Candlewick Press), $18.99, ISBN: 9781536204308

Ages 6-9

Inspired by award-winning author Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s maternal grandparents, Love in the Library is a wrenching and inspirational story of finding love and hope in the darkest times. Tama is a librarian in the Minidoka internment camp during World War II, where she meets George, a patron who shows up every day to check out books and talk to Tama. Life in the camp is brutal, and Tama’s resilience is flagging, but George is always there to smile and support her. Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s language is powerful as she describes life in the camp and Tama’s depression: “The barbed wire fences and guard towers cast long shadows over her path”; “And though each camp was different, they were all the same. Uncomfortable and unjust”; “Tama kept her eyes down and tried not to think about the life she used to have”. Yas Imamura’s gouache and watercolor palette uses dull browns greens, setting the mood for life in Minodoka, but dresses Tama and George in bright colors; Imamura also gives the cramped conditions in the housing bright colors – a pretty pink quilt acts as a wall between rooms – to convey hope and the determination to carry on. When Tama loses herself in her books, she dreams of surreal knights and ships, young lovers and butterflies. An author’s note provides background to Tama’s and George’s story. Endpapers show a wall of barbed wire stretching endlessly across the covers. Love in the Library is a story of finding hope when there feels like there is none left, and joins the growing body of work that breaks the long-held silence about that period of American history.

Love in the Library has starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, BookPage, Booklist, and the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. Download a teacher’s guide and the author’s note at Candlewick’s book detail page.