The format of this book is a little unusual. The book was a cooperative project among authors and illustrators from different countries to show children what is happening around the world at the same moment in different time zones.
Mitsumasa Anno, the primary author of the book, is from Japan, but he writes as a boy called Sailor Oliver Smith, or “SOS”, who has been shipwrecked with his dog on an uninhabited island near the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean at noon on January 1 (which is also midnight on New Year’s Eve, Greenwich Mean Time). He is on the island for a full day before he is rescued, sending out appeals for help and thinking about what other children around the world are doing at every hour of the day as they celebrate the New Year.
As you read through the book, the small pictures of the children in different countries tell a complete story for each child in each country. The little mini-stories within the main story are presented almost comic book style. They contain no text themselves, but the boy on the island offers commentary on what’s happening with the children in other countries. During the time when SOS is asleep on his island, his dog, Matey, takes over the narration.
Children in Brazil are making and flying kites with their family and going swimming at the beach. People in Australia also go to the beach because it’s summer there in January, and they camp out overnight. A boy in the US sneaks out of bed to get a look at the party his parents are having at midnight, and is woken by his cat the next morning. The boy in England wakes up his too parents early in the morning by playing his trumpet. People in Kenya go a busy market and have dinner as a family. Children in China set off firecrackers, watch fireworks, and eat special foods. The story in Japan is about a little girl whose toy is stolen by a dog, and her cat chases after the dog to get it back. At first, they worry because the cat doesn’t return home for dinner, but the cat eventually comes in late with the toy, eats its fish, and goes to bed. Because this book was written in the 1980s, the book refers to Russia as the Soviet Union. The boy in the Soviet Union goes sledding with his friends and tries to ride his bike in the snow, which doesn’t work well. Children in various countries watch tv and read books during the day, and readers get to see their dreams when they sleep. At the end of the book, SOS sees a ship coming to pick him up at 9 am on January 2.
There is a message at the beginning of the book from all of the authors and illustrators who participated about children around the world, encouraging children to think about children in other places and what they might be doing throughout their day. Because it’s a different time of day in different places, some children are asleep in bed while others are awake and playing. However, it reminds readers that, no matter who we are, where we live on Earth, or what we look like, we’re all human beings on the same planet with the same sun and moon looking down on our days and nights. It’s a call for empathy and unity among nations and the people who live everywhere on Earth. In the back of the book, there is more scientific information about the movement of the Earth around the sun and the rotation of the planet and what makes different time zones. There is also information about the different authors and illustrators around the world who contributed to the project.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).
My Reaction
I have a vague memory of reading this book when I was young, but I can’t remember exactly when I read it. I think I was an older child because I already understood the concept of different time zones. I do think that kids who are a little older would get more out of the story and the concept of different time zones than very young children.
Older children would also probably find it easier to follow the different story lines of the children in each country. The format of the story may be a little difficult for very young children to follow because it does feel a little disjointed, getting just a snippet of each child’s day and night per page. However, the book is interesting to reread multiple times, following each child’s day, and I remember being fascinated by the notion of what everyone around the world was doing at different times.
The call for people to think about other people in other places and the call for international understanding is a nice, peaceful message for the New Year. As an adult, I was interested in seeing which authors and illustrators contributed to the book. Each set of illustrations for different countries has a different style. The illustrator for the boy in the US is Eric Carle, known for The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Not all of the illustrators are actually from the countries they illustrated, but more are. The two exceptions were for Brazil and Kenya, but the illustrator who did the pictures for Brazil did live there for a time, and the the couple who did the pictures for Kenya wrote and illustrated other books about Africa.
Somewhere in the World Right Now is a picture book on a similar theme, but instead of following children around the world through an entire day, it just shows what’s happening around the world at one particular moment. I think that makes Somewhere in the World Right Now a little easier to follow for younger children.
Mary Poppins Opens the Door by P. L. Travers, 1943.
This Mary Poppins book was written during World War II, and the author has an acknowledgement in the first chapter that things have changed because of the war. Like other Mary Poppins books, each chapter is its own short story, and the first one takes places on Guy Fawkes Day. A note at the beginning explains what Guy Fawkes Day is, and it also mentions that people haven’t celebrated it since the war began. However, the author says that she is sure that the situation is only temporary and that people will celebrate it once again after the war is over.
Sadly, people reading older versions of Mary Poppins books also have to be warned about the racial language. The stories are magical, but at the same time, one of the most grating things about the original printing of this book is that characters have a tendency to use racial language or racial terms as insults. When characters, even Mary Poppins, are irritated with each other, they’ll call people things like “Hottentot“, “black heathen”, “Blackamoor“, and similar things, implying that these people are behaving like “savages.” Some of the words the books use would be considered offensive by themselves, but it’s worse when they’re specifically used as insults. These incidents don’t take place in every story, but they happen throughout the original printing of this book, and they’re also found in other old Mary Poppins books. On a somewhat lighter note, I liked the character of Mrs. Clump, even though she’s an antagonist in one of the stories, because she used “vampire” and “pirate” as insults. If someone is going to use insults, I like them imaginative and funny like that. Fortunately, later reprintings of this book revised or removed the inappropriate racial language, so some people who grew up with the revised versions may not have even been aware that they were ever there.
This is the third time that Mary Poppins returns to the Banks household to be the children’s nanny. In the previous two books in the series, she came suddenly and left suddenly, without warning. Mrs. Banks finds it upsetting that Mary Poppins comes and goes so unexpectedly because she never knows if she can count on her to be with the children or if she will disappear suddenly. All the same, Mrs. Banks is always grateful when Mary Poppins comes because she’s so good at putting the household in order.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).
Stories in the Book:
The Fifth of November – Mr. Banks is in a bad mood and declares that he won’t be home for dinner that night, upsetting his wife and children because it’s Guy Fawkes Day, and the family wants him to help set off fireworks. He won’t even shake hands with the chimney sweep, even though that’s supposed to be good luck. Part of the trouble is that the family is missing Mary Poppins, and they haven’t found anyone to replace her, leaving the house in disorder. Mrs. Banks considers hiring Mr. Banks’s old governess, but the children beg her not to because they know how strict she is. The discussion is interrupted by the chimney sweep. Mrs. Banks doesn’t remember scheduling the chimney sweep for the day, and the household staff panic at the idea of having to clean up after the chimney sweep. The chimney sweep offers to take the children to the park and set off some fireworks to give the household time to prepare for him, and the children eagerly accept. The chimney sweep and the park keeper set off fireworks with the children. For some reason, though, there are no sparks from the last rocket, and they can’t figure out why. As everyone else starts heading home, the children see something odd in the sky, a strange spark. It gets larger, and the children recognize it as Mary Poppins.
The children are overjoyed to see Mary Poppins again, and she takes them home. Mrs. Banks is also glad to see Mary Poppins again even though she’s still irritated at the way that Mary Poppins comes and goes suddenly without word or warning. Mr. Banks’s mood improves as well. Mary Poppins immediately starts making herself at home and putting things in order. She measures the children, but instead of learning their heights, she learns about bad habits they’ve developed. The children ask Mary Poppins if she’s going to stay with them this time, and she says that she’ll stay “until the door opens.” Jane is upset because the nursery door opens all the time, but Mary Poppins tells her that she means “the other door” without explaining what that means.
Mr. Twigley’s Wishes – When Mrs. Banks says that she needs to find a piano tuner, Mary Poppins recommends her cousin, Fred Twigley. She takes the children to Mr. Twigley’s house to see him. Mrs. Clump, the housekeeper, tries to send them away, but Mary Poppins pushes in anyway. Mr. Twigley has locked himself in a room. When Mr. Twigley finally lets Mary Poppins into the room with the children, they can’t see him at first. When Mary Poppins asks him what’s going on, Mr. Twigley explains that he’s been “wishing” and that he’s hiding from Mrs. Clump. He makes himself visible again and explains that, at certain times and under certain conditions, he has the ability to make seven wishes that come true. It’s a tricky business because it’s easy to waste wishes on whims and random thoughts. Mrs. Clump is scheming to marry him because she wants him to use his wishes to give her what she wants, and Mr. Twigley doesn’t want to marry her. When Mrs. Clump tries to come see him, Mr. Twigley suddenly wishes that he was somewhere safe, and he finds himself on one of the music boxes that he’s been making. Then, suddenly, the children also find themselves on music boxes. Mrs. Clump brings a policeman to deal with the chaos, and Mr. Twigley also traps Mrs. Clump and the policeman on music boxes. Mrs. Clump promises that she won’t try to force Mr. Twigley to marry her anymore if he lets her go. What Mrs. Clump had wanted Mr. Twigley to wish for her was a golden palace, so he shrinks her, turns her into a mechanical woman, and puts her into a music box golden palace.
The Cat that Looked at a King – Michael has a toothache the day after his birthday, and Mary Poppins says that it’s because he’s eaten too many sweets. Michael angrily tells Mary Poppins not to “look at him like that.” Mary Poppins says that “Even a cat may look at a king,” and the children and Mary Poppins talk about what the phrase means and if it’s true. A china cat from the mantelpiece comes to life and runs off. Mary Poppins tells the astonished children that the cat has gone to see the queen.
Mary Poppins begins telling the children a story about a king who thought that he knew practically everything, but he kept wondering about all sorts of random things that he doesn’t know. He would think of all sorts of random questions and then send his subjects out to find the answers for him. He kept everyone so busy with finding out random information and writing it down that ordinary tasks would be neglected. The queen feels neglected by the king, the kingdom is poor, buildings are crumbling because they aren’t being maintained, and the castle is infested with mice. Then, a cat comes to the castle and hunts the mice. Then, it sits on the king’s desk and stares at him. The king asks him what he’s doing, and the cat says that he wants to look at him. The king says the cat can look at him, and when the cat has had a good look, the king asks the cat what he thinks. The cat doesn’t think much of the king, and the king is offended because he thinks that his great knowledge deserves more admiration than that. The cat says that it knows everything, and the king says that’s impossible because even he doesn’t know everything. The cat says that cats know everything, and the king challenges the cat to prove it. The cat agrees to the challenge but sets the condition that whichever of them wins gets to govern the kingdom. As the king asks questions, the cat replies as if they’re all riddles. The king says that he’s not being serious and is missing the point, and the the cat says that all questions must have a point and his ridiculous questions don’t have one. The king is unable to answer any of the cat’s questions, but the queen, a page, and the prime minister can, so the cat says that he has the right to rule the kingdom with the help of the people who could answer the questions.
However, the queen, the page, and the prime minister all refuse to serve the cat because they are all dedicated to the king. The king repents of his foolish pride in his supposed knowledge and says that he’s not sure of who he is really anymore. The cat tells the king to look at him, and the king sees his own reflection in the cat’s eyes. When he sees himself, the king remembers that he’s actually King Cole, a merry old soul, and that he has no need of all these useless facts he’s been obsessing about. The cat says that he will let King Cole have the kingdom back if he can be allowed to visit the queen sometimes, and they agree.
The Marble Boy – Mary Poppins takes the children to the park, and although she doesn’t want to admit it, she is irritated that an old man is sitting in her favorite seat, reading a book. When the man closes the book and gets up, a statue of a boy with a dolphin suddenly leaps down from its pedestal and begs him not to stop reading yet because he’s been reading over the man’s shoulder and wants to finish the story. The shocked man apologizes but says that he has to get home to tea. The marble boy asks him if he can have the book, and the man is reluctant to part with it because he’s been wanting to read it for years, but he finally hands it over and leaves.
Jane and Michael ask the marble boy who he is and how a statue can read and jump off its pedestal. The boy says that his name is Nelius. He is an ancient statue from Greece that was separated from the rest of his family. He is often lonely, but he likes observing people in the park and reading over their shoulders. Mary Poppins, who Nelius says he knows because she’s an old friend of his father, tells Nelius to get back on his pedestal, but Nelius begs her to let him play with Jane and Michael awhile longer. Mary Poppins agrees that he can play with the children for the afternoon, but then, he has to get back on his pedestal before he’s missed.
Nelius enjoys spending time with Jane and Michael and going to the book stall with them. However, he does attract unwanted attention. Mrs. Lark sees his dolphin and thinks that he’s cruelly removed a fish from the water, and she says that she’s going to report him. Various people worry because Nelius is running around naked, so Mary Poppins gives him her jacket to wear. At the end of the afternoon, Nelius gives Jane the book the man gave him, asking her to let him read it over her shoulder, and he gives Michael some money that the man at the book stall gave him to buy clothes. By now, people have noticed that the statue is missing, and the mayor is demanding that the park keeper explain the situation.
Peppermint Horses – Jane and Michael take their father’s walking sticks because they want to play horses with them, like they’re riding hobby horses. Mary Poppins gives the the walking sticks back to Mr. Banks and takes the children and Robertson Ay, who works for the Banks family, on errands. The children get tired of walking and start getting cross. Then, they see a woman named Miss Calico with what looks like a bunch of large candy canes and a sign that says she has horses for rent. The children are confused because they don’t see any horses. It turns out that Miss Calico’s candy canes are magical mounts that people can ride. Mary Poppins rents some of these peppermint horses for the children and Robertson Ay, and they ride them home through the sky, along with other people they know. Mary Poppins rides on her umbrella instead because she never uses walking sticks. The children want to keep their magical candy canes forever and continue to ride them, but they’re only rented. Miss Calico comes around at night and collects them.
High Tide – Mary Poppins takes the children to visit Admiral Boom and his wife because their parents want to borrow a bottle of port from them. They give them the port and a seashell for the children to enjoy. Michael is curious about what port tastes like, and Jane is fascinated by the seashell. She says that she would like to go see the sea.
That evening, while Mary Poppins is still having her half day out, the children hear a voice from the seashell telling them to dive in. They do and find themselves under the sea. The voice from the shell was a trout, and the trout introduces them to other sea creatures and takes them to a garden party that the creatures are having to celebrate high tide. Of course, Mary Poppins turns out to be the guest of honor.
Happy Ever After – It’s New Year’s Eve, and Michael wants to know what happens between the first chime at midnight and the last chime because he’s been told that the old year ends at the first chime and the new one starts at the last chime. Mary Poppins refuses to answer. She takes the children’s toys away from them, lines them up, and puts open books in front of them, also without explaining why, just telling the children to go to sleep.
The children wake up at the first chime of midnight and see their toys come to life. The toys lead the children to the park, where they see all sorts of storybook characters. (Friday from Robinson Crusoe is a rather uncomfortable character.) They explain that the period between the first chime and last chime of midnight on the New Year is called “the Crack”, and it’s the only time of year when characters can come out of their books, provided that they’re left open, and all be friends with each other, even if they’re enemies in their stories. It’s the only time when they truly have Happily Ever After. So, they all have a party to celebrate the Crack, and naturally, Mary Poppins is the guest of honor.
The next day, Michael asks Mary Poppins if they’ll ever have happily ever after themselves, and she says that depends on him.
The Other Door – Mary Poppins’s friends show up to say goodbye to her, although they try not to let the children know that Mary Poppins is about to leave. They all have a dance together, and Mary Poppins takes the baby home from the park before the other children. Jane and Michael realize that Mary Poppins is about to leave when her friends talk about “the door.” They rush upstairs to the nursery, but they don’t see her until Jane spots her in the reflection of the nursery in the window. The door in the reflection is the “other door” that she’d been talking about, and that’s the door that Mary Poppins goes through to leave. The children’s parents come into the room, and the children tell them that Mary Poppins is gone. Mrs. Banks is upset, but Mr. Banks dances because he likes the music from her goodbye party, which is still going on. The family thinks that they see a shooting star, but that’s Mary Poppins leaving. Still, they make a wish not to forget Mary Poppins.
Aria Volume 2 by Kozue Amano, 2003, English Translation 2008.
The is the second volume of the second part of a fascinating manga series that combines sci-fi, fantasy, and slice of life. The series takes place about 300 years in the future, when Mars has been terraformed and renamed Aqua (because of all the water on its surface). The human colonies on Aqua are designed to resemble old-fashioned cities on Earth (called Manhome here). The people of Aqua prefer a much slower pace of life than people on Manhome, and aspects of life on Aqua more closely resemble Earth’s past.
The series is divided into two parts. The first two books are the Aqua volumes and introduce Akari Mizunashi, the main character, a young girl who came to Aqua to learn to become a gondolier in the city of Neo Venezia (which resembles Venice). Female gondoliers, called Undines, give tours of the city, giving Akari plenty of time to admire the beauty of her new home and meet interesting people. The two Aqua books are the prequel to the main series, Aria. Aqua covers Akari’s arrival on the planet, her introduction to life on Aqua, and the beginning of her training. The main Aria series show Akari’s continuing training, her progression to becoming a full Undine, her evolving relationships with her friends, and as always, her delight in learning more about her new home and admiring its beauty.
In the second volume of the Aria series, winter comes to Neo Venezia, and Akari experiences the delights of the changing season and the celebration of a New Year as well as continuing to learn more about her new home.
The series has received some criticism for being slow and lacking danger and adventure, but that is not really the point of the series. The main purpose is to show people how to appreciate the small pleasures of life. The sci-fi and fantasy elements (the spaceships, advanced environmental controls, intelligent Martian cats, and even the occasional appearances of the legendary Cait Sith) are mainly background to the stories about the magic of friendship and simple pleasures. Each volume contains a few short stories about Akari and her friends and the little adventures they have on a daily basis and the life lessons they learn. It’s a great series for relaxing when you’re stressed out.
The stories included in this volume are:
Snow Bug
Snow Bugs (a kind of fluffy aphid) appear on Aqua at the onset of winter. They are larger than Earth aphids, and they look like cute little puff balls with eyes.
Akari makes friends with one of them when she and Alicia go out to gather some firewood, and she brings her Snow Bug friend home with her for awhile.
However, the Snow Bugs appear at this time of year because they are migrating to their winter home, and as snow comes to Neo Venezia, Akari has to accept that her little friend must move on with the other Snow Bugs as it gets colder. Fortunately, Snow Bugs have long life spans, so Akari can count on seeing her little friend again next winter.
Utopia
Akari has trouble adjusting to the winter in Neo Venezia because it’s much colder than the winters she is accustomed to on Earth. Aika suggests visiting a hot spring, which Akari has never done before because people on Earth are more technological and not so much into the beauties of nature. Alicia takes Akari and Aika to visit a very special hot spring where the baths are built into a magnificent old mansion.
The mansion has been there for years, and parts of it are now crumbling with disuse, but the hot water from the spring beneath it is now allowed to flow through the lower floors of the old mansion, giving it a mysterious atmosphere, yet it’s still a very relaxing hot bath.
The girls indulge themselves in the baths and have dinner on one of the upper floors with a grand view of the ocean. (Alicia is older than the other girls and a legal adult, so she drinks alcohol. She lets the teenage trainees try a small amount to see what it’s like, but mostly, the younger girls have iced coffee milk.)
After the younger girls have a nap, they go back in the baths, and Alicia shows them a special part of the hot springs. Akari feels a little guilty for taking the day off and indulging themselves, but Alicia says that a break now and then is good.
This is one of my favorite stories in the Aria books because I just like the idea of a mansion being turned into a giant hot spring bath, with water flowing through it. The crumbling bits look a little dangerous to me, but it’s fun to imagine what the rest of the house might be like.
A Day in the Life of the President
President Aria may be an intelligent Martian cat, but he is still a cute kitty. He does cute kitty things, like climbing into bags and boxes, worrying about Akari’s hair dryer, and fighting with a hair brush. It even says that he doesn’t like baths, although he didn’t mind going to the hot spring in the previous story.
Martian cats are supposed to be as intelligent as humans, and it’s established in the series that President Aria and other cats have their own community with Cait Sith, the king of the cats, sneaking off sometimes to meet with each other, but President Aria also does things that people would expect from ordinary pet cats, and it’s not clear why. Then again, it might not matter. The Aria stories are mostly atmospheric and about emotions, so not everything has to be completely explained.
Voices of the Stars
Akari learns about the Gnomes, a group of people who control the gravity on Aqua. Alicia tells her about the gnomes one day when she explains why the gravity on Aqua seems to be the same as on Earth even though its natural gravity would be much less strong. The Gnomes live in their own community underground and only come up to the surface from time to time to go shopping.
One day, Akari and Aika see a group of Gnomes shopping. They help one of them, who is having trouble loading his supplies into his boat. Akari offers to take him home in her gondola, and he accepts, taking her and Aika to see where the Gnomes live underground.
The Gnome, Al, is a trainee Gnome, just a few years older than Akari and Aika, although he is short and looks younger and, oddly, speaks like an older, old-fashioned man. He explains to the girls how the Gnomes control the gravity on Aqua by conducting special high-mass gravitational rocks through a network of pipes surrounding Aqua’s core. As always, the science and technology on Aqua are borderline magical.
Al shows them where he works, and the machinery that controls the sending of rocks through the pipes is like a large pipe organ, making beautiful musical sounds as it works. Al becomes a recurring character in the Aria stories.
Auguri Di Buon Anno
Akari celebrates New Year’s Eve with her friends. It’s interesting how they compare Japanese New Year’s traditions with ones from Venice, from the types of food eaten during the holiday to the way that Japanese people traditionally consider New Year’s Eve a family holiday, while Akari’s friends consider it a holiday to spend with friends in public. Alicia explains to Akari that one of the traditions of Neo Venezia is similar to a traditional Italian custom of throwing out old things on New Year’s Eve as a way of throwing off bad memories from the previous year.
Akari and Alicia join their other friends in the public square on New Year’s Eve, and Akari reflects on how much her life has changed during the last year, since she came to Aqua. During that time, she’s had many new experiences and made many new friends, and she’s grateful for everything that’s happened and all of the good memories she’s had.
Akari and her friends stay out all night and see the sun rise on the first day of the new year.
Carnival
Akari is introduced to the traditions and wonders of a Venice Carnival! Alicia explains the origins of the tradition to her.
However, Akari becomes intrigued by mysterious figure dressed as Casanova. Rumor has it that the same person has played the role of Casanova for 100 years, but no one knows who it is.
Aika and Akari try to follow a member of Casanova’s entourage to see if they can find out who Casanova really is. The two girls get separated, but Akari meets up with Casanova, and he invites her to join his entourage to parade through the crowd.
In the end, Akari does get a look at Casanova without his mask, and it’s a magical end to Carnival!
Jestress's Forgotten Books and Stories 