Also, there are no mean girls; no antagonists in sight. How refreshing!
The charming, funny and cute romance doesn't hurt it, either. Neither does the OTT hilarious and cute female friendship theme.
Final Score: 5/5
Original Review:
Holy mochi mochi.
'I Love You So Mochi' is, without a doubt, one of the cutest books I've ever read. If a book could be a yogurt dessert filled with candy and compressed into one giant actual mochi that you could just bounce on like jelly and have a swim inside it, that wouldn't even come close to the sweet, gorgeous, digestible and adorable YUM that is 'I Love You So Mochi'.
I could hug and squeeze it all day.
'I Love You So Mochi' is about the Japanese American teen Kimi Nakamura, as she tries to navigate what her purpose in life is and where her passion lies, defying the expectations of others, just like any teenager getting close to college age. Her artist mother, who defied her own parents' expectations and sacrificed everything for her passion, for living in the States, and for Kimi, thought that her daughter would be a painter like her. But as it turns out, that is not Kimi's passion. This revelation is sudden, and it practically breaks Kimi's mother's heart. So, at a surprise letter of invitation from her maternal grandparents to stay with them in Japan, Kyoto for spring break, Kimi takes the opportunity, partly to find out more about herself and receive inspiration, and partly to get away from her mum's heartbroken eyes for a while.
So much beauty and culture she finds in Kyoto too! And a cute boy in a big mochi costume in front of a mochi stand.
Kimi loves fashion and designing and making clothes - she loves colourful and "clashing" tones and styles - but that has always merely been a hobby, not a career choice. But it is clearly her passion, and in Japan, with guidance from her mochi boy, Akira, and from her grandparents who are warming up to her, she will come to embrace all the colours and textures that surround her every day. So mochi inspiration will move her to tears; move her deep in her soul.
Along her artistic journey, Kimi will try to make it up to her mum by emailing her about her "Kimi Originals", the evolution of her clothing designs (not the least of which is a candy wrapper dress made for her friend Bex).
It is Kimi's Super Important Quest of Self-Discovery. And it is fabulous. And delicious.
This book does not sell on cuteness alone. It is a "be yourself" and "follow your dreams and passions" kind of story without being patronizing, shallow and unrealistic, yet it's still positive and uplifting. It shows how important art is. It is for all creative types - I wish I had read something like it when I was younger.
It is also a Japan and Kyoto tourist guide. I had been to Japan recently, and had even been to some of the sites that Kimi and Akira go to. It brought back beautiful memories and insights, such as the shrines, like Fushimi Inari Taisha, and oh, the deer in Nara! And the cats! I want to go back to Japan more than ever! To try new things and further appreciate it. The couple of mochi lovers even go to a pug cafe! It is one of the cutest things I've ever read about.
Japan is truly is one of the most fascinating and breathtaking places in the world; no surprises that Kimi falls in love with it.
Kimi as a main character is as sweet, adorable and wide-eyed as her story. She's not the brightest goldfish in the koi pond, and indeed it is a little annoying that she hasn't figured out her passion for fashion sooner (though to be fair she's had her mother's painting expectations pressured on her), but when her passion shines, she shines. She's funny, naïve and lovely, and does grow braver and surer of herself in her time in Japan. Not content with only fantasising that something might happen to her - she has to go out there and do it. How I related to her.
Kimi discovers what is inside herself, as well as her family's history.
At least it is never said that Kimi is supposed to be super smart; one thing worse than an idiot protagonist is an idiot protagonist who we keep getting told is really clever and a prodigy, when they have the common sense of a weed given to a pheasant. This is sadly all-too common in YA.
Eccentric tastes Kimi also has two equally exuberant besties, Atsuko and Bex (wow, this is two books I read in a row with a character named Bex, who is the protag in 'Going Off Script'). Atsuko is an advice columnist versed in the ways of luuurve and firing squads (partly joking... one hopes), and Bex is loud and proud; a dark-skinned queer girl who's into kittens and unicorns and hyperbole. It is Kimi's candy wrapper dress that gets Bex a girlfriend, Shelby. The girls' Skype conversations - between Kimi in Japan and Atsuko and Bex in America - are some of my favourite parts in the book. They're such wonderful and supportive friends and their dialogue is hilarious.
I cared more about the friendship love than I did the romantic love. Akira is a good guy - capricious, super helpful, cheeky, nice, slightly snarky, and torn between his dream of becoming a doctor and supporting his family by working at his uncle's mochi stand. The handsome piece of mochi is huggable. He can be adorably romantic when he wants to. Still, I find the girl friends relationship in Kimi's life to be more interesting, that's all. Though the romance grew on me; inevitable since Kimi spends the majority of the book hanging out with Akira, in a possibly short-lived relationship as she is in Japan for only two weeks.
Well, their teenage love starts because of a tanuki, not just mochi. That's something.
I love the complicated yet assuredly loving relationship Kimi has with her mother. Ms. Nakamura is not exactly a typical Asian Tiger Mother (one of the reasons why I couldn't get past the first chapter of 'American Panda' is because the mother there is so horrible it hurts). As a Japanese artist living in the US, and whose work is being set up for a gallery, no doubt Ms. Nakamura is under a lot of pressure and high expectations of her own, and constant scrutiny. She has a strained, now almost-nonexistent connection with her parents in Kyoto, who had wanted her to take over the family farm.
Kimi's grandparents, who she had never met before, grow to love having her around. The task is harder for her grandmother (her grandfather, her Ojiisan, is a sweetheart from the start). Obaasan is distant - Kimi reminds her of her overseas daughter - but it is soon discovered that she too loves sewing and designing clothes, and the two begin bonding and shopping together. The granddaughter could help in bridging the estrangement between her grandparents and her mother. Obaasan and Ojiisan also share a sweet history together, and they are a lovely couple, mirroring Kimi and Akira, and Kimi's star-crossed parents (but they're not tragic, they still adore each other).
Love is represented in all of its forms in 'I Love You So Mochi'.
Another great appreciation is the mention of the Japanese American interment camps in World War II, in one of Kimi's emails to her mother, when talking about the death of her paternal grandmother. Kimi's paternal great-grandparents had gone through the internment, and it is remarked as the travesty that it is; one that should not be repeated. For an otherwise lighthearted YA book, 'I Love You So Mochi' doesn't ignore elements of racism and classism that Asian people face in America, and even the tenseness and barriers between the Japanese and Japanese Americans.
Props for restraint in mentioning anime only once!
Extra cute factoid: Kimi's mum has a childhood stuffed piggy called Meiko.
Overall, if 'I Love You So Mochi' doesn't make you want to go to Japan, and eat mochi, noodles and ramen, and look up Japanese dresses online - or any pretty dresses - then you might not be human. Every "Kimi Original" is a delight: I wish for illustrations! Plus recipes for different kinds of mochi.
Beautiful, hilarious, educational, inspiring, hopeful, and so, SO cute, the book warms my heart, fires my brain, and sweetens my mouth.
You gotta try this mochi.
Final Score: 5/5
P.S. Oh, Happy 550th Review for me, too! Perfect for such a passionate book!
The charming, funny and cute romance doesn't hurt it, either. Neither does the OTT hilarious and cute female friendship theme.
Final Score: 5/5
Original Review:
Holy mochi mochi.
'I Love You So Mochi' is, without a doubt, one of the cutest books I've ever read. If a book could be a yogurt dessert filled with candy and compressed into one giant actual mochi that you could just bounce on like jelly and have a swim inside it, that wouldn't even come close to the sweet, gorgeous, digestible and adorable YUM that is 'I Love You So Mochi'.
I could hug and squeeze it all day.
'I Love You So Mochi' is about the Japanese American teen Kimi Nakamura, as she tries to navigate what her purpose in life is and where her passion lies, defying the expectations of others, just like any teenager getting close to college age. Her artist mother, who defied her own parents' expectations and sacrificed everything for her passion, for living in the States, and for Kimi, thought that her daughter would be a painter like her. But as it turns out, that is not Kimi's passion. This revelation is sudden, and it practically breaks Kimi's mother's heart. So, at a surprise letter of invitation from her maternal grandparents to stay with them in Japan, Kyoto for spring break, Kimi takes the opportunity, partly to find out more about herself and receive inspiration, and partly to get away from her mum's heartbroken eyes for a while.
So much beauty and culture she finds in Kyoto too! And a cute boy in a big mochi costume in front of a mochi stand.
Kimi loves fashion and designing and making clothes - she loves colourful and "clashing" tones and styles - but that has always merely been a hobby, not a career choice. But it is clearly her passion, and in Japan, with guidance from her mochi boy, Akira, and from her grandparents who are warming up to her, she will come to embrace all the colours and textures that surround her every day. So mochi inspiration will move her to tears; move her deep in her soul.
Along her artistic journey, Kimi will try to make it up to her mum by emailing her about her "Kimi Originals", the evolution of her clothing designs (not the least of which is a candy wrapper dress made for her friend Bex).
It is Kimi's Super Important Quest of Self-Discovery. And it is fabulous. And delicious.
This book does not sell on cuteness alone. It is a "be yourself" and "follow your dreams and passions" kind of story without being patronizing, shallow and unrealistic, yet it's still positive and uplifting. It shows how important art is. It is for all creative types - I wish I had read something like it when I was younger.
It is also a Japan and Kyoto tourist guide. I had been to Japan recently, and had even been to some of the sites that Kimi and Akira go to. It brought back beautiful memories and insights, such as the shrines, like Fushimi Inari Taisha, and oh, the deer in Nara! And the cats! I want to go back to Japan more than ever! To try new things and further appreciate it. The couple of mochi lovers even go to a pug cafe! It is one of the cutest things I've ever read about.
Japan is truly is one of the most fascinating and breathtaking places in the world; no surprises that Kimi falls in love with it.
Kimi as a main character is as sweet, adorable and wide-eyed as her story. She's not the brightest goldfish in the koi pond, and indeed it is a little annoying that she hasn't figured out her passion for fashion sooner (though to be fair she's had her mother's painting expectations pressured on her), but when her passion shines, she shines. She's funny, naïve and lovely, and does grow braver and surer of herself in her time in Japan. Not content with only fantasising that something might happen to her - she has to go out there and do it. How I related to her.
Kimi discovers what is inside herself, as well as her family's history.
At least it is never said that Kimi is supposed to be super smart; one thing worse than an idiot protagonist is an idiot protagonist who we keep getting told is really clever and a prodigy, when they have the common sense of a weed given to a pheasant. This is sadly all-too common in YA.
Eccentric tastes Kimi also has two equally exuberant besties, Atsuko and Bex (wow, this is two books I read in a row with a character named Bex, who is the protag in 'Going Off Script'). Atsuko is an advice columnist versed in the ways of luuurve and firing squads (partly joking... one hopes), and Bex is loud and proud; a dark-skinned queer girl who's into kittens and unicorns and hyperbole. It is Kimi's candy wrapper dress that gets Bex a girlfriend, Shelby. The girls' Skype conversations - between Kimi in Japan and Atsuko and Bex in America - are some of my favourite parts in the book. They're such wonderful and supportive friends and their dialogue is hilarious.
I cared more about the friendship love than I did the romantic love. Akira is a good guy - capricious, super helpful, cheeky, nice, slightly snarky, and torn between his dream of becoming a doctor and supporting his family by working at his uncle's mochi stand. The handsome piece of mochi is huggable. He can be adorably romantic when he wants to. Still, I find the girl friends relationship in Kimi's life to be more interesting, that's all. Though the romance grew on me; inevitable since Kimi spends the majority of the book hanging out with Akira, in a possibly short-lived relationship as she is in Japan for only two weeks.
Well, their teenage love starts because of a tanuki, not just mochi. That's something.
I love the complicated yet assuredly loving relationship Kimi has with her mother. Ms. Nakamura is not exactly a typical Asian Tiger Mother (one of the reasons why I couldn't get past the first chapter of 'American Panda' is because the mother there is so horrible it hurts). As a Japanese artist living in the US, and whose work is being set up for a gallery, no doubt Ms. Nakamura is under a lot of pressure and high expectations of her own, and constant scrutiny. She has a strained, now almost-nonexistent connection with her parents in Kyoto, who had wanted her to take over the family farm.
Kimi's grandparents, who she had never met before, grow to love having her around. The task is harder for her grandmother (her grandfather, her Ojiisan, is a sweetheart from the start). Obaasan is distant - Kimi reminds her of her overseas daughter - but it is soon discovered that she too loves sewing and designing clothes, and the two begin bonding and shopping together. The granddaughter could help in bridging the estrangement between her grandparents and her mother. Obaasan and Ojiisan also share a sweet history together, and they are a lovely couple, mirroring Kimi and Akira, and Kimi's star-crossed parents (but they're not tragic, they still adore each other).
Love is represented in all of its forms in 'I Love You So Mochi'.
Another great appreciation is the mention of the Japanese American interment camps in World War II, in one of Kimi's emails to her mother, when talking about the death of her paternal grandmother. Kimi's paternal great-grandparents had gone through the internment, and it is remarked as the travesty that it is; one that should not be repeated. For an otherwise lighthearted YA book, 'I Love You So Mochi' doesn't ignore elements of racism and classism that Asian people face in America, and even the tenseness and barriers between the Japanese and Japanese Americans.
Props for restraint in mentioning anime only once!
Extra cute factoid: Kimi's mum has a childhood stuffed piggy called Meiko.
Overall, if 'I Love You So Mochi' doesn't make you want to go to Japan, and eat mochi, noodles and ramen, and look up Japanese dresses online - or any pretty dresses - then you might not be human. Every "Kimi Original" is a delight: I wish for illustrations! Plus recipes for different kinds of mochi.
Beautiful, hilarious, educational, inspiring, hopeful, and so, SO cute, the book warms my heart, fires my brain, and sweetens my mouth.
You gotta try this mochi.
Final Score: 5/5
P.S. Oh, Happy 550th Review for me, too! Perfect for such a passionate book!
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