How My Parents Learned to Eat

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book for multicultural classrooms
Review: "How My Parents Learned To Eat" presents Japanese and American cultures in a story. The readers read about the cultural values through a little girl's first person narrative. From her telling, the readers will understand Japanese customs in its cultural context, such as bowing for greeting and drinking soup from the bowl. These concepts may be foreign or even funny to Americans who are unfamiliar Japanese culture. The author, however, successfully weave elements from both Ameriacn and Japanese cultures into the story. The respect for both Japanese and American cultures is also evident in the book. Not only did the mother (Japanese) want to learn the Western way of eating, but the father (American) is also willingly to learn the Japanese way of eating. So, in the end of the story, the little girl says again, "That's why at our house some days we eat with chopsticks and some days we eat with knives and forks" (p. 32).

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful message with no preaching
Review: A bi-racial child tells the story of how her Japanese mother and American father met, fell in love, struggled to understand each other's ways, and finally married. It's a wonderful portrait of diversity, showing children that superficial differences in cultures don't really mean much and shouldn't get in the way of people appreciating each other. But just as important to me is the fact that this is one of the few children's books I know of that shows adults falling in love in a realistic way - no fairy tale, love at first sight kind of thing, but a picture of love growing as two people learn more about each other. Those two qualities - its appreciation of cultural diversity and its honest portrait of love - make it a little gem.

Rating:
Summary: Oh, the things we do for love!
Review: A lttle girl tells the story of her Mom and Dad's first meetings, and the fun that ensued when they both tried to please the other by learning how to be a little bit alike. Secure in her heritage, one that bridges two worlds, she is the perfect spokesman for appreciating diversity, and how even our differences can bring us together, without hitting us over the head by coming right out and SAYING it! Cute, pert, something you can enjoy with your children!

Rating:
Summary: I thought it would focus more on the biracial child
Review: Don't mistake me, this is a great book if you want to learn about cultural differences. However, I feel that it is a bit outdated. I lived in Japan for 18 years -it was a bit insulting how the book suggested that Japanese people didn't know how to eat with forks and knives. Adding to that, I was under the impression that this book would focus more on the biracial child. It was a dissapointment because it didn't.

Rating:
Summary: How My Parents Learned to Eat
Review: How My Parents Learned to Eat is a tremedous book for young readers. It has the spoof, romance, and differences in cultures that many will enjoy, young and old. Involving a young Japanese schoolgirl and an American soldier in Japan, How My Parents Learned to Eat, is a story that involves the idea of resolving differences, and how much a single try can count.

Rating:
Summary: Wise and muted, simple and understanding
Review: The author of this Reading Rainbow Selection is wise; she knows how eating styles and habits can separate people and be inhibiting. The narrator recalls how her parents met: a white American sailor and a Japanese woman from the port city of Yokohama. The girl tells the reader that some days, in her house, they eat with chopsticks, and on some days with knives and forks. In the clear, muted watercolors, the reader finds her eating with chopsticks with a rice cooker on the first page, and eating with a knife and fork with a toaster on the last. Somewhat like O. Henry's story, The gift of the Magi, the sailor is too embarrassed to eat with Aiko, since he cant use chopsticks. And Aiko is frightened to eat with John, for she has never used a fork. But the port call is ending in a few weeks, so both rush to learn the other's ways, and an eating date is finally arranged. Love conquers all.

Rating:
Summary: Wise and muted, simple and understanding
Review: The author of this Reading Rainbow Selection is wise; she knows how eating styles and habits can separate people and be inhibiting. The narrator recalls how her parents met: a white American sailor and a Japanese woman from the port city of Yokohama. The girl tells the reader that some days, in her house, they eat with chopsticks, and on some days with knives and forks. In the clear, muted watercolors, the reader finds her eating with chopsticks with a rice cooker on the first page, and eating with a knife and fork with a toaster on the last. Somewhat like O. Henry's story, The gift of the Magi, the sailor is too embarrassed to eat with Aiko, since he cant use chopsticks. And Aiko is frightened to eat with John, for she has never used a fork. But the port call is ending in a few weeks, so both rush to learn the other's ways, and an eating date is finally arranged. Love conquers all.

Rating:
Summary: My daughter loves this book.
Review: The book is very obviously about the parents' relationship - but from their child's perspective.

It teaches respect for other cultures by showing two people who care about one another enough to overlook their differences.

The narrator (the daughter) is very matter-of-fact about her cultural mix - cheerfully noting that some days they eat with knives and forks and some days with chopsticks.

My 6-year-old daughter loves it so much that she demanded to be taught to use chopsticks so we have an "Asian dinner night" once per week.

Rating:
Summary: THE TABLE OF BROTHERHOOD OR THE FAMILY TABLE
Review: This story is narrated by a bright little girl who describes how her parents met and adapted to one another's cultures. A bright, beautiful child, the girl is blond like her American father and has beautiful Asian features she inherited from her Japanese mother. She tells the story of how they came to sit at the family table.

An American sailor meets a woman in Japan and is instantly smitten. Their attraction is mutual; however each worries about being able to adapt to the other's culture. The sailor learns to eat with chopsticks and the woman in turn learns to eat with a knife, fork and spoon. She approaches her grandfather, a kind, scholarly man who teaches her the British way of handling western utensils. Still she worries because her finace is American.

They meet again; their transcultural love shows they really have more common grounds than differences. Each is moved by the other's willingness to learn the other's culture and the results are heartwarming indeed.

Their daughter joins them and all readers at the Table of Brotherhood which once again proves that people really have more in common than they do differences.

This is such a wonderful book. I love it! I think it belongs in all homes and classrooms because it is an excellent example of cultural harmony and pride.

Rating:
Summary: Literary and culinary masterpeice...
Review: We thoroughly enjoyed this captivating tale of 2 young people over coming obstacles and finding true love. Honestly we couldn't put down this compelling page turner. Were we the only ones that were scared that John and Aiko wouldn't be together in the end? Thank you Ina Friedman for showing us that a good book can still be written.