Stephanie Cogdill Graphic Narrative Review Title: Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms Author/Illustrator: Fumiyo Kouno

Summary: Fumiyo Kounos graphic narrative, Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms, begins in Hiroshima 1955. This fiction narrative begins with a young woman by the name of Minami Hirano who works as a clerk. Her mother, Fujimi, is a seamstress. Minami was in Hiroshima when the bombs were dropped as a teenager, and suffered radiation poisoning. Her brother, Asahi, was evacuated to Mito where he was adopted by an aunt, but she lost her father and two sisters form the bombing. Minami becomes increasingly ill and eventually dies from her radiation poisoning. The next section of the book begins with a young Nanami Ishikawa, Asahis daughter. She is in fifth grade; so many years have passed between the first section and this second one. One day she decides to skip baseball practice in order to visit her brother Nagio, who is being treated in a hospital for his asthma. Along the way she runs into her friend, Toko Tone, who lends Nanami subway fare and accompanies her to the hospital. When they arrive, they throw cherry blossom petals over Nagios bed so he can experience the spring he is missing outside. Nanami is then scolded by her grandmother (who is Asahis adoptive mother in Mito) for visiting Nagio when she should not. Later that summer, their grandmother passes away and they move closer to Nagios hospital. The result of this is that Nanami loses touch with her friend Toko. The final section of the book takes place in the year 2005. Nanami is now working as an office lady, and has moved in with her recently retired father. She is worried that her father is becoming senile because he often leaves the house for days and upon returning

simply says that he has been on a walk. Her brother visits one night and tells Nanami that he has seen her old friend Toko working as a nurse at the hospital he is interning at. One evening when Nanamis father leaves for one of his walks, she decides to follow him to see where he goes. Along the way, she runs into Toko. The two of them follow Asahi onto an overnight bus to Hiroshima. The following day, she follows him as he visits numerous people in the city. During this, Toko leaves Nanami in order to visit the Peace Park. The story then goes into a flashback where Asahi remembers meeting a young Kyoka Ota, a young girl whom his mother had hired to help around the house after his sister Minami had passed away. She was a bit slow, and everyone claimed that is was due to the bomb. Back in the present moment, Toko meets back up with Nanami and is sick from what she has seen at the Peace Park. Nanami finds them a motel to stay in and takes care of her. In another flashback, Asahi proposes to a grown Kyoka, against his mothers wishes. On the way back to Tokyo, Asahi tells Nanami that he went to Hiroshima for the fiftieth anniversary of the death of his longest living sister. He then tells Nanami that she reminds him of Minami. Throughout the narrative, simple yet effective graphics are used in order to help convey meaning to the simple dialogue. While the pictures are in black and white, they are still able to effectively communicate to the reader without fully distracting them from the story. The graphics add a nice touch of detail to the narrative, and many of the graphics offer calming graphics of the surrounding scenery to convey what the country still has to offer years afterwards. Strengths: This narrative had many strong points. One of the best things it has going for itself is its storyline. The storyline offers a unique and somewhat personal outlook on what life was like in Japan after the bombings of Hiroshima. This outlook is friendly and inviting and helps to draw in the reader to the story that it has to tell. Another great factor about this narrative is its ability to use and tell history without being overly grotesque. There are many parts of this point in history that might be difficult for students at the middle school level to comprehend or even cope with, and this narrative does an excellent job of skimming over those parts to make it a little easier to digest. It is important to keep in what reading level students are at in middle school. This narrative is easy to read without being overly simplified though. It does not have any unfamiliar vocabulary in it, and if some of the words were to be unfamiliar, the graphics offer great guidance for the deciphering what is said in the dialogue. Along with the vocabulary, it also offers other familiar items that students will recognize, such as baseball, family situations, and more. Lastly, the narrative has great graphics that are intriguing to look at on their own time outside of using them with the dialogue. They have great detail and do not take much effort to make sense of in the work. Weaknesses: While the narrative has some great strengths, it has its shares of weaknesses as well. One of the main issues with the narrative was that it was difficult at times to follow. There is no real timeline given in the narrative, so the readers essentially have to make up their

own unless otherwise provided with one. This makes it hard to interpret one of the key factors of the narrative, which is how time itself affected the lives of those in Japan after the bombings. Another difficult aspect of the book was the relationship amongst characters. They are not portrayed directly, and take some critical reading and note taking in order to ensure that correct relationships are identified. Finally, while the graphics were in great detail, they would probably be more meaningful to students if they were in color so that the students could better visualize the story on their own. Much like many students today have no interest in black and white TV shows, they will more than likely show little enthusiasm to black and white pictures that they were probably expecting to be in color. Content Use: This graphic narrative would be a great resource to use in both the Language Arts and Social Studies settings. With it being a graphic narrative though, it probably lends the most help to the Language Arts setting. The narrative works great with the new common core standards. One aspect that teachers can use with this particular narrative is having students Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision. This falls under the Key Ideas and Concepts for middle school students, and in this particular case, 8th grade students. When using this text as part of a unit, it also helps students Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style. This particular standard is listed under the Craft and Structure section. In reference to the last standard listed, this graphic narrative would work great when students read The Diary of Anne Frank. Students would be able to compare and contrast the way the two works are written, and also the insight that they provide for two very different parts of World War II. This being said, the narrative would be useful for students learning about World War II in their Social Studies class. It would offer a personal look at how the bombings affected the citizens of Japan, even though it is a work of fiction, its premise lies in the history books. Final Analysis: This graphic narrative is great insight on how the bombings affected everyone in Japan and is presented in way that appeals to a younger audience. Students will enjoy reading something with pictures for a change, and since this particular one is in written in the Manga format, it provides an even more interesting way to read about a historical event. Students will probably feel proud that they are able to understand something that relies heavily on both words and pictures to convey meaning, as well as being able to read something backwards. It is the idea of novelty that will probably draw them in the most, but most students enjoy learning about major events in history anyways. Teachers everywhere should definitely try to use this graphic narrative in their classroom if at all possible. Since it is not very long, it is a great read between longer works that students are probably having to read, and is easy for students to read and get through at home which allows lots of class time to discuss what has happened. With the historical

connotations that the narrative offers, it is definitely better suited for school use than to be read for pleasure. Since it written based on a historical event, students will probably see it as more of an educational tool anyways. While this is a great graphic narrative to use in the classroom, teachers should be advised to go ahead and read the narrative several times through themselves so that they have a coherent understanding of the timeline of events and can offer explanations of graphics to the students when needed.