Kenta and the Big Wave

PreS-Gr 1—Inspired by an actual news story after Japan's record-breaking 2011 tsunami, this simple story recounts a boy's loss when a wave strikes his small coastal village. Hearing the warning siren, Kenta flees up the hill to the school with the other village residents, but he trips and his prized soccer ball rolls away into the giant wave. After the tsunami's retreat, Kenta's family discovers that they have lost everything and must live in the school gym while they rebuild. Meanwhile, Kenta's soccer ball is "plunged and pulled, tossed and tumbled" across the ocean, where it washes up on a beach and is discovered by an American boy. Enlisting the help of a librarian to translate the unfamiliar Japanese characters on it and trace its owner, the child mails the ball back to Kenta, who happily receives it. Spare language and full-color watercolor illustrations that flesh out the narrative make this a multilayered introduction to Japan, the concept of a tsunami, and the cross-cultural commonality of soccer for children. Pair this title with Kimiko Kajikawa and Ed Young's Tsunami! (Philomel, 2009) or David Wiesner's Flotsam (Clarion, 2006) to drive home the magnitude of a tsunami and ocean waves. A brief author's note about these powerful forces of nature is appended.—Kathleen Finn, St. Francis Xavier School, Winooski, VT