Storybook parade at David and Missy's school

Yesterday, David and Missy participated in a Storybook parade which has become a tradition this time of the year in their school for the pre-K to 5th grade students at Somerset Academy. About a month ago, they were given an assignment to do a book report and today they went to school as a character in the book they have chosen. They were given kimonos that their Lola Lita made for them and we decided to let them wear that. My Mom made it really look authentic aside from the point that she bought the fabric in Japan when she was there last year. No need to buy new costumes.

I just bought them 'tabi' socks (split toe) to make it more authentic from an Ebay seller from Hong Kong. I was planning to get Missy an authentic 'geta' or japanese wooden clogs but I can't find one her size and besides they're too expensive. It would kind of defeat the purpose of saving money by not buying new costumes for them, besides they don't go trick or treating anyway.

The challenge was finding the appropriate books for them and after much research and some changes, we got 'Suki's Kimono' for Missy and 'Yoshi's Feast' for David which turned out to be really wonderful books for kids but grown-ups would really appreciate the stories too and the lessons they convey.

'Suki's Kimono' is about a girl who's about to attend her first day in school and she wanted to wear the blue kimono that her grandma gave her but her two older sisters were not too happy about it since it's not cool. Nevertheless, Suki wore her kimono with a matching red 'geta' and a paper parasol to school amidst the teasing and laughter and snide remarks about her attire but after the usual first day introductions where Suki told the story about her kimono, the festival she attended with her 'obachan' and the dance that she performed for her class, she won the class over and she became better than 'cool'. It is really a nice story and the book was laden with watercolor pictures of the events that transpired.

David's 'Yoshi's Feast' is about a fanmaker named Yoshi who loved to eat broiled eels but would never pay for it. He is what we call in Filipino 'makunat' and he has a neighbor named Sabu who is a cook and he makes broiled eels in his stall every day to sell to customers but his location was kind of nondescript and he was not really making money. Since Yoshi never buys the broiled eels while he wishes that his neighbor Sabu should just give him some for free, he would just smell broiled eels for breakfast, lunch and dinner and eat his boiled rice with it thinking that that is already a good meal. Sabu was not happy about it and decided to send Yoshi a bill for smelling his broiled eels for free. Yoshi decided to dance and shake his money box in front of Sabu and declared he has already paid Sabu when Sabu listened to the sound of his money box. Sabu decided to stop cooking broiled eels and instead cooked Sammu which is the stinkiest fish in the whole Japan. Yoshi was instead smelling Sammu for breakfast, lunch and dinner and he's not enjoying the smell while eating his boiled rice so he went to Sabu and pleaded with him to cook broiled eels again and he will do something to help him with his business. Sabu started cooking the broiled eels and Yoshi started performing in front of his stall, he would dance and shake his money box and soon people come over to watch him and buy broiled eels from Sabu which of course made Sabu very happy. Soon Sabu began sharing broiled eels with Yoshi for dinner every day and that became the start of their friendship. Yoshi even realized that smelling broiled eels is nowhere as good as eating the real thing. The story conveys the importance of give and take in business and in life. It also showed the reality of you get what you pay for.

The kids also enjoyed reading the books and that was the best thing after all. Here are some photos of David and Missy in their 'kimonos'.

Ms. Downey -David's teacher
Ms. Hicks - Missy's teacher