Pot-San's Tabletop Tales by Satoshi Kitamura
| Pot-San's Tabletop Tales by Satoshi Kitamura | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Ruth Ng
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| Summary: As bizarre as so many brilliant Japanese things are, but I felt something was lacking a little with these crazy stories! A fun distraction but not one for the favourites pile in our house. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Maybe |
| Pages: 32 | Date: April 2012 |
| Publisher: Andersen | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1849393782 | |
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We love all things Japanese in our house having visited the country a few times and come home laden with books and movies and general cute knick-knacks galore! So I was excited to read this story to my little girl all about Pot-san, a teapot, and his other tabletop friends who have lots of adventures together!
I think that it sometimes helps to be a little bit silly when enjoying Japanese stories. You have to suspend disbelief and just go with the flow of a talking, walking teapot and allow yourself to believe all the tabletop items are animate. There are four stories in the book, all very short, just a few pages long, and they look at the advent of a new teacup on the table, the problem of a flying saucer, a magical flying tea tray and finally Miss Salt's story.
As each story is so very short it would be an easy way to get a little one into bed a bit quicker if you promise 'just one chapter', however I felt it did break up the book somewhat so that none of the stories were terribly satisfying. I read them aloud with my five year old and although she was quite happy listening at the time she hasn't requested any of them again and seemed non-plussed when the book was over.
The illustrations are fun, but they weren't quite as stylish as I'd expected. They're fun but felt almost a little messy at times. Little ones will probably just enjoy the funny faces on all the different table top items, but I had hoped for more enjoyment for myself really as the reader and perhaps some of the cleaner, more stylised and often very cute artwork you find in Japanese Manga.
I think it would probably be best to take a look at this story in your local library, to get a feel for it, and see how your child reacts. You may find some little ones really enjoy all these magical kitchen items whilst others aren't particularly enthralled. As much as we wanted to like this one I'm afraid it hasn't gone onto our favourites pile.
For kitchen related fun you can't go wrong with What's In The Witch's Kitchen? by Nick Sharratt
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You can read more book reviews or buy Pot-San's Tabletop Tales by Satoshi Kitamura at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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