Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein, Illustrated by Ed Young
I just got back from the Columbus Area Writing Project’s Retreat at Kenyon College. Since participating in CAWP two years ago, I always look forward to returning for the retreat to do some writing and reading just for me. One of the things I most look forward to is my visit to the college bookstore and once again, I wasn’t disappointed. Because, once again, I went along with Robin, one of the co-directors of CAWP who owns more books than I do! She put this gem in my hand and I knew right away that I had to have it. Where do I begin with Wabi Sabi? It’s a beautiful concoction of prose, poetry, and collage. Wabi Sabi is a cat who lives in Kyoto Japan and begins to wonder what her name means after friends from another country inquire. Her master answers, “That’s hard to explain.” And so, Wabi Sabi goes on a quest to discover the meaning of her name. In the Japanese culture, Wabi Sabi means finding beauty in simplicity, the imperfect, and the ordinary. Through her visits with other animals, each of who give her a peek into the meaning of her name, she discovers that she is truly pleased with the name her master gave her. The reader holds the book vertically to view full page spreads of striking collages, which look real enough to touch. In fact, my friend put her hand on one of the pages to see if she could feel the picture. Haiku, written in English and Japanese, along with a sparse text are interwoven on each page. The author even translates the Haiku written by the great Japanese poets, Bosho and Shiki, at the end of the book.
I will use this beautiful book in a variety of ways with my students. My first graders will love the beautiful illustrations and we will talk about all the things Wabi Sabi encounters in her travels. I will even ask my students at the beginning of the year to find out what their names mean and how their parents picked their names. It will be great for community building. I will also use this book to prompt my fourth and fifth grade writing project students to write about their own names. How do they feel about their names? How did they get their names? How does their name affect them? I will also use it as a mentor text to study haiku and ways to use collage to support the meaning of your text.
I can’t wait to show this book to my new students next year. I know that all of them will love it!
