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ENTRY TYPE: new
WORK TITLE: Downpour
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Tokyo
STATE:
COUNTRY: Japan
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RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Osaka, Japan; married Koshiro Hata (an illustrator and children’s songwriter).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Author of children’s books.
WRITINGS
Author of multiple picture books in Japanese.
SIDELIGHTS
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Horn Book, May-June, 2025, Jessica Tackett Macdonald, review of Downpour: Splish! Splash! Ker-Splash!, p. 68.
Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2025, review of Downpour.
ONLINE
Asian Review of Books, https://asianreviewofbooks.com/ (March 3, 2025), Melanie Ho, review of Downpour.
Koshiro Hata and Yuko Ohnari are a husband-and-wife creative team behind several picture books published in Japan. Hata also works as a manga artist and writes essays and children’s songs. They were both born in Osaka but now live in Tokyo. Emily Balistieri is an award-winning translator of children’s books living and working in Tokyo, Japan.
* Downpour: Splish! Splash! Ker-splash!
by Yuko Ohnari and Koshiro Hata; illus. by the authors; trans. from Japanese by Emily Balistrieri
Preschool Red Comet 40 pp. 3/25 9781636551 142 $18.99
Vivid illustrations and enthusiastic prose evoke the surprise and awe of a summer rainstorm in this Japanese import. A child narrator peers out the front door to scowl at the weather; the neighborhood trees and buildings are flat and saturated, with wavy edges implying heat radiating off the "hot, hot!" pavement. It's too hot to have much fun, until dark clouds roll in, rain falls, and the child is enchanted by the sights, sounds, and sensations of the sudden deluge. As the storm gathers force, the artistic style softens, the rain bringing more shading and loose texture to the double-page spreads. The rain's gentle "Plip! Plip! Plip!" builds into a frantic percussion, the onomatopoeic sounds spelled out in bright yellow text against the darkening sky. The engaging art is punctuated by our narrator's canny, lyrical observations--"My umbrella's a drum"; "The rain is singing!"; "Raindrops ... run down my cheeks, my eyelids, and past my ears. A slide!" Shifts in visual perspective--such as an ultraclose--up view of raindrops bouncing off the ground that give way to a peek under the child's yellow umbrella from below-invite viewers to share in the delight that is so clear in the narrator's face. A joyful and refreshing multisensory experience.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Source Citation
Source Citation
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Macdonald, Jessica Tackett. "Downpour: Splish! Splash! Ker-splash!" The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 101, no. 3, May-June 2025, p. 68. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A839824600/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=14a120f2. Accessed 7 June 2025.
Ohnari, Yuko DOWNPOUR Red Comet Press (Children's None) $18.99 3, 4 ISBN: 9781636551142
An onomatopoeic account of the joys of a sudden summer rain.
The weather is "hot, hot," and though the book's East Asian-presenting protagonist is initially perturbed by the downpour, the little one soon comes to appreciate it. The child notices new odors--the smell of the sky and of the ground--and sounds as droplets splatter against a yellow umbrella: "The rain is singing!" The youngster abandons the umbrella, gleefully accepting the rain's invitation ("Let's play!"), leaping and splashing barefoot in puddles. Translated from Japanese, the text is filled with a grand variety of made-up sounds, which would be great fun to read aloud, with a little practice: "KER-BABABA. ZUBABABABA. PLIP-PLOONK. KER-PLUNK. PLOOPOOPOOPOOPOOP." Depicting an idyllic suburban setting and making use of dramatic angles, Hata's illustrations would show well to a group. His portrayal of rain reveals close attention to detail; in some scenes, long gray lines fall from the sky, while in others, we're treated to fat, shimmering droplets. The child's enjoyment is clear through words, action, and body language, even as the little one stands huddled against the escalating downpour. "Sopping wet feels good." Eventually the weather clears up, but it's clear that the rain is welcome anytime: The book ends on a whimsical note, with the child seated in a bathtub, holding the yellow umbrella up against a shower of cascading water.
A delightful, sensory-rich appreciation of a childhood pleasure.(Picture book. 3-6)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Ohnari, Yuko: DOWNPOUR." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Jan. 2025. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A821608558/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=4a0151c8. Accessed 7 June 2025.