Yotsuba&!, Vol. 1 [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

My 9th-grade daughter is a manga fanatic. One day, she came home after school, thrust this book into my hands, and said, "Mom, here's your assignment. Read this. You'll love it!"

It took about a week before I made the time to read it. But once I started reading Yotsuba, I couldn't put it down! I pushed my work aside and read it all the way through. The book is funny, warm, and lighthearted, and I felt great when I was done reading. The main character, a green-haired little girl named Yotsuba, completely lives in her own world. She's like a miniature, young Lucy from the old, black & white "I Love Lucy" shows. Innocent and fun-loving, she climbs up tree trunks and telephone poles pretending she's a cicada, rings doorbells just to see who'll come out, and climbs into a department store display bed and falls asleep while her dad's shopping for curtains. She's cute, spunky, and completely unpredictable.

The other characters grow on you quickly, too. There's family friend Jumbo, who claims his ancestors were giraffes (he's VERY tall). And the three neighbor girls, one of whom goes out of her way to help Yotsuba stay out of trouble (but somehow ends up in predicaments herself along the way). The cast of characters is fairly small, which I like, and each person has a unique, well-defined personality. All are quirky, but all work together to keep an eye on Yotsuba. At the same time, her effervescence brings a ray of light into their lives.

After I read the book, I gave it to my 7th-grade son, telling him he had to read it. He read the first few pages and was hooked. He also finished the book in a day. Now the three of us -- my daughter, my son, and I -- quote lines from the book to each other, like our own secret code!

If you're looking for light manga with a heart, this is it. Enjoy!

-- Graciela Sholander, http://dreamitdoit.net

I enjoyed all four volumes of Azuma Kiyohiko's manga comedy, Azumanga Daioh. Her new series, Yotsubato or (Yotsuba &), is just as funny and crazy. It focuses on Yotsuba, an elementary school age girl with four pigtails who seems to be in her own world. But she's cute, as seen when she's waving at people through the door of the moving van, as she and her father, Koiwai, are on their way to their new home.

On how she's drawn, she's almost like Chiyo-chan, the student prodigy from Azumanga Daioh who has two less pigtails than Yotsuba. However, I doubt that Chiyo would climb up a telephone pole and make funny "zree zree" sounds. When Fuka Ayase, her next door, freaks out and asks what she is doing, Yotsuba says, "I'm a cicada." Fuka kind of resembles Azumanga's Kagura, minus the competitiveness and the tomboy qualities.

She is clueless about air conditioners, and when she hears about the connection between them and global warming, gets the conclusion that her father's a bad guy because he's destroying the world. And the doorbell to her is that thing that makes people come out.

The funniest segment involves her and Ena, Fuka's younger sister, going cicada catching with Jumbo, the very tall guy who helped Yotsuba and her father move, and when Yotsuba lets the cicadas loose in Fuka's house, clueless to the catastrophe, she merely goes "WOW" with her smile, then points to one and says, "There he is. I caught that one."

There is a gag about Jumbo's height. Ena, Fuka, their eldest sibling, the blonde Asagi, and their mother, all react to him, saying, "You're huge!" His best comeback is when he says, "my ancestors were giraffes." But of the three siblings, Fuka, the high schooler, seems to have her stuff together, even coming to Yotsuba's father to have him sign neighborhood association (chonaikai) bulletins

Another involves Yotsuba's antics at a "compartment store," I mean department store, where she gets into all sorts of mischief, such as leaning over the escalator even though the sign beside her says not to do that sort of thing, riding tricycles in the store, jumping inside filing cabinets, and finally sleeping in a bed.

We also learn that Yotsuba was an orphan that her "father" initially looked after but eventually adopted. But her father tells Fuka, "She can find happiness in anything. Nothing in the world can get her down." This is told when it's raining buckets during a thunderstorm and Yotsuba is out there splashing to her heart's content. When it stops, she happily says, "It's sunny." Having a kid like Yotsuba may be all sorts of trouble, but in the end, it would be a lot of fun and happiness.

In Japanese, yotsuba means "four leaf", as in clover. Yotsuba herself has four pigtails, plus her hair is green per the manga cover, so that fits. And I can't wait for the rest of the series to come out. If this ever gets animated, I will definitely spring for it. And hopefully, Kaneda Tomoko, who did Chiyo-chan's voice in Azumanga Daioh, will play Yotsuba.

Is she insane or is she an alien? Whatever Yotsuba is, she is a ball of hyper-active energy that can't be stopped or reasoned with. She reminds me of my two nephews.

The story started with her, and her father, moving into town. Right off the bat she makes friends, is attacked by a swing, because the enemy of air conditioning and confuses the heck out of everybody.

Great new series from the creator of Azumanga Daioh. A must! I already have the second volume.