illustrated by Daniel Piqueras Fisk
A few months ago, I saw it in the bookshop. Maybe it was put on display because it won the 2024 National Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. I leafed through it, read the blurb — about a modern Japanese girl who wants to become an ama — got interested and... asked our library to purchase it. To my great surprise, thay actually did it, and even phoned me when the book arrived.
I liked the story and loved the drawings. I can’t say the same about the writing style though. It took a lot of effort to plod through the verbose, repetitive, platitude-laden text, and I don’t see why anybody, especially young adult, should do it. (Read the first several pages and judge for yourself.) I’d say, cut it all. With bare minimum of dialogue and zero descriptions, Umiko would make a great comic book.
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