Strange Japanese Yokai

May 15, 2023
Grades 5-8 This is a niche title that will entice browsers despite its relatively obscure subject matter. Yokai are supernatural troublemakers drawn from Japanese myths, creepy stories, and urban legends. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and this book offers benign, cartoonlike images of over a hundred manifestations of various incarnations, along with brief, often disparaging descriptions of their irksome habits. Most Yokai activities fall under harmless mischief as opposed to pure evil--stealing food and changing shape to cause confusion lead the way, and while there are occasional mentions of cutting off hands or heads, there's nothing too overly gruesome. Each Yokai is creatively rendered in full color and comes with a data file that indicates its general geographic base, origins in literature or folklore (if known), and other historical or cultural facts (there's also an extensive list of references). Covering everything from the disgusting (a whole chapter is dedicated to pee- and poop-obsessed beings) to the inexplicable (a nuppori-bōzu has an eyeball in its butt), this eye-catching offering effectively introduces important figures inherent in Japanese culture.

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