The daughter of a successful sushi chef, Hiromi Suzuki developed an interest in her father's craft at a young age. Her father took this interest seriously and taught her everything he knew. After training under him for a few years, Hiromi took over his restaurant and became one of the first female sushi chefs in New York City. I thought this story was informative and taught me something I would have never thought about. It was also interesting to me that the book was written by Hiromi's best friend's mother! I loved that this book displayed something so important to Japanese culture. ( )

Hiromi’s parents were from Japan, her dads family was very poor. He dad decided to become a sushi chef. After years of hard work he became a Sushi chef at a restaurant. The restaurant had a location in New York that needed a head chef, so he set off for America. Once there he worked hard and saved up enough money in three years to buy his own restaurant. He then met a woman, married her and they had a beautiful daughter named Hiromi. As Hiromi grew up she learned more and more about fish. She decided she wanted to be a sushi chef and it was possible for a woman to be one since she was in America. Soon she became great at what she did and he father felt comfortable enough to leave her in charge of the restaurant while him and his wife visited Japan after 35 years. I really liked how there was a glossary at the end showing you what different words mean and how to pronounce them. ( )

I liked this book for a few reasons. I found it to be motivating to immigrants that come to America and to young girls. The main character is a little girl whose father immigrated from Japan to New York City. The reason I found this book to be motivating was because before the girl's father could immigrate to America he worked very hard as a sushi chef in Japan and it took him years to be promoted to work at the New York City sushi restaurant. This book is a reminder that dreams do not come easily or overnight, and one must work hard for what they want. Another reason I enjoyed this book was the inspiration it held for young girls. In the book the little girl explains that it was not a custom for girls to become a sushi chef in Japan. She convinced her father to let her shadow him and for her to try to learn the trade. He let her, and she became an amazing sushi chef. Another reason I enjoyed this book was that of the illustrations and the written captions for each picture. On pages where there was illustrated sushi the author captioned the picture with the Japanese name for the kind of sushi and included the English translation. I also enjoyed how the book was multicultural. Overall the main idea of the book was that everyone must work hard to achieve their dreams and that girls can be anything that they aspire to be. ( )

I really liked this book for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that the language is very descriptive. In a children’s non-fiction book, some authors may not give the full picture as to how people were treated during the time period or culture in which the book was based on. In Hiromi’s Hands, the author stated, “People thought a women’s soft, warm hands would spoil the fish” (Barasch, 6). I liked how the author provided information about her culture and the difference between how a man and a woman are treated in Japan. Another reason why I liked this book is the writing. Even though this is a non-fiction book, the story has a flow to it. It begins with Hiromi saying goodbye to her parents, then goes into the story of where they come from, followed by how her father came to America and how she started to make sushi herself. The author engaged the reader by having descriptive words, but also pictures that went along with the text that showed what she meant. The book was written in an interesting way by the author provided a story as to how someone became a sushi maker. The author also provided images of the different types of sushi. The overall picture of this book is to always care about your family heritage and one day you can carry on the tradition too. ( )

Hiromi’s Hands by Lynne Barasch is a biography about Hiromi Suzuki and her journey to become a professional sushi chef. I liked this book for a few reasons. One reason was I able to learn a lot about Japanese culture and the difficult process of making sushi. Another reason I like this book is because it has a pronunciation guide in the back. This guide shows you how to pronounce the different types of sushi and other Japanese words that were in the book. This was really helpful because I could see the Japanese’s word and then the correct pronunciation and practice my Japanese. Another reason I really liked this book was because of the gender stereotype that Hiromi broke. The story is about a young girl who wants to become a sushi chef, but before this a chef was a male’s job only. Hiromi didn’t care and wanted to learn how to be a sushi chef anyway. Her dad taught her everything he knew and told her “Girls can do things here that they cannot do in Japan.” I thought this line was very interesting because it shows how much freedom and choice woman have here in America that they do not have in other countries. The message of this story is powerful because it shows how difficult it can be for woman to be successful but ultimately women can do anything men can do. The message also shows that hard work really pays off. ( )