This book was an easy read (It's a children's book). I enjoyed learning a couple of things about America that I hadn't know. (For example: in 1819 the whaling ship the Essex was rammed by a whale and sank. Moby Dick was written when the Essex was still in people's memories.) As the author points out, this story is well known in Japan, but not in the US. It made me want to learn more about this interesting bit of world history.

とっても面白かった。 ( )

This is my favorite kind of history book. An expansion on a story of history that anyone familiar with US-Japanese relations already knows that fleshes out the details, gives strong characters, and a clear sense of the period where the story takes place. Shipwrecked tells the story of Manjiro, a Japanese youth who is shipwrecked while fishing, ends up on an American whaling vessel, and eventually becomes key in leading Commodore Perry and the US Navy to Japan, an event that changed Japan forever.
Rhoda Blumberg seems like a very appropriate person to tell this story to its intended audience. In terms of content, she researched it extensively. There are not any quotations but she lists her primary and secondary research sources. She also uses the author's note to detail which of the illustrations she used to help portray the setting and characters are attributable to the story's character, Manjiro (or John Mung as he is later called) and which ones simply serve to help sell the image of 19th century Japan to its audience.
The book is obviously narrative driven, and the third person perspective that Blumberg employs is designed to allow her to tell multiple perspectives that she feels are important to the story, like the sea captain on Manjiro's American whaling vessel. I appreciate the artwork, photos, and maps in the book because whereas I feel Blumberg's writing style is somewhat effective at selling the story and capturing character, things like mood and atmosphere are somewhat lacking in the writing. They are however effectively captured by the artwork.
As someone who is pretty familiar with Japanese history (at least as a gaijin or "foreigner") this story did surprise me, and I really enjoyed it. ( )

Wow. This powerful book tells a story of a boy who risks it all to support his family after a string of unfortunate events. This book would be great to explore non-fiction books. I imagine great projects could come from the study of the heroic character.

Themes: Perseverance, Bravery, Immigration/Refugee Experiences, Cultural Differences, Education; Mid 19th Century

Summary: This is a true story based on a boy named Manjiro who is shipwrecked in America and can't return to Japan because the law in the early 1800s says that any person who visits another country and returns will be put to death! I had no idea Japan had such isolationist laws back then! The unique illustrations and exciting story made this a great book to read!!

Personal commentary/ reflection: A great book to read for older readers, it came with really detailed and fantastic illustrations- drawings and watercolors in the traditional Japanese style it looked like. I also liked the historical nonfiction facts and theme and how it was tied to a true story. This would be a good book to read to maybe a junior high school classroom! ( )