Singing Shijimi Clams

Kojima's (Mr. and Mrs. Thief) story offers proof that small-scale, black-and-white line drawings remain an intimate and effective vehicle for storytelling. Shijimi clams, for the uninitiated, are the tiny clams Japanese people add to miso soup. While a one-sentence summary sounds a little improbable-a depressed witch finds she cannot bring herself to eat the clams she has bought, and finances a trip to the shore to bring them home-the events of the story unfold quite naturally. The clams do not, at first, clamor for attention; something subtler attracts the witch's sympathies: ""Their shells were opened slightly, and their little bodies moved contentedly."" It's not long before the witch's cat agrees there's something special about the clams; he can't cook them, either. ""What's the matter with us?"" he says. The two resolve to take the clams back to the seaside, but, of course, train tickets must be bought for all the clams, which runs into real money; in the end, it's the clams' own singing talent (they have ""pretty little voices, like tiny popping bubbles"") that funds the trip. Adults may most appreciate the book's moral. How many of the living things humans brush past every day, the book seems to ask, have secret lives and dreams of their own? Like the clams of its title, Kojima's book appears unassuming, but should not be overlooked. Ages 4-8.