22 Jan / Tesoro by Natsume Ono, translated by Joe Yamazaki
More and more, I’ve noticed book cover flaps yielding important tidbits (which makes me a bit concerned about such covers going astray, especially for picture books handled by so many little hands!). But worry aside, how fitting to find this on the front flap about Tesoro: “In Italian, it means: • Treasure, a treasured thing • Something or someone precious.”
Precious treasure is exactly right: Tesoro offers 15 diverse vignettes – gathered and translated for the first time into English – from manga powerhouse Natsume Ono. “These may be clumsy stories, but they’ve become memorable and important to me,” Ono writes in a closing note. “It’s like a treasure to me.” Nice to know we’re in synch!
Ono’s signature simple style with the oversized, most soulful eyes is bookended here with stylized bears (the front cover offers a sneak peek) that show a sharply different genre from her human creations. As adorable as her little bears are (check out her graffiti-ed trashcan when she “had an office job,” hee hee ho ho!), I remain mesmerized by the eyes … and myriad of instantaneous expressions those eyes define: relief in “Inside Out” when a husband learns of his wife’s impending return; everyday love in “Moyashi Couple” between a “bean sprout” elderly husband and wife; gratitude in “Three Stories About Bento 1/3” over an unexpected lunch delivery, poignant joy in “Three Stories About Bento 3/3” as a father speaks to his late wife through his son’s full round belly (wept over that one!); heartbreak in “senza titolo #1” as a father looks on at his too-young dying son; disappointment in “Christmas Morning” in both father and son over a missing present; and tearful adoration in “senza titolo #6” over “the best man in the world, Dad.”
Ono has earned her international chops for her manga-turned-anime series Gente (and its related single volume Ristorante Paradiso) and House of Five Leaves, but my personal favorites remain her smaller efforts, especially not simple, and now the tesoros in her Tesoro.
For all of Natsume Ono’s titles posted on BookDragon, please click here.
Readers: Young Adult, Adult
Published: 2011 (United States)
TESORO – ONO NATSUME SHOKI TANPENSHU © Natsume Ono
Original Japanese edition published by Shogakukan Inc.