Author(s): Emi Watanabe Cohen

Fantasy, Magic and Science Fiction | Staff Picks - Mim

In this middle grade fantasy set in Japan, ten-year-old Kohei teams up with his new neighbour to search for the truth, both about Kohei's family history and the disappearance of the giant dragons that fought in the war.
Kohei Fujiwara has never seen a giant dragon in real life. The big ryu all disappeared from Japan after World War II, and twenty years later, they've become the stuff of legend. Their smaller cousins, who can fit in your palm, are all that remain. And Kohei loves his ryu, Yuharu, but ... Kohei has a memory of the big ryu. He knows that's impossible, but still, it's there, in his mind. In it, he can see his grandpa - Ojiisan - gazing up at the big ryu with what looks to Kohei like total and absolute wonder. When Kohei was little, he dreamed he'd go on a grand quest to bring the big ryu back, to get Ojiisan to smile again. But now, Ojiisan is really, really sick. And Kohei is running out of time. Kohei needs to find the big ryu now, before it's too late. With the help of Isolde, his new half-Jewish, half-Japanese neighbour; and Isolde's Yiddish-speaking dragon, Cheshire; he thinks he can do it. Maybe. He doesn't have a choice.
From debut author Emi Watanabe Cohen comes a story of magic, a mysterious family legacy and the lengths to which we'll go to protect the people we love.
'An extraordinary book filled with dragons big and small.' Carole Wilkinson, multi-award-winning author of Dragonkeeper

Mim's Review - An exllent meshing of dragons in the real world and generational trauma. It's not too heavy for a middle fiction (11+) but is well written.