The book is a winner of two Best Children’s Book awards of 2001. One summer, Grandma Erma learned that she had terminal cancer.
The book follows her in her final year, as she writes her family history, says goodbye to people whom she has loved, and prepares for a peaceful departure from this world. Her beloved cat Star Kitty narrates the book, which has been used at numerous schools and reading circles in Japan as a textbook to teach children about death and dying.
Shogakukan INC, 2000 Yen1,300
(Japanese, Chinese and Korean.
English version to be published in spring of 2008)
This is a three-year documentary of the Prison Pet Partnership Program at Washington Corrections Center for Women in Purdy, Washington. In this program, inmates rescue dogs from local animal shelters, and train them to be service dogs. The inmates are given an opportunity to give something back to society, and the disabled people who eventually receive the dogs are given a way to live more independently, and the dogs which were once abandoned by humans are not only given another chance to live, but teach inmates — who not only hurt others, but who are also deeply hurt — to trust again.
Tasha, a service dog which was trained in a women’s prison, becomes the best friend of a disabled teenage girl named Stephanie. Tasha picks dropped items up from the ground for Stephanie, brings the telephone in case of an emergency, helps her changing her clothes, and always stays by her side. This picture book for children follows their life from morning to night in order to show how they work together. It also shows how Tasha and other service dogs have been trained by the Prison Pet Partnership Program.
Shogakukan INC, 1999 Yen1,300 (Japanese, Chinese and Korean)
This is a four-year photo documentary which follows the final years of Jenni: a young woman with HIV/AIDS. She was 29 years old when she died of AIDS, and her final years teach us that what really matters in our lives is not what we achieve, but how we live. Her husband Jimmy, who married her right after he learned of her illness and her beloved animals (a dog, a cat and a bird) also teach us about love and dedication.
This is the author’s only book of wildlife photography. It contains 64 pages of color photos of lovely baby seals that are shot in St. Laurence Bay, Canada.
NESCO/Bungeishunjuu Publishers, 1990, 1992 Yen1,200
(Japanese and Korean)
Co-authored with Rei Ohara
