This book is about the author’s memories of her time spent in Japan. Where big group baths are common. This story is lovingly told and would be fantastic at story time if Americans weren’t such small minded people who bring shame to everything. Because this book has illustrations of naked women. It’s not to glorify and it’s not to be lustful. It’s to say bodies are human, bodies are normal. And that being around others bearing your body is culturally relevant. This book is wonderful and it’s such a shame that some kids will never get to read it. ( )

Oh boy, if the Idaho Legislature got their hands on this book.....with its drawings of nude women (complete with nipples and pubic hair)

Guess what, I'm sure this is what Japanese bath houses (or any communal place) is like. So it's fine! ( )

I haven’t felt like writing reviews, especially for picture books, but I have to say that I loved everything about this book. This is a book I’d love to own. ( )

Recommended by Lauren B.

A young girl travels with her mother to Japan, where they join the girl's grandmother (Baachan), aunties, and cousins in the big bath house, where they wash and scrub and soak. This cozy story with cadence and repetition normalizes female bodies of all ages.

See also: Bodies Are Cool by Tyler Feder ( )

The author shares a sweet memory of visiting her grandmother and other relatives in Japan and going to a communal bathhouse as a family activity. I've read a lot of manga, so I'm familiar with how traditional, common, and casual public bathing is in Japan, but I have to wonder how soon before some uptight, overprotective parent here in America challenges this book for the full-frontal nudity depicted despite its terrific celebration of body types of all ages.

I do wish it were made more clear in the story that the author's character doesn't actually speak Japanese and that everything occurs through a language barrier.

(Another project! I'm reading all the picture books and graphic novels from NPR's Books We Love 2021: Kids’ Books list.) ( )