The Realm of Magical Girls

How I Found Our New Favorite Book Series

I first learned about the Jasmine Toguchi book series after the author followed me on Twitter. After looking into it, I thought it would be fun to read this book with my 8-year-old daughter Hikaru, so I ordered a copy of Jasmine Toguchi Mochi Queen on Amazon.

We read Mochi Queen before bedtime over the course of about a month. Because this book is geared toward children and my daughter loved it so much, I wanted to do something different and asked her if she wanted to share her thoughts in this review as well. She excitedly agreed, so here we are. 🙂

Cover Art – Coincidence or Good Planning?

For this review, I went to two different grocery stores to look for mochi so I could do a flat lay picture. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find any, so I also bought mochiko flour at the first grocery store just in case I needed to end up making some using the recipe included at the end of Mochi Queen. I hit the jackpot at the second grocery store, where they had everything from traditional mochi to butter mochi. I bought peanut butter mochi and azuki bean mochi, but ended up only using the azuki since the purple peanut butter mochi didn’t fit the color scheme. I couldn’t help but smile when I realized how perfectly the colors of the mochi matched the colors used on the cover. (＾▽＾) Coincidence or good planning?

Published: July 11, 2017 (First Edition)  Amazon | Goodreads | Twitter | Website

Synopsis: Eight-year-old Jasmine Toguchi is a flamingo fan, tree climber, and top-notch mess-maker!

She’s also tired of her big sister, Sophie, always getting to do things first. For once, Jasmine wishes SHE could do something before Sophie—something special, something different. The New Year approaches, and as the Toguchi family gathers in Los Angeles to celebrate, Jasmine is jealous that her sister gets to help roll mochi balls by hand with the women. Her mom says that Jasmine is still too young to join in, so she hatches a plan to help the men pound the mochi rice instead. Surely her sister has never done THAT before.

But pounding mochi is traditionally reserved for boys. And the mochi hammer is heavier than it looks. Can Jasmine build her case and her mochi-making muscles in time for New Year’s Day?

Hikaru’s Review

I read the book Jasmine Toguchi mochi queen and it was good ! I had a lot of questions,🤔🤔 how was her shoulder touching  her big sister’s even though she’s shorter? 🤯🤯And second why is her big sister so mean to her??😱😱and it was nice that her dad was so patient 😀😀 and tell me what u think of mean cousin eddie ???? 🤭🤭🍡🍡🍡📕📕 i really liked it a lot sometimes my cousin is mean to me and also me and my brother fight just like sophie and jasmine but i know he cares about me. it was nice seeing a Japanese  family in a book because my family is Japanese!!!! 🤩🤩🤩 yay!! 

 And The creator sent me a letter with stickers and bookmarks of jasmine it was so cool!!! And it made me happy thank u aunty debbi. 👍👍👏👏❤❤

My Review

Jasmine Toguchi Mochi Queen is the kind of book I wish I’d had growing up. Although, as a fourth generation Japanese American, my family no longer did mochi-tsuki, despite still having my great-grandparent’s large stone usu in my backyard. Instead, we bought our mochi from family friend Shishido Manju. I enjoyed reading about the Toguchi family and how they prepared for the upcoming new year. Mochi Queen perfectly reflects the Japanese American experience, celebrating old traditions (like mochi-tsuki) with an American twist (like eating pizza for dinner, much to the chagrin of obaachan.)

The Importance of Seeing Yourself

Usually, when Hikaru and I read before bedtime, it’s a quiet event with not a lot of questions. However, as we were reading Mochi Queen I found her engaging with me, asking all kinds of questions, including the ones she mentioned above. She made observations about how sweet Jasmine’s dad was, encouraging her to be open with him. And, she could also relate to the way Jasmine was bothered by mean cousin Eddie and the rollercoaster of feelings associated with being the younger sibling. Although it may not be obvious from her review above, there were many thoughtful moments where she reflected on what we just read and we often spent anywhere between 10 minutes to half an hour chatting. It was awesome seeing her being truly interested and engaging me in discussion, rather than vice-versa.

The day before we finished reading Mochi Queen, Hikaru looked at me and said, “I think we should buy the rest of the books.” And I agreed with her. I enjoyed reading about Jasmine just as much as she did. There’s something magical about being able to see yourself in a character, especially as a child, and I’m so happy that my daughter was able to make a connection with Jasmine Toguchi.

A Kind Gesture

I reached out to the author on Twitter letting her know how much my daughter loved Jasmine, and to my absolute delight and surprise, she offered to send something to her in the mail! Hikaru was very excited to receive mail from Jasmine Toguchi’s author, which included fun bookmarks (perfect because we were using a receipt to save our place), stickers, and a handwritten letter. (Side note: In her review above, Hikaru refers to Debbi Michiko Florence as “Aunty Debbi”. We aren’t related and don’t know each other in real life. This is typical of life in Hawaii, where it is considered respectful to refer to others as “aunty” or “uncle.”)

If I didn’t already love the books and the author, this very thoughtful personal gesture really put things over the top. Being able to see the sparkle in my daughter’s eye when she realized she received mail from someone special, to her excitement and passion for the character and story, I think it’s safe to say that Debbi Michiko Florence and Jasmine Toguchi have found lifelong fans in the both of us.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If you’re looking for a book to gift to a child, read with your own, or want to add to your collection of diverse books, buy Jasmine Toguchi Mochi Queen today!

Rating: 5/5 Dango 🍡🍡🍡🍡🍡
(My rating is usually stars, but it felt right to change things up for this post!)