TEACHERS GUIDE


ABOUT THIS BOOK

Three young Japanese friends, fascinated by death, embark on a journey that leads them toward a deeper understanding of life.

Twelve-year-old Kiyama and his friends Kawabe and Yamashita are facing an important step in their young lives. They are sixth-graders attending cram school to prepare for entrance exams that will determine whether they may continue their education. The unlikely trio are very different in their home lives and academic achievement, but are joined in their curiosity about death.

Determined to witness death firsthand, the three boys spy on a lonely old man who they think will surely die soon. When the old man notices them, their reason for spying begins to change. The lessons about life and death learned from the old man cause the boys to examine the true meaning of friendship, creating special memories that will undoubtedly change the course of their lives.

ABOUT THIS AUTHOR

Kazumi Yumoto began her career as a writer by writing scripts for operas while attending Tokyo University of Music. After graduation she decided to try her hand at writing a novel for young readers. The Friends, her first book, is the winner of the 1997 Mildred A. Batchelder Award for Translation. It was also named an ALA Notable Children's Book and won the Recommended Book Prize from Japan School Library Book Club.

TEACHING IDEAS

The Friends, a story of friendship, is also a novel that challenges young readers to examine intergenerational and family relationships. It offers readers the opportunity to openly discuss death and dying, and to consider how memories of the past might shape who we are in the future. These powerful themes, along with an intriguing plot, make the book ideal for a class novel study or read-aloud.

Pre-Reading Activity

Instruct students to ask parents, grandparents, teachers, or other adults in their lives to share a special memory from their childhood. Invite students to relate some of the memories that people shared. How many of the memories relate to friendship and family life and relationships? Ask each student to write about a special memory from their early childhood that specifically involves a friend. Encourage students to share their writing in class.

Thematic Connections

Friendship
Ask students to describe the three boys in the novel. How are they alike? How are they different? How do they need each other? The boys spy on the old man so that they can witness death firsthand. Their spying leads them to an unlikely friendship. At first, the old man is extremely suspicious of the boys; what makes him accept them as friends? What do Kiyama and his friends learn from the old man? What do they teach the old man about friendship?

Family and Relationships
The three boys come from very different family situations. Have the class describe each boy's family. Who appears to have the happiest family life? How does friendship with the old man fill a void in each boy's life? Why does the old man's modest dwelling become a haven for the boys? Ask the class to discuss whether they think the boys' relationship with the old man will change the kind of fathers they may become.

Family and Relationships (Intergenerational Relationships)
Ask students to discuss what role grandparents play in our lives. How might the aging process create wisdom about life? Encourage students to investigate the many programs in their community that unite the lives of the young and the elderly. These may be programs conducted by social service agencies. What is the overall purpose of each program? How do the programs benefit both the young and the old?

Death And Dying
At the beginning of the novel, Yamashita returns from his grandmother's funeral. Though he barely knew his grandmother, he is very sad. What are the signs that he is grieving her death? At the end of the novel, the boys must deal with the old man's death. Kiyama says that somehow he feels "strangely peaceful and clear." Why do you think he feels this way? How does the old man's death change the way the three boys view life?

Memories
The boys ask the seed lady to pose as Yayoi Koko, the old man's wife of long ago. What are they trying to accomplish by bringing the lady to the old man? The old man quickly realizes that the lady isn't Yayoi. He does, however, discover that he and the lady have something in common. How does the lady bring about memories from the old man's earlier life? Kiyama says, "I am amazed at how much is stored up inside these two people. Maybe it is fun to grow old. The older you get, the more memories you have" (p. 125). How can memories make it fun to grow old? How does talking about his memories prepare the old man and the boys for the old man's death?

Interdisciplinary Connections

Language Arts
Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry that was developed in the seventeenth century. Explain the structure of haiku to the class. Ask students to think about the relationship of the three boys and the old man. Then have each student write a haiku that might be appropriate for the boys to read at the old man's funeral.

Encourage students to read The Giver by Lois Lowry. Then have them contrast Jonas's relationship with the Giver to the relationship of the boys and the old man in The Friends.

Social Studies
Life in Japan reflects cultural practices from the east and the west. Ask students to make two columns on a sheet of paper. In one column, have them list the cultural practices in the novel that are uniquely Japanese. In the other column, ask them to list those that are similar to American culture. What role does Japan play in our society? Ask students to make a list of the items in their homes that are made in Japan.

Science
Kiyama says that a typhoon strikes their city the second week in August. Send students to the library to research typhoons. How are they formed? Where and when are they most likely to hit? What is the relationship between a typhoon and a hurricane?

Ask students to pretend that they are a Japanese botanist studying the many flowers, plants, and trees mentioned in the novel. Have them gather information and prepare a botanical lecture about Japanese gardening for a tourist group from the United States.

Science/Health
Kiyama says that his mother drinks a lot. Have students find out the symptoms of alcoholism. Ask them to think about these symptoms and discuss whether Kiyama's mother might be considered an alcoholic. Encourage the class to make a booklet that describes the agencies in their community that provide help for alcoholics and their families.

Math
The boys go to the seed store to buy cosmos seeds for the old man's backyard. The seeds cost one hundred yen per packet. The boys have 1,050 yen between them. How many packets of seeds do they purchase? Ask students to find out the current rate of exchange of the yen in American dollars. Then ask them to calculate how many dollars the boys spend at the seed store.

Art
All school children in Japan study calligraphy. These young students also learn that symbols represent entire words in the Japanese language. Send the class to the library to find such symbols. Then ask each student to make a poster that illustrates at least four symbols and their meanings. Ask the students to sign their poster in calligraphy.


Teaching ideas prepared by Pat Scales, Library Media Specialist, Greenville Middle School, Greenville, SC.

VOCABULARY

Sashimi, sushi, sukiyaki, tempura, yakitori, and miso are Japanese foods. Ask students to find out the pronunciation of each word.

Other words that students may want to investigate include: precariously (p. 7), eccentric (p. 10), perseverance (p. 19), surveillance (p. 36), pompously (p. 104), and diabolic (p. 129). Ask them to determine the meaning of each word using the context of the story. In addition, they may want to make a glossary of Japanese words used in the novel as well as the pronunciations of these words.

AWARDS

An ALA Notable Children's Book

A Boston Globe-Horn Book Winner

A Mildred L. Batchelder Award for Translation

A Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies

One of The New York Public Library's 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing

A Parents' Magazine Best Book of the Year

REVIEWS

*"This is an offbeat and unsentimental coming-of-age story--a Japanese Stand By Me --about friends fascinated by death, who end up learning about life."
--Pointer, Kirkus Reviews

*"An eloquent initiation story that first touches and then pierces the heart . . . deserving of equally high marks in kid appeal and literary merit."
--Starred, Publishers Weekly

FURTHER READING

The Giver by Lois Lowry[0-553-57133-8]
IT'S NOTHING TO A MOUNTAIN by Sid Hite[0-440-21945-0]
MISSING MAY-P559867/3 by Cynthia Rylant[0-440-22027-0]
Under the Blood Red Sun by Graham Salisbury[0-385-32099-X]

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

http://www.csuohio.edu/history/japan/index.html
http://www.jinjapan.org/kidsweb/index.html
http://www.jwindow.net/KIDS/kids_home.html
http://www.ala.org/alsc/batch.html