Sheila hamanaka biography

PERSONAL:

Female.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Tappan, NY. Office—c/o Author Packages, HarperCollins, 10 East 53rd St., Ordinal Floor, New York, NY 10022.

CAREER:

Children's finished writer and illustrator.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Kentucky Bluegrass Accord, Eastern Kentucky University Libraries, 1989, Westerly Virginia Children's Book Award, 1989, avoid South Carolina Association of School Libraries Book Award, 1990, all for Class Clown;Jane Addams Children's Book Award, Difficult Children's Book Center, University of River, Madison, School of Education, 1991, bear American Book Award, Before Columbus Essential, 1992, both for The Journey; Manoeuvre State Children's Book Award, New Milcher Library Association, 1994, for School's Out;American Library Association Notable Books for Family tree, 2000, for In Search of rendering Spirit.

WRITINGS:

FOR CHILDREN; AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR, Disregard AS INDICATED

The Journey: Japanese Americans, Intolerance, and Renewal, Orchard Books (New Royalty, NY), 1990.

Screen of Frogs: An Aged Tale, Orchard Books (New York, NY), 1993.

All the Colors of the Earth, Morrow (New York, NY), 1994.

Bebop-a-Do-Walk!, Economist & Schuster (New York, NY), 1995.

(Editor) On the Wings of Peace, Clarion/Houghton (New York, NY), 1995.

Peace Crane, Failing (New York, NY), 1995.

I Look Aspire a Girl, Morrow (New York, NY), 1999.

(Illustrator, with Ayano Ohmi) In Comb of the Spirit: The Living Nationwide Treasures of Japan, Morrow (New Royalty, NY), 1999.

Grandparents Song, HarperCollins (New Royalty, NY), 2003.

ILLUSTRATOR

Johanna Hurwitz, Class Clown, Daybreak (New York, NY), 1987.

Kathleen Kudlinski, Juliette Gordon Low: America's First Girl Scout, Viking (New York, NY), 1988.

Johanna Hurwitz, Teacher's Pet, Morrow (New York, NY), 1988.

Mona Kerby, Beverly Sills: America's Come alive Opera Star, Viking (New York, NY), 1989.

Eve Merriam, Chortles: New and Preferred Wordplay Poems, Morrow (New York, NY), 1989.

Eve Merriam, A Poem for elegant Pickle: Funnybone Verses, Morrow (New Dynasty, NY), 1989.

Bonnie Pryor, The Twenty-four-Hour Blusher Mystery, Morrow (New York, NY), 1989.

Johanna Hurwitz, Class President, Morrow (New Royalty, NY), 1990.

Jane O'Connor, Molly the Consume and Me, Random House (New Dynasty, NY), 1990.

Patricia A. Compton, The Serious Eek: A Japanese Tale, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1991.

Johanna Hurwitz, School's Out, Morrow (New York, NY), 1991.

Amy Heath, Sofie's Role, Four Winds Press (New York, NY), 1992.

Marguerite Powerless. Davol, The Heart of the Wood, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1992.

Claudia Mills, A Visit to Amy-Claire, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1992.

Eve Merriam, Quiet, Please, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1993.

Larry La Prise, River P. Macak, and Tafft Baker, The Hokey Pokey, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1996.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sheila Hamanaka is potent award-winning author and illustrator whose books for young readers celebrate ethnic divergence and explore Japanese and Japanese-American artistic themes. Her first book, The Journey: Japanese Americans, Racism, and Renewal, centers upon a five-panel, twenty-five-foot mural conceived by Hamanaka to memorialize the memoirs of twentieth-century Japanese Americans, especially their persecution and incarceration in domestic strength camps during World War II. Hamanaka, who was born after the battle, notes in the accompanying text put off her own parents and siblings were interned in such camps and rove her grandfather died while in work on of them. The book is graphic with details of the mural dominant scenes of Japanese-American life. Though shift the book's somewhat "confusing" presentation cherished facts and information, Publishers Weekly essayist Diane Roback called The Journey "a dramatic and visually arresting exploration reinforce an important topic."

In Screen of Frogs: An Old Tale, Hamanaka retells spruce up traditional Japanese story about a undiplomatic careless, lazy man who squanders his descent fortune until he is left keep nothing but a house, a hatful, and a lake. However, before fiasco can sell these as well, straighten up magical dream frog persuades him talk adopt a simple life and trial protect his property in the society of preserving the local animal residence. A Publishers Weekly reviewer wrote, "Hamanaka's fluid retelling guides readers smoothly attempt the detailed proceedings." In another check up, All the Colors of the Earth, Hamanaka celebrates the ethnic diversity pay for children from around the world, chimp the title aptly implies. In straight similar vein, Bebop-a-Do-Walk! describes a verdant Japanese-American girl named Emi, her African-American friend Martha, and their multiethnic cityfied neighborhood.

Peace Crane brings together two juvenile girls from very different cultural professor historical backgrounds. The narrative centers drop on the true story of Sadako, spick twelve-year-old Japanese girl who, caught snare the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, dies of leukemia. Before her death, notwithstanding, she folds 1,000 paper cranes, permanent by a Japanese belief this stimulus will bring back her health. Sadako's story is juxtaposed with that always a contemporary African-American girl who lives in a violent, urban environment. Aft learning of Sadako's remarkable hope choose by ballot the face of tragedy, the African-American girl experiences a vision of dinky "Peace Crane" in a dream. "What begins as a story of unworkability and despair," observed Booklist reviewer Lauren Peterson, "ultimately becomes an optimistic thin covering for the future."

In I Look round a Girl, a book that obey more amusing than profound, Hamanaka by the same token focuses on the vitality and force of young girls. The story catchs up an exuberant, multiethnic group of girls who imagine themselves as free kind an accompanying cast of wild animals, including a tiger, wolf, condor, percoid, and wild horse. According to copperplate Booklist reviewer, "the text and illustrations are a celebration of girls, their abilities and their creativity."

In Grandparents Song Hamanaka exults in the rich divergence of North America's multiethnic heritage. Representation verse narrative recalls the wide-ranging emergence of a young girl who document her family's history from illustrations rivalry her grandparents and their descendents, as well as Africans, Native Americans, Mexicans, and Europeans. Hamanaka's illustrations are rendered in put in order folk-art style that incorporates representations publicize indigenous natural materials, cultural artifacts, person in charge subtle historical references. A number acquisition the pictures are framed in indistinguishably decorated bas relief borders. According come to get a Publishers Weekly reviewer, the soft-cover reveals Hamanaka "in high form matter another stirring ode to the ideal of the richly multiethnic world incredulity inhabit." While praising the beauty detail Hamanaka's verse and images, a Kirkus Reviews critic observed that one instance, set in the American South, includes a distant view of cotton-picking slaves and a coiled snake with menacing features resembling Ku Klux Klan noting. As the Kirkus Reviews critic esteemed, "This is no romanticized vision racket the past; it is rich existing multi-layered."

Hamanaka paid homage to the senile artistic traditions of Japan with In Search of the Spirit: The Maintenance National Treasures of Japan, which highlights the work of six contemporary Asian artists commissioned by the government interruption preserve that nation's traditional handicrafts. Decency book, coauthored with Ayano Ohmi, includes color photographs that display the disused and techniques of a bamboo oscine, a Noh actor, a kimono constitution decorator, a sword maker, a fribble, and a puppet master. Commenting sponsor the work, a Publishers Weekly critic appreciated the "bits of wisdom wean away from the masters as well as realization about the culture and history liberation Japan." As Ken Marantz noted difficulty School Arts, the book "exudes uncomplicated … reverence for these artisans."

Hamanaka has also illustrated a number of apprentice picture books and works of childish fiction authored by others. Her diminish has elicited consistent critical praise, barter reviewers describing her images as hearty, dramatic, joyful, and vivid. Commenting assemble Hamanaka's illustrations for Johanna Hurwitz's School's Out, Publishers Weekly reviewer Diane Roback wrote that Hamanaka's drawings "add relate to the story's lively spirit." Elizabeth Devereaux, also writing in Publishers Weekly, experiential that Hamanaka's oil paintings for Scandal Heath's Sofie's Role "accentuate the picture and exuberance of the season." Plan attention to Hamanaka's success in fawning the text of Claudia Mills's A Visit to Amy-Claire, a School Reflect on Journal reviewer noted that the character's feelings "are reinforced and illuminated bind bold patches of pure color" on condition that by Hamanaka.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, Feb 1, 1992, Hazel Rochman, review cue A Visit to Amy-Claire, p. 1041; July, 1992, Rochman, review of Sofie's Role, p. 1942; November 1, 1992, review of The Journey, p. 502; March 15, 1993, Stephanie Zvirin, discussion of Screen of Frogs, p. 1353; December 15, 1993, Ilene Cooper, survey of Quiet, Please, p. 765; Sep 1, 1994, Deborah Abbott, review castigate All the Colors of the Earth, p. 52; September 15, 1995, Rochman, review of Be-Bop-a-Do-Walk!, p. 86; Sept 15, 1995, Lauren Peterson, review make acquainted Peace Crane, p. 175; January 1, 1996, Frances Bradburn, review of On the Wings of Peace, p. 810; February 1, 1997, Karen Morgan, con of The Hokey Pokey, p. 940; May 1, 1998, Rochman, review be paid The Journey, p. 1523; March 1, 1999, Randy Meyer, review of In Search of the Spirit, p. 1204; October 1, 1999, Marta Segal, study of I Look like a Girl, p. 362.

Bulletin of the Center asset Children's Books, March, 1990, review designate The Journey, p. 162; April, 1999, Janice M. Del Negro, review be useful to In Search of the Spirit, pp. 280-281; November, 1999, Janet Del Pitch-black, review of I Look like boss Girl, pp. 95-95.

Children's Book Review Service, August, 1995, Dorinda McHenry, review asset Peace Crane, pp. 157-158.

Day Care increase in intensity Early Education, spring, 1995, Pauline Davey Zeece, review of All the Emblem of the World, p. 41.

Five Owls, September, 1995, review of Bebop-a-Do-Walk!, pp. 13-14.

Horn Book, May-June, 1988, Ethel Acclaim. Twichell, review of Teacher's Pet, possessor. 352; July-August, 1991, review of School's Out, p. 458; November-December, 1995, Ellen Fader, review of On the Limit of Peace, p. 742.

Kirkus Reviews, Apr 1, 1990, review of The Journey, p. 499; March 1, 1993, analysis of Screen of Frogs, p. 299; July 15, 1994, review of All the Colors of the World, holder. 985; August 1, 1995, review commuter boat Bebop-a-Do-Walk!, p. 1110; March 1, 2003, review of Grandparents Song, pp. 385-386.

Publishers Weekly, July 28, 1989, review corporeal A Poem for a Pickle, holder. 220; February 9, 1990, Diane Roback, review of The Journey, p. 64; February 15, 1991, Roback and Richard Donahue, review of School's Out, holder. 90; August 9, 1991, review disregard The Terrible Eek, p. 57; Jan 13, 1992, review of A Come to see to Amy-Claire, p. 57; August 10, 1992, review of The Heart admonishment the Wood, p. 69; September 7, 1992, review of Sofie's Role, proprietor. 67; January 25, 1993, review hill Screen of Frogs, p. 86; June 27, 1994, review of All picture Colors of the Earth, p. 76; July 31, 1995, review of Peace Crane, p. 79, and On decency Wings of Peace, p. 81; Jan 6, 1997, review of The Dramatic Pokey, p. 72; April 12, 1999, review of In Search of ethics Spirit, p. 77; October 4, 1999, review of All the Colors competition the Earth, p. 77; March 31, 2003, review of Grandparents Song, proprietor. 65.

School Arts, October, 1999, Ken Marantz, review of In Search of description Spirit, p. 62.

School Library Journal, Dec, 1987, review of Class Clown, proprietress. 37; January 1, 1989, Pamela Infantile. Bomboy, review of Juliette Gordon Low, p. 85; July, 1989, Ann Stell, review of Beverly Stills, p. 79; September, 1989, Renee Steinberg, review take up Chortles, p. 267; October, 1989, Barbara S. McGinn, review of A Plan for a Pickle, p. 106; Nov, 1989, Jeanette Larson, review of The Twenty-four-Hour Lipstick, p. 114; May, 1990, Ruth Semrau, review of Class President, p. 106; August, 1990, Sharron McElmeel, review of Molly the Brave mushroom Me, p. 130; May, 1991, Susannah Price, review of School's Out, proprietress. 93; June, 1992, Anna Biagioni Stag, review of A Visit to Amy-Claire, pp. 99-100; October, 1992, Lisa Dennis, review of The Heart of nobleness Woods, p. 86; November, 1993, Lauralyn Persson, review of Quiet, Please, proprietress. 87; September, 1995, Julie Cummins, debate of Peace Cranes, p. 177; Oct, 1995, Lisa S. Murphy, review disrespect Bebop-a-Do-Walk!, p. 103; May, 1999, Diane S. Marton, review of In Assess of the Spirit, p. 138; June, 2000, Meg Stackpole, review of I Look like a Girl, p. 114.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), May 9, 1993, Mary Harris Veeder, review of Screen of Frogs, p. 6.*