Hamanaka, Sheila

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HAMANAKA, Sheila

PERSONAL:

Female.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Tappan, NY. Office—c/o Author Mail, HarperCollins, 10 East 53rd St., 7th Floor, New York, NY 10022.

CAREER:

Children's book writer and illustrator.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Kentucky Bluegrass Award, Eastern Kentucky University Libraries, 1989, West Virginia Children's Book Award, 1989, and South Carolina Association of School Libraries Book Award, 1990, all for Class Clown; Jane Addams Children's Book Award, Cooperative Children's Book Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, School of Education, 1991, and American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation, 1992, both for The Journey; Garden State Children's Book Award, New Jersey Library Association, 1994, for School's Out; American Library Association Notable Books for Children, 2000, for In Search of the Spirit.

WRITINGS:

FOR CHILDREN; AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR, EXCEPT AS INDICATED

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Illustrator, with Ayano Ohmi) In Search of the Spirit: The Living National Treasures of Japan, Morrow (New York, NY), 1999.

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

ILLUSTRATOR

Johanna Hurwitz, Class Clown, Morrow (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 Own Opera Star, Viking (New York, NY), 1989.

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

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

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

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

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

Patricia A. Compton, The Terrible 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 W. 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, Charles P. Macak, and Tafft Baker, The Hokey Pokey, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1996.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sheila Hamanaka is an award-winning author and illustrator whose books for young readers celebrate ethnic diversity and explore Japanese and Japanese-American cultural themes. Her first book, The Journey: Japanese Americans, Racism, and Renewal, centers upon a five-panel, twenty-five-foot mural created by Hamanaka to memorialize the experiences of twentieth-century Japanese Americans, especially their persecution and incarceration in domestic concentration camps during World War II. Hamanaka, who was born after the war, notes in the accompanying text that her own parents and siblings were interned in such camps and that her grandfather died while in one of them. The book is illustrated with details of the mural and scenes of Japanese-American life. Though faulting the book's somewhat "confusing" presentation of facts and information, Publishers Weekly reviewer Diane Roback called The Journey "a dramatic and visually arresting exploration of an important topic."

In Screen of Frogs: An Old Tale, Hamanaka retells a traditional Japanese story about a selfish, lazy man who squanders his family fortune until he is left with nothing but a house, a mountain, and a lake. However, before he can sell these as well, a magical dream frog persuades him to adopt a simple life and to protect his property in the interest of preserving the local animal habitat. A Publishers Weekly reviewer wrote, "Hamanaka's fluid retelling guides readers smoothly through the detailed proceedings." In another work, All the Colors of the Earth, Hamanaka celebrates the ethnic diversity of children from around the world, as the title aptly implies. In a similar vein, Bebop-a-Do-Walk! describes a young Japanese-American girl named Emi, her African-American friend Martha, and their multiethnic urban neighborhood.

Peace Crane brings together two young girls from very different cultural and historical backgrounds. The narrative centers upon the true story of Sadako, a twelve-year-old Japanese girl who, caught in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, dies of leukemia. Before her death, however, she folds 1,000 paper cranes, abiding by a Japanese belief this act will bring back her health. Sadako's story is juxtaposed with that of a contemporary African-American girl who lives in a violent, urban environment. After learning of Sadako's remarkable hope in the face of tragedy, the African-American girl experiences a vision of a "Peace Crane" in a dream. "What begins as a story of hopelessness and despair," observed Booklist reviewer Lauren Peterson, "ultimately becomes an optimistic vision for the future."

In I Look like a Girl, a book that is more amusing than profound, Hamanaka similarly focuses on the vitality and strength of young girls. The story involves an exuberant, multiethnic group of girls who imagine themselves as free as an accompanying cast of wild animals, including a tiger, wolf, condor, dolphin, and wild horse. According to a Booklist reviewer, "the text and illustrations are a celebration of girls, their abilities and their creativity."

In Grandparents Song Hamanaka exults in the rich diversity of North America's multiethnic heritage. The verse narrative recalls the wide-ranging origins of a young girl who summons her family's history from illustrations of her grandparents and their descendents, including Africans, Native Americans, Mexicans, and Europeans. Hamanaka's illustrations are rendered in a folk-art style that incorporates representations of indigenous natural materials, cultural artifacts, and subtle historical references. A number of the pictures are framed in intricately decorated bas relief borders. According to a Publishers Weekly reviewer, the book reveals Hamanaka "in high form with another stirring ode to the beauty of the richly multiethnic world we inhabit." While praising the beauty of Hamanaka's verse and images, a Kirkus Reviews critic observed that one illustration, set in the American South, includes a distant view of cotton-picking slaves and a coiled snake with ominous features resembling Ku Klux Klan symbols. As the Kirkus Reviews critic noted, "This is no romanticized vision of the past; it is rich and multi-layered."

Hamanaka paid homage to the ancient artistic traditions of Japan with In Search of the Spirit: The Living National Treasures of Japan, which highlights the work of six contemporary Japanese artists commissioned by the government to preserve that nation's traditional handicrafts. The book, coauthored with Ayano Ohmi, includes color photographs that display the work and techniques of a bamboo weaver, a Noh actor, a kimono fabric decorator, a sword maker, a potter, and a puppet master. Commenting on the work, a Publishers Weekly reviewer appreciated the "bits of wisdom from the masters as well as information about the culture and history of Japan." As Ken Marantz noted in School Arts, the book "exudes a … reverence for these artisans."

Hamanaka has also illustrated a number of children's picture books and works of juvenile fiction authored by others. Her artwork has elicited consistent critical praise, with reviewers describing her images as exuberant, dramatic, joyful, and vivid. Commenting on Hamanaka's illustrations for Johanna Hurwitz's School's Out, Publishers Weekly reviewer Diane Roback wrote that Hamanaka's drawings "add to the story's lively spirit." Elizabeth Devereaux, also writing in Publishers Weekly, observed that Hamanaka's oil paintings for Amy Heath's Sofie's Role "accentuate the drama and exuberance of the season." Drawing attention to Hamanaka's success in enhancing the text of Claudia Mills's A Visit to Amy-Claire, a School Library Journal reviewer noted that the character's feelings "are reinforced and illuminated in bold patches of pure color" provided by Hamanaka.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 1, 1992, Hazel Rochman, review of 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, review of Screen of Frogs, p. 1353; December 15, 1993, Ilene Cooper, review of Quiet, Please, p. 765; September 1, 1994, Deborah Abbott, review of All the Colors of the Earth, p. 52; September 15, 1995, Rochman, review of Be-Bop-a-Do-Walk!, p. 86; September 15, 1995, Lauren Peterson, review of Peace Crane, p. 175; January 1, 1996, Frances Bradburn, review of On the Wings of Peace, p. 810; February 1, 1997, Karen Morgan, review of The Hokey Pokey, p. 940; May 1, 1998, Rochman, review of The Journey, p. 1523; March 1, 1999, Randy Meyer, review of In Search of the Spirit, p. 1204; October 1, 1999, Marta Segal, review of I Look like a Girl, p. 362.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, March, 1990, review of The Journey, p. 162; April, 1999, Janice M. Del Negro, review of In Search of the Spirit, pp. 280-281; November, 1999, Janet Del Negro, review of I Look like a Girl, pp. 95-95.

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

Day Care and Early Education, spring, 1995, Pauline Davey Zeece, review of All the Colors of the World, p. 41.

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

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

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

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

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

School Library Journal, December, 1987, review of Class Clown, p. 37; January 1, 1989, Pamela K. Bomboy, review of Juliette Gordon Low, p. 85; July, 1989, Ann Stell, review of Beverly Stills, p. 79; September, 1989, Renee Steinberg, review of Chortles, p. 267; October, 1989, Barbara S. McGinn, review of A Poem for a Pickle, p. 106; November, 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 and Me, p. 130; May, 1991, Susannah Price, review of School's Out, p. 93; June, 1992, Anna Biagioni Hart, review of A Visit to Amy-Claire, pp. 99-100; October, 1992, Lisa Dennis, review of The Heart of the Woods, p. 86; November, 1993, Lauralyn Persson, review of Quiet, Please, p. 87; September, 1995, Julie Cummins, review of Peace Cranes, p. 177; October, 1995, Lisa S. Murphy, review of Bebop-a-Do-Walk!, p. 103; May, 1999, Diane S. Marton, review of In Search of the Spirit, p. 138; June, 2000, Meg Stackpole, review of I Look like a Girl, p. 114.