Gigi and Ojiji by Melissa Iwai

The majority of leveled early readers tend towards humor, silly stories, or the traditional anthropomorphic animal friends. Generally speaking they don’t lend themselves to realistic fiction, unless you move into the more complex readers which can express more emotions and thoughts.

Iwai has created a realistic but not too challenging story that invites children to think about their own experiences, or their friends’ experiences, with intergenerational differences. Gigi is excited to meet her grandfather, who is moving from Japan to live with her family. Their initial meeting does not go well though; Gigi is shy and forgets the Japanese she carefully learned and her grandpa, Ojiisan, doesn’t seem to like her. With her mother’s gentle explanations of the cultural differences between them, Gigi tries again and this time she and Ojiisan are able to find some common ground.

Although written in longer sentences and paragraphs, this is still a fairly simple reader that most intermediate readers could handle. The handful of Japanese words are defined in the back, but they are also explained through the context of the story.

Verdict: Although I generally focus on funny and nonfiction leveled readers, I do like to have additional options for kids that are a little more thoughtful and this is a good purchase to diversify your early reader collection.

ISBN: 9780063208063; Published May 2022 by HarperCollins; Borrowed from another library in my consortium; Added to my order list