All books signed and include an original drawing by On Being Yukiko co-author/illustrator Jeff Chiba Stearns.
In a rare collaboration between two of Canada’s most notable Japanese Canadian artists, Jeff Chiba Stearns and Lillian Michiko Blakey, comes an intergenerational story on Japanese Canadian family history and cultural identity. In order to appeal to young readers, this is the first time a graphic novel has ever been created to address both these themes of Japanese Canadian history and identity.
Through the blending of two unique artistic styles, Jeff’s cartoony ‘hapanimation’ and Lillian’s sketchy realism, twelve-year-old Emma, who is Gosei & ‘quarter’ Japanese, learns about her Japanese roots through the story of her great-great grandmother Maki, a Japanese picture bride who journeyed to Canada at the turn of the 20th century. Through Maki’s story of extreme perseverance and sacrifice, having been interned and then deported to Japan after WWII, Emma discovers a deeper connection to her Japanese Canadian identity, on being Yukiko.
