Who's the author again? Yup, Asano Masumi. Yes, the seiyuu one.
Again, it's meant to be a children's novel. As such, every single kanji words are marked with furigana, and the prints are larger, too. I say large prints are good for both young & old. ^_^;;
Stories continues from the first volume. Uru-chan managed to pass the first stage of her training, so she gets to stay with Chisato-chan. I'm not going to go into the details about the story, but it's really clever how she makes use of real everyday life events to create such a heart-warming and thought provoking, or at least nostalgic (depending on how hardened your soul is) stories. I mean, I bet you know at least one person who doesn't like tomatoes. Heck, even I know at least three, and I don't even know that many people. And I'm sure most of you still have or remember your grand parents. See? We can all related to these things.
In the deeper layer of the story, businesses, cultures, and even some politics are talked about. It's actually pretty hard to convince myself that this is written by the same person who... says those things in those radio shows. Deep down, I believe this is the real Asano Masumi and the lowbrow (though still witty) one you may find elsewhere is the fake (acting) one.
If you're studying Japanese, can read all the kana, and know some words, why not move on to light novels like these? Time to break free from just reading manga. No, I have nothing against manga, but light novels represent another stage in hobbiest language study.
Again for the record, no I'm not going to try to make crepe based on the recipe in the book. I'm no good with sweets ^_^;;
Oh, and I actually finished reading this some time ago. I've just been neglecting my site these days. ^_^;;
Chisato and Uru, with crepe and tomato related illustrations. Wonder why...
