Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin

Hana, who has just been playing the violin for a few weeks, tells her brothers that she is going to be a part of the school’s talent show. Her brothers nearly fall out of a tree they laugh so hard. Instead of letting this discourage Hana, she practices day and night to everyone or no one. She wanted to live up to her grandfather’s legacy when he was the Second Violin in the symphony orchestra in Kyoto. Ojiichan even had played in front of the Imperial Family. When the moment finally came for Hana to perform, she began dizzy and wished she had never signed up to be a part of the talent show. But before she gave up, she remembered words her grandfather used to tell her, “Do your best,” and Hana did just that. She played sounds that were familiar to her and did a wonderful job. Her brothers even wanted an encore after the show at home. Hana knew she had a lot of work still to do to be as good as her Ojiichan but she was still proud of all she accomplished.

I thought this picture book was a great multicultural book. It was very interesting to learn about Hana’s grandfather and all that he had accomplished. I liked how the book included Japanese words to make the culture that the audience was experiencing come to life. It also had a great moral of the story. Once again, it taught students to try their best and how practice will make perfect. I feel that students can relate to this because this theory can relate to playing instruments, sports, etc. Loved this diverse picture book and definitely will have it in my future classroom.

Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin

Author: Chieri Uegaki

Illustrator: Qin Leng

Year Published: 2014