Note: The title of this book has been translated into English by me for the reading comprehension of this blog's viewers as the book itself isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads Kleine helden van toen #3: Kenji en de Akita.
Quick read I picked up at the library because it has an Akita in it. I like Akita Inu's, they're a cool dog breed. Spoilers ahead.
Kenji is the young son of a samurai who one day wishes to follow in his father's footsteps. When the Mongols invade the country, his father is called to go into battle. Kenji and his father's dog Yuki leap into action to save their father and owner from both the Mongols and also a terrible snowstorm that's plaguing the mountains.
A very bare bones story. It flew by so fast we barely got to process what was happening, which is honestly a shame because there is at least potential for an interesting story here. Having this be Kenji's rise to heroism. But instead, due to the rushed pace, it doesn't feel all that grand or epic. It has three "acts", the first where Kenji is living in the village with his father and training to be a samurai, the second where he and Yuki go to look for Kenji's father in the dangerous mountains, and the third where they fight a few Mongols as well as the storm, which causes Kenji's and Yuki's heroism to be recognized.
So as a story idea this works just fine for me, it's got a good structure and can be a good tale of heroism. But, like said before, the rushed execution pretty much ruins the entire book. You don't get time to breathe or to progress the character's actions and journey, you're just instantly tossed into the next part of the trip. I get that it's a children's book and those tend to be shorter, but I do think it's a shame. I think that if this were like at least 100 pages instead of about 70 it could've already been improved upon. Because right now we don't get to experience the story to its fullest potential, if you ask me.
The illustrations are nice, but I also do have to comment on how the illustrator draws dogs: Yuki looks...quite bad in most of the drawings, I'm sorry to say. The humans look fine but the illustrator clearly doesn't have a lot of experience with canines as Yuki's anatomy is inconsistent, unstructured and wonky as heck in most illustrations. The cover already kind of gives this away, but it gets much worse in the illustrations within the book themselves. You know how its often said that one should study how to draw realistic animals before you start stylizing them? It feels like this step was skipped here and the illustrator just loosely referenced a few dog images without looking into how canine anatomy works. Just a bit distracting since the illustrations of the humans are honestly just fine, making Yuki's weird anatomy pop out all the more.
Overall this isn't a bad book and I like the potential it has, but the rushed pace just ruins most potential. So I'll give it three stars for a good concept and the fact that it's not bad, it's just that I think it could've been truly a good children's book if it was a little longer and had a little more depth in (for example) the character development. Also, despite me bringing up the illustrations that does not factor into my rating.
Rating: 3/5
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