Using Edelweiss and Netgalley are useful tools as a school librarian: to gain perspective on new things that are coming down the pike in publishing, a get ahead of books that I should be ordering, to get to hype books and authors before their next bestseller comes out.

I was so excited to request a graphic travelogue called Uniquely Japan: Discover What Makes Japan The Coolest Place On Earth by Abby Denson because I was going to be taking almost twenty of my high school students to Japan this summer. A trip that had been postponed several times due to the pandemic. So what better way to discover the coolest things about Japan from this graphic story?

Then within the span of two weeks, I received the approval for the request and downloaded it to read then found out that our travel company would not be able to send us to Japan because of the continued restrictions.

But I wanted to read it still though it would be painful. We chose to cancel the trip altogether since many of my students were seniors who had held on through three postponements and because it is exhausting to have to continue to wait. I cancelled the day before we were to go on our winter break and decided to rip this one off like a Band-aid, reading Denson’s book first. And how my heart broke because Denson’s approach was as unique as the title implies in how she presents the information but also in what she chose to present. I had fun on each page while feeling little pinpricks of sadness that it was not going to happen for us this summer.

One day I’ll get there, hopefully with students, and I know the book that I will have by my side.