Kamishibai Man

The Kamishibai Man was written and illustrated by Allen Say in 2005.  This text differs from the other Allen Say stories I read as it is more intricate in it's design. At the start of the story, Say includes a forward which explains to readers the definition of kamishibai so that readers can use their schema and infer throughout the duration of the story.  Within this particular story, Say explains to readers how the creation of television took away from the importance of oral stories that the kamishibai man would tell to the children.  This story introduces readers to the Japanese tradition of paper theater and its importance with their culture.  The kamishibai man returns at the end of the story to tell his stories one again as he longed to return to his old days of using paper theater to entertain children.  The story concludes with an afterword as Say explains the history behind kamishibai and offers readers an inside to truly understanding the importance of paper theater as being a "poor man's theater" following World War II.  The incorporation of this book into an upper-grade elementary curriculum would serve as a strong resource to help readers understand more about Japanese culture and importance of preserving such elements of history such as the tradition of kamishibai.