Tokyo Ever After

Starred review from March 1, 2021

Gr 8 Up-Izumi, a Japanese American high school student, has a pretty average life: a band of awesome misfit friends, a delicious diner where she's a regular, and a loving mother-everything a high school senior needs. Or is it? Her father's identity has always been a mystery her mother has refused to discuss beyond that he was simply a one-night stand in college. One day Izumi accidentally learns his name, her first real clue to his whereabouts. Her friend researches the name and everything starts spiraling...until Izumi is in Japan with the knowledge that her father is the Crown Prince. Not only that, here she is, in Japan with the entire country's eyes staring straight at her. The whiplash from such a fast time line hits Izumi hard. Is this her chance to find where she really feels at home or will finding out her mother's secret ruin everything? Told from Izumi's point of view, the story explores the deep feelings of loneliness BIPOC children sometimes feel when they are the minority within their American town and have little connection to their ancestors' birth country. Izumi's determined spirit and character arc will endear readers to her. Vibrant descriptions of Japan and Izumi's reactions feel cheesy but truly realistic, capturing all of the fear, excitement, and admiration one could have when visiting a country with a different culture than their own. Izumi is a fully realized protagonist whom teens will find relatable. VERDICT A fun experience that readers will want to read again and again.-DeHanza Kwong, Butte P.L., MT

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2021
A Japanese American teen searches for her father--who turns out to be the crown prince of Japan. Kind and "remarkably unremarkable," Izumi Tanaka enjoys the support of her single mother and high school friends in her hometown of Mount Shasta, California. Her grades are "subpar at best," and she's been accepted into decent, but not exclusive, colleges. She acknowledges that her love of Real Housewives and dabbling in baking, while relatable, are not exceptional. After searching for her father and discovering the shocking news of his identity, Izumi is invited to Japan to stay with the royal family for two weeks. Dubbed the Lost Butterfly princess, she is swept up in royal life, complete with all its intrigue. The romance of being a princess--complete with a hot, young bodyguard, Akio--quickly dissipates as tabloids, cultural differences, and a serious blunder at the Japanese prime minister's wedding take their toll. While the action-packed plot keeps pages turning, inconsistencies in Izumi's voice are distracting, and her character development lacks cohesion. More slow-building tension would have given her romantic encounters with Akio a bigger payoff. However, the novel hits its stride in the second half as Izumi returns to the States and focuses on her personal growth and evolving relationships with each of her parents, developments that are thoughtfully fleshed out. This royal romp comes together for a strong finish. (Fiction. 14-18)

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Starred review from March 1, 2021
Grades 8-12 *Starred Review* Izumi has never known her father, but she has a close and healthy relationship with her Japanese American biology-professor mother, and she accepts her mother's story of a one-night stand with a visiting Japanese student while finishing her degree at Harvard to account for her origin. When a friend of Izumi's figures out that her dad is actually the Crown Prince of Japan, Izumi reaches out to him, but after the press uncovers the secret, nothing is ever the same. Comparisons will be drawn to Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries, but Jean explores an entirely new element, as Izumi struggles to adapt to a homogenous society where, although she may look like both royals and commoners, she is clearly an outsider. Jean also nails the feeling of being a minority in a small rural Northern Californian town, with the comfort of her AGG (Asian Girl Gang--with the three other Asian girls in her town), as well as her ambivalence and discomfort in exploring Japanese traditions during her time abroad. Text messages and newspaper articles are clever ways to advance plot while communicating tone and culture. There's a requisite romance with taciturn bodyguard Akio, and the Crown Prince's somewhat unlikely transformation into loving and supportive father, but Jean also busts stereotypes (Izumi is not a star student). A refreshing and spot-on depiction of Japanese Americans exploring their heritage that will appeal to teen Asian girls as well as a wider pool of readers.

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