A Field Sing-A-Long (Dowa-ya) is a collection of short free-verse poems translated by William I. Elliott and Nishihara Katsumasa from Naoko Kudō's Japanese originals.Naoko's poems are set in a natural community called “Field Village." Various creatures or elements of the habitat—personified with human names such as "Yoshio Rivercrab" and "Futago...

I still recall fondly the female protagonists of teen “chick lit” and coming-of-age stories I read in high school. On a given day I might feel as tormented by love and teenage awkwardness as Mia Thermopolis (Meg Cabot’s The Princess Diaries) or lonely and isolated like Melinda Sordino (Laurie Halse...