Book Title: Dear Diary Boy
ISBN: 9781950691616
By Author(s):KUMIKO MAKIHARA
By Publisher:SKYHORSE PUBLISHING
Format:TPB
An intensely personal, heartwarming, and heartbreaking chronicle of one mother and child's struggle to fit in at a prestigious private elementary school in Japan
When her five-year-old son passed the rigorous entrance exams to one of Japan's top private elementary schools, Makihara, a single mother, thought they were on their way. Taro would wear the historic dark blue uniform and learn alongside other little Einsteins while she basked in the glory of his high achievements with the other perfect moms. Together they would climb the rungs into the country's successful elite.
But it didn't turn out that way. Taro had other things in mind. While set in Japan, their struggles in the school's hyper competitive environment mirror those faced by parents here in the US and raise the same questions about the best way to educate a child - especially one that doesn't quite fit the mold. Public or private? Competitive or nurturing? Standardised or individualised. Helicopter parenting or free-range? Amid this frenzied debate, how does one find balance and maintain a healthy parent-child relationship?