The+Two+Bullies

The Two Bullies  Patrick Voelker “The Two Bullies” by Junko Morimoto, Illustrated by Isao Morimoto Publisher: Crown 32 Pages Original Language: Japanese Translated to: English Age Range: 5-8 Award: Australian Picture Book of the Year Junko Morimoto is a Japanese children’s author who has published many different books and received several awards for her works. Junko and her family survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima when Junko was only 13 years old. This event has had a tremendous impact on her and her goal of inspiring and helping other people. She has written a book about the bombings and she has also made speeches about her experiences to inform people and help the younger generations understand and learn through picture books. The book “The Two Bullies” is about the strongest man in Japan and his quest to find and challenge the strongest man in china. This man, Ni-ou set out to challenge the strongest man in China, Dokkoi. When Ni-ou reaches his home, he sits and waits for him, but as he is returning, Ni-ou can hear Dokkoi’s footsteps from very far away and decides to flee. While he is in his boat, Dokkoi begins to chase after him and throws an anchor which catches Ni-ou’s boat. Ni-ou is terrified of Dokkoi so he cuts the chain with a file given to him by a priest. Dokkoi believes that Ni-ou breaks the chain and is now relieved he did not have to face him. Both men believed the other to be something better than they and therefore left each other alone after their brief meeting. To this day, when someone from China lifts something heavy, they say Ni-ou, and people from Japan say Dokkoi to respect the large “bullies”. I chose to review this book because it is a very old story that has been around for thousands of years, and I thought that there would be a good moral message to the book. In fact there was, towards the end of the book, each man is scared of the other because of what they think of each other, even though they had not met. This message shows that one must always be prepared, yet also must be respectful of something that is more powerful than oneself. The two most important literary elements in this book were the overall theme and plot development. The whole theme of the book was that these two large men were seeking someone to challenge them, yet once they were met by someone bigger or more powerful than them they showed respect and no longer wished to harm them. This also went along with the plot development, as in the beginning, Ni-ou wanted to seek out Dokkoi to challenge him until he heard his footsteps, and Dokkoi also wanted to challenge Ni-ou until he saw him rip the chain, after they were not so confident, they respected each other and still do to this day.
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