The Lost Ryū, by Emi Watanabe Cohen

What with the hectic rush of family Christmas at my mother's house, and the frantic rush to deal with all the piles of paper that accumulated at work while I was gone, it's been hard to actually sit at the computer and write a review (this is my first review since mid-December...).  But the books aren't going to review themselves, and I have a couple I got review copies of for the Cybils Awards that I liked lots, so here I am.

The Lost Ryū by Emi Watanabe Cohen (middle grade, June 2022,  Levine Querido) is about dragons-the ryū of the title.  There were once massive dragons flying over Japan, but after WWII those dragons vanished and only little companion dragons remain. Ten year old Kohei has a little dragon, Yuharu, whom he loves; the new neighbor girl, half Japanese, half Russian Isolde, who has just moved from the US, has a Yiddish speaking dragon named Cheshire.  These dragons are charming. 

It is about much more than charming dragons, though, and more also than the story of the friendship that develops between the two kids (though Isolde's uncomfortable life experience of never belonging and how she deals with it was a great part of the book).  At its heart is a story of intergenerational trauma, tied to dragon magic and the challenges of belonging, to make for very moving reading.

Kohei's family (him, his mother, and his maternal grandfather) has secrets.  He barely remembers his father, who died when he was three, but he does have a memory of seeing one of the last of the great dragons.  Following a trail of snippets of information and considerable intuition, he sets out with Isolde to find the ryū his grandfather loved and lost, to dispel the miasma of past trauma hanging over his family. 

It is a magical journey of impossible wonder--the realism (with small dragons) of the first part of the book becomes lovely, full-blown fantasy.  For Kohei the quest is a bright flare of refusal to accept his mother's creed of  ‘shikata ga nai’ (“there’s nothing to be done --just keep existing without fighting) and his grandfather's drinking and anger.  It is his father's words, words that he treasures, that keep him going--

‘Do not quit. You must keep trying to make things better, Kohei, because there are always good things you can do.’

And gee but that is a message that so many of us need to remember, and if we can be reminded while reading about lovely ryū in Japan, adventuring with two brave kids, so much the better.

short answer--come for the smart, funny, loyal little dragons, stay for big dragons and big heart!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher for Cybils Award consideration