Tohoku Earthquake books: TOMO and MELTDOWN

One year ago tomorrow, one of the five largest earthquakes ever recorded struck Japan.  Almost sixteen thousand were killed and thousands more were injured or missing.  More than one hundred thousand buildings were destroyed.

TOMO, ed. by Holly Thompson (Stone Bridge Press, March 10, 2012)(12+) is a young adult collection of stories by authors from around the world, all of whom have some connection to Japan.  Per the flap copy, the book offers "[t]ales of friendship, mystery, love, ghosts, magic, sci-fi and history [that] will take readers to Japan past and present and to Japanese communities abroad."  A portion of the proceeds will go to long-term relief efforts for teens in Tohoku.

Edited and with a Foreword by Holly Thompson, TOMO contributing authors and artists include Andrew Fukuda (Crossing), Liza Dalby (The Tale of Murasaki), Tak Toyoshima (Secret Asian Man syndicated comic), Alan Gratz (The Brooklyn Nine), Wendy Nelson Tokunaga (Love in Translation), Deni Y. Béchard (Vandal Love), Debbie Ridpath Ohi (illustrator of I’m Bored), Graham Salisbury (Under the Blood-Red Sun), Naoko Awa (The Fox’s Window and Other Stories), Suzanne Kamata (The Beautiful One Has Come) and Shogo Oketani (J-Boys), among others.

MELTDOWN: THE NUCLEAR DISASTER IN JAPAN AND OUR ENERGY FUTURE, by Fred Bortz (Lerner 2012)(ages 10+).  Physicist Bortz offers an account of the earthquake, its effects on the  nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, and efforts at remediation.  Additional sections discuss the context of nuclear power and its place in the production of electricity.