Hand Wash Birds

Chimaki is a cheerful little girl who lives in Japan. One afternoon, she studies so hard that she works up a big appetite. She rushes home for an after school snack and when she arrives, smells her mother's freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, Chiamki's favorite! She runs into the dining room and grabs the cookies without even washing her hands! What happens next she could not have imagined. Her cookies disappear!! Where did they go? She must find out who took them and why anyone would ever do such a thing.

Tsugumi Otani grew up in Osaka, Japan, and currently lives in Seattle. She enjoys a well balanced daily life between her career in healthcare and her free time gardening, exercising, and music. During covid pandemic, she started the process of developing a story behind a character she had been sketching the year before. She had an idea to make some decals of her character, but after presenting them at the neighborhood bookstore, someone suggested she develop a story to go along with them. After all, people might wonder, "Who is this little girl on all these stickers?", hence, her delving into writing her first children book. Her first effort "Goodbye Tooth Germs", she wrote, illustrated, and published in 2022. "Hand Wash Birds" is her most recent title. Chimaki, the main character, is a caricature of her childhood self, inspired and influenced by her surroundings and experiences growing up in Japan. Tsugumi hopes her young readers enjoy her books and her stories help them to build good lifelong habits.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: ELL teacher, Jean Fallow, who inspired her writing and was instrumental in editing this latest book. Her mother in law, Sharon Wilder, whose love, support, and experience as an elementary school teacher helped greatly to tailor her writing for young readers. And of course, her husband who has gotten to know Chimaki very well, and authored this last piece.