This book is all about following a childhood dream. I absolutely loved the illustrations in this book. The painting were so real I thought they were photographs. One idea that was neat about the story was an American girl marrying a Japanese man. This idea of interracial marriage is not played out very often in children's books and it is nice to see it. It gets rid of the stereotypes of whites, blacks and others marrying people who look like them. I also like how they author made Erika adapt to life in another culture. I think this is important because when you go somewhere else in the world it is only appropriate to practice their customs and not take an American approach to everything. This allows you to better understand how they live and what they value as apposed to American culture.