Wells’s familiar kitten Yoko is in kindergarten, and she’s just learned how to write her name in Japanese. Olive and Sylvia, two catty (also kitten) schoolmates, claim that Yoko is only scribbling and that she will not be able to graduate to first grade. Despite stars from her teacher, comforting words from her mother and help from her friend Angelo, Yoko worries, particularly when she is excluded from a schoolyard game of Graduation. Then other members of the class want to learn some Japanese, and Yoko is glad to teach them. Her teacher’s inclusion of Japanese as a second classroom language further helps to dispel her fears. By the time the end of the year rolls around, it is Olive and Sylvia who are worried, because they are the only ones who haven’t learned their names in Japanese. Can Yoko save the day? English language learners in particular will savor Yoko’s accomplishments. As always, believable characters, familiar struggles and warmth fill Wells’s work, which teaches a subtle lesson on acceptance and maturity with great clarity. (Picture book. 3-6)
