SACHIKO MEANS HAPPINESS

Sachiko may share Grandma.'s name, but Grandma herself has recently become so forgetful and difficult that Sachiko, when Mother once again asks her to watch her, is rebellious: she lets Grandma--who doesn't even recognize Sachiko today--go out to look for her ""home."" But when Grandma becomes tearful and more and more confused, Sachiko realizes that she is like a little child, lost among strangers, who can't find the way. Sympathetic at last, Sachiko comforts Grandma as if she really were another little girl, and leads her home. This perceptive glimpse of one Japanese family's loving response to the grief of Alzheimer's is illustrated with richly glowing pastels in a realistic style emphasizing the drama between child and grandmother. Promising debuts for both author (a Japanese librarian) and artist (a Japanese-American New Yorker).