Kurt Hassler and editorial assistant Tania Biswas just gave me the story on the newest Yen Press title, and it’s something completely different from the usual run of manga: the Japanese title is Hikari to Tomo ni …, and they are translating it into English as With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child. The author is Keiko Tobe. “It is a fictionalized account of a family and what they go through in these circumstances, but it is something that is realy designed for parents living through a similar experience,” Hassler said. “The Japanese publisher had been receiving numerous requests from English-speaking parents of autistic children asking if this is available in an English language edition. It is something the publisher had no luck finding a home for and we immediately jumped at it.”
The story, which is up to 10 volumes in Japan, runs in Akita Shoten’s Mrs. magazine. It won an excellence prize at the 2004 Japan Media Arts Festival and was adapted into an award-winning drama.
Hassler said that the book would be marketed to parents and professionals, and he expected to see this manga in the child development sections of bookstores, not the manga section. Yen Press plans to publish it unflipped in a slightly larger format than most manga. Each volume of the English edition will contain two volumes of the Japanese edition and will run about 500 pages for $14.99.
Update: I forgot to mention that the book is due out in September 2007.
In my honest opinion, socially responsible manga—always wins. I’m glad to see this.
Sounds like a great project, and a great cause for a new publisher to get involved in.
I wonder whether the decision to publish it unflipped will help or hurt the book get to the “regular” audience of parents and caregivers who might not already be manga readers and used to right-to-left reading. Still, it’ll be interesting to see some unflipped manga in other sections of the bookstore…
Say…is this the first time we’ve heard the name of Yen’s new editorial assistant? I remember when you posted the job listing. It looks like they’re staffing up, all right!
I can’t decide which one I like better, Del Rey or Yen Press…hmm
Hikari to Tomo ni the drama is wonderful… the drama in which Shinohara Ryoko, my favorite anego, won best actress award for.
http://www.jdorama.com/drama.899.htm
Too bad I don’t think there was ever an english sub torrent made available… The DVD is forsale in Japan but I’m sure it doesn’t have English subtitles. It’s just sad because many of those parents would get so much out of this show. Just trying to find a drama on American TV about the struggles of a family with an autistic child.
Outstanding. Autism is on the rise in the US. It’s touched my family, and a good friend of mine works as part of a therapy team for children with severe cases. I will DEFINITELY be picking this up, and I think it will do well.
Manga covers so many topics in Japan…title like this could lead to more informative titles being published here…
I certainly hope this “fictionalized” account is based on actual people and the challenges of raising autistic children.
Any word on that?
I ask, because too often the very real problems and joys of coping with autism are trivialized for entertainment’s sake, and this serves neither autism families nor audiences.
Forgot to add that I am the mother of an autistic 11-year-old, sister of an autistic adult, and first cousin to a learning-disabled adult.
At least no one asks about Rain Man any more.
I have an 11-year-old son with autism-spectrum disorders and would probably be in the target market for this book. We’ll see how well Yen promotes this book to this market.
I’m also concerned about making it a right-to-left reader. I’m manga-aware enough to appreciate it, but I suspect that most people who would otherwise be interested in this are not. Nonetheless, I’ll be looking for it in September.