The Wise Owl Tween Book Club meets every month to discuss a book and meet the author! The first 15 readers who register will receive a copy of the book to keep, limited to one copy per household. To make the most out of the author visit, please finish reading the book by the time of our discussion.

We will be meeting in person in the Balboa Room at Central Library, with an option to Zoom in from home.

The book is also available to check out from the library here. 

The Lost Ryu

Kohei Fujiwara has never seen a big ryu in real life. Those dragons all disappeared from Japan after World War II, and twenty years later, they've become the stuff of legend. Their smaller cousins, who can fit in your palm, are all that remain. And Kohei loves his ryu, Yuharu, but... Kohei has a memory of the big ryu. He knows that's impossible, but still, it's there, in his mind. In it, he can see his grandpa - Ojiisan - gazing up at the big ryu with what looks to Kohei like total and absolute wonder.

When Kohei was little, he dreamed he'd go on a grand quest to bring the big ryu back, to get Ojiisan to smile again. But now, Ojiisan is really, really sick. And Kohei is running out of time. Kohei needs to find the big ryu now, before it's too late. With the help of Isolde, his new half-Jewish, half-Japanese neighbor; and Isolde's Yiddish-speaking dragon, Cheshire; he thinks he can do it. Maybe. He doesn't have a choice.

In The Lost Ryu, debut author Emi Watanabe Cohen gives us a story of multigenerational pain, magic, and the lengths to which we'll go to protect the people we love.

About the Author

Emi Watanabe Cohen is a children’s author whose work usually involves Jewish and/or Japanese folklore, complicated families, and a dash of improbable magic. Her debut novel, THE LOST RYU, is now available wherever books are sold. GOLEMCRAFTERS is slated for release in 2023.

Find out more on Emi's website at https://www.emicohenwrites.com/

Thank you so much to the Friends of the Children's Library for sponsoring events like these to help us bring more fun programs to our readers.