My Hand

by Satoshi Kitamura

This is my hand. It can do all sorts of things. Most of the time it does good things, but sometimes. . .

Kitamura introduces us to the wonders of something as simple as your hand – it can push, it can pull. It can paint, it can pat. And when your hand has a bad habit, it can pick your nose! Award-winning author and illustrator Satoshi Kitamura unfolds a wonderful celebration of the simple hand, also starring a favorite Kitamura character, Boots the cat.

Genres: Picture Books, Storytime, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published November 5, 2015

About the author

Satoshi Kitamura was born in 1956. After dropping out of school to pursue art, Kitamura decided not to attempt a 10-year apprenticeship as a potter and instead worked as a graphic artist. He was not trained as an artist, but at the age of 19 began to do commercial work as an illustrator for adverts and magazines. He moved from Tokyo to London in 1979 where he worked mainly at designing greeting cards.
Satoshi Kitamura has won several awards, including the Mother Goose Award, the National Art Library Award from the Victoria and Albert Museum, and a Nestle Children’s Book Prize Silver Medal. He lives in Japan.

Reviews

[Charlotte Gant · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was introduced to the author Satoshi Kitamura from the pre-reading of my English Specialism course. I was immediately drawn to the bright, unique and cartoon-like illustrations and limited written text. My Hand is a book about all the things that our hands can do, some good and some not so good. Littered with childlike humour, it was a lovely book to read.

As a picture book, I really loved the unique but simple illustrations. I believe it would engage young pupils and very early readers. Most of the illustrations have the hand carrying out the actions upon an object with a very simple yet colourful background. This means there is a clear focus of the main element of the illustration and little to distract or grab the attention of the readers. The humour of the hand doing something not so good and picking their nose at the end of the story reminds me of the books I enjoyed as a very young child. The books littered with things that do not quite line up with the idea of good behaviour or polite manners. It made the books funny and memorable.

When I read this, I was immediately hit with ideas of Early Years or early KS1 activities that could be done following reading this book. These range from drawing what our own hands can do (throw, clap, click, play instruments) to talking about classroom rules and expectations.

I would recommend this book for use within the Early Years and possibly Year 1. It is very simple so may not fully engage more sophisticated minds or older pupils but would work well for early readers and younger pupils.

[Katrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute read with good simple action, but made unreadable for storytime because of COVID. But that won't last long or I can adapt it. *air high five*

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

silly surprise of something you can do with your hand at the end of the story (it involves a nose)

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cute book for storytime.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute little tutorial on what hands can do, fun for toddlers.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in French (I’ll try to find/add l’edition francais soon)
Tope là!

[Judith Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice little board book for tiny ones. Three generations of our family are Satoshi Kitamura fans - we all love his work!

[San Diego Book Review · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed by Holly Scudero

What kinds of interesting things can a hand do? It can push and pull, draw and walk, and even wave hello or goodbye. In this cute, simple picture book, Satoshi Kitamura invites parents and kids to play along and explore what their hands can do. “My Hand” has easy words and very basic concepts, but it’ll be lots of fun for very young readers, and it might give parents ideas of some fun ways to play with the littlest members of their family.
You can read this entire review and others like it at San Diego Book Review.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short and funny. :)

[Kasey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book and its exploration of what hands can do. The one review I read was glowing. But I find the fact that the titular hand is doing all its actions (including pushing and pulling) TO Boots the Cat highly problematic in a picture book.

If it were marketed as a comic book to older school-aged children or even to adults, I would find this book highly comedic. But the problem is that the book is marketed to preschoolers and Kindergartners. Kids at that age often try to emulate what they see in books, which this book clearly encourages.

So depicting that your hand can push a cat, pull it's tail, tickle it, then stroke it, then throw it out of the house and wave, goes beyond the obvious humor into dangerous territory. At least, it could result in some very put upon cats, in the households of its readers. At worst, it could result in scratched or bitten hands.

[Ame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad "your hand can do this" primer, as long as you don't mind that the actions involve being mean to the family cat.

[Lisa Boyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this little book. It gets bonus points from me as it has a cat on every page. This could be a cute story time book for kids