Honda: The Boy Who Dreamed of Cars
About the Book
By Mark Weston, Illustrated by Katie Yamasaki
Lee and Low Books, 2007
This book was Yamasaki’s first published, illustrated book for children. It tells the story of Soichiro Honda, founder of the Honda Motor Company.
It was a wonderful project for Yamasaki to do, as it provided her a first opportunity to travel to Japan for the research. It was also interesting because Yamasaki grew up north of Detroit where everyone worked at the local GM factory. It was her first time ever thinking so much or looking so much at automobiles!
More than anything, Yamasaki was impressed by Honda’s vision and imagination. He was an incredible creative, visual thinker, and Yamasaki enjoyed showing many parts of his personality and thought process co-exist in a single illustration as she created the illustrations for the book.
