My Reaction to Eileen Wacker's "Rainbow Panda and the Firecracker Fiasco"

In Eileen Wacker’s sixth addition of the Fujimini Adventure Series, Rainbow Panda is just itching to cause some trouble as the other Pandas on the island prepare for the New Year’s celebration. While all the Pandas are busy sweeping, cleaning, planting flowers, and writing wishes on ribbons, Rainbow Panda is busy concocting a plan that turns him into a hero. One of the most exciting parts of the New Year celebration is the fireworks display of course, but this year Rainbow Panda wants to put on a fireworks display of his own. To set his plan in motion he tries to get the help of Green Hamster, who is always eager for excitement. Will his explosive plan turn him into the New Years hero he hopes to become or just cause a whole lot of trouble? 

Ms. Wacker does a fantastic job of telling a fun story while incorporating cultural elements that may be unfamiliar to most American children, such as the customs and traditions behind Asian New Year celebrations. Using lessons like teamwork, problem solving, and following rules, the story puts an educational spin on a cute and funny tale of adventure and learning consequences. Rated 4.8 stars on Amazon and 4.4 stars on Good Reads, this story is definitely a crowd pleaser and one of my personal favorites of the Fujimini Adventure Series.

When asked about her motivation and inspiration behind writing the sixth book of the series, author and CEO of ONCEKids publishing, Eileen Wacker, responded; “My motivation for the Rainbow Panda book was to highlight a New Year that is celebrated by half of the world's population. I also wanted to highlight how hard it is for kids to accept rules and people saying 'NO". And to show how sometimes mischievous antics can lead to unanticipated issues. But good teamwork and strong friendships will usually ensure a happy ending. The Rainbow Panda is a rascal and I love him as a character.”

To learn more about the book or purchase it on Amazon click here

My Review of Eileen Wacker's 'Red Penguin and the Missing Sushi'

In Eileen Wacker’s second book in the Fujimini Adventure Series, Fujimini Island is filled with excitement as the animals prepare for the much anticipated Moon Festival Celebration, a traditional Chinese harvest festival. All the hamsters are busily making beautiful traditional lanterns while Red Penguin is crafting her prized sushi. The other critters who live on Fujimini Island are doing all the can to help, including Blue Whale who just loves parties. Red Penguin is very proud of her sushi, and is doing a bit of showing off and bragging to the hamsters about how important it is. Suddenly, her beloved sushi vanishes. Has a simple mistake been made or is someone trying to teach Red Penguin a lesson about bragging? 

Given 4.62 out of 5 stars on Good Reads and 5 out of 5 stars on Barnes and Noble, this book is an excellent way to make kids smile and laugh along through the adventures of the Fujimini Island animals while also learning a subtle but important moral lesson about bragging. 

A customer reviewed the book on Barnes and Noble’s website, giving it a 5 out of 5 and commented:

“Red Penguin and the Missing Sushi is a clever and very funny little book. The characters are great and the story keeps children engaged. Plus, the author infuses bits of asian culture into the story. It's fun and educational!”

When asked about her inspiration behind this book author and CEO of ONCEKids Eileen Wacker responded, “My inspiration for Red Penguin and the Missing Sushi was children’s hide and seek, sushi making and bragging! It is a true adventure story involving two best friends who decide to teach a sushi making bragging chef a lesson. Of course it backfires and the importance of working together to solve a problem comes into play! I love this story and the bragging penguin is really a great friend and chef!”

Enjoy the story on your kindle, hardcopy, or as an animated book!

Click here to learn more or purchase the book

Meet the 'Fujimini Cast' and Author at the Book Soup Event on Sunday, April 6th

We are all very excited this week here at OnceKids because Sunday, April 6th is the Multi-Cultural Family Event at Book Soup. Starting at 11am award-winning author, Eileen Wacker, will join stars Jason James Richter and Anita Vora for this fun family event. You may know Jason James Richter from the beloved movie series Free Willy and Anita Vora from the award-winning film Life of Pi. The two celebrities gather with our own Fujimini author, Eileen, at Book Soup in West Hollywood in celebration of the newest release in the Fujimini series “Blue Penguin and the Sensational Surf”, which also features the talents of George Takei. “Blue Penguin and the Sensational Surf” is the seventh book in the beloved Fujimini Island series. You can buy the printed books but they are also available in the form of the popular ebooks and animated books. 

The new addition to the fun, Asian-inspired series tells the story of the penguins on Fujimini Island who are hard at work preparing for the grand opening of their Fujimini Island Surf School. Blue Penguin is excited to show off some of his best moves to his eager students, but a unfamiliar face is among them in the crowd. Who is this stranger and why has he come to Fujimini Island?  

Author Eileen Wacker talks about Fujimini Island and the Book Soup event saying, “Fujimini Island, where the stories take place, is a safe and fun environment where children like to learn. We offer the same friendly settings at our events. We invite children and their families to have fun, and take some time to play during their day.” 

Learn more about Blue Penguin and the stranger on the Island, as well as the other books in the series, during Book Soup on Sunday from 11am to 12pm. The family-oriented event not only offers book signings but story read-alongs, games, coloring, videos and more.

The seven-book Fujimini Island series has won family-friendly and technology awards by Moms Choice Awards, Clarion Forward, Readers’ Favorite, Zealot Readers, and Quill Book Reviews. You can learn more about them at our websites: www.ONCEKids.com and www.FujiminiIsland.com 

Japanese New Year: Traditions (Part 1 of 2)

Everybody at ONCEKids wants to wish you a happy and healthy new year! It has been a very busy time in Japan as the people welcome the New Year with many traditions and celebrations rich in Japanese culture. 

Has your family received a Nook, Kindle or iPad this year?  Find Fujimini Adventure Series award-winning books here.  Great family-friendly gifts.

The festivities begin December 31st, also known as Omisoka. A special selection of dishes are reserved for this celebratory time of year. Mashed sweet potatoes, boiled seaweed, fish cakes, and sweetened black soybeans can all be found being prepared in the kitchen of Japanese homes during this time.

For more on Asian culture and popular holidays, please visit Fujimini Island on Facebook and Twitter. 

Traditional foods continue to be prepared and eaten throughout the week, even with a seven-herb rice soup being prepared on the seventh day to allow the stomach to rest. The traditional New Year's foods date back to time where there was no refrigerators so most of the foods are dried, sour, or sweet to prevent spoiling while stores were closed for the holiday season. Other foods commonly consumed for New Years are sashimi and sushi. Soup with mochi rice cake is another very popular dish but the ingredients differ throughout the various regions of Japan. 

Other methods Japanese people like to use to ring in the New Year include bell ringing and sending postcards. Beginning on December 31st, the ringing of bells can be heard coming from Buddhist temples all over Japan. The temples ring their bells a total of 108 times to symbolize the 108 human sins of Buddhist tradition. They felt that the ringing of the bells would rid of the 108 worldly desires of the Japanese people. Once the bells have been rung the sins of the previous year are eliminated with the welcoming of the next year. The gesture of sending postcards to friends and family is custom for this celebration as well. The handwritten postcards are timed so they will arrive specifically on January 1st. Similarly to the Western custom of sending cards for Christmas, the Japanese send postcards for New Years to wish friends and family a happy and fulfilling year. 

Entertainment such as games and television specials are found at family gatherings and parties, as well as the reading of various Japanese poems. Poetry such as haiku and renga is read by people to family and friends to welcome and celebrate that special time of year. 

Meet Momofuku Ando, inventor of Ramen Noodles (Series Part 4 of 4)

Kids love them, college students live off them, they make a great on the go meal -- but do most people know the inventor behind the beloved Instant Noodles? 

Well, Taiwanese-Japanese business man and founder of Nissin Food Products Company, Momofuku Ando, can take that title. Originally Nissin was a small family-run company that produced salt in Ikeda, Osaka, Japan after the bankruptcy of his first company. 

For more on Asian culture, please visit Fujimini Island on Facebook and Twitter.

Ando's idea for Instant Noodles came during the post-war era when Japan was suffering from a shortage of food. Ando dedicated months of trial and error experimentation before finally on August 25, 1958 when he marketed the first package of precooked noodles, calling them Chicken Ramen. 

Originally the revolutionary instant noodles were considered a luxury item, priced around six times what the traditional noodles were at the time. Once prices began to drop, Instant noodles popularity took off at a rapid rate. 

In 1964 he became the chairman of the International Ramen Manufacturers' Association. There is even a museum (Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum) dedicated to him! 

We produce and create Asian centric stories to blend society of the East with the West. To learn more about Asian themes, please visit ONCEKids Publishing.
The efficiency and low prices of Instant Noodles and Cup Noodles created a fortune for Nissin. Ando lived to be 96 and when asked the secret to his long life he said that it was playing golf and eating Chicken Ramen nearly every day. 

In Bhutan Happiness is the Measure of Success

Most countries' primary focus is increasing their national wealth and Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, but Bhutan is a different story. The Kingdom of Bhutan, a landlocked state in South Asia tucked neatly between the Himalayas, the Republic of India, and the People's Republic of China, prides itself not on their GDP, but on something else- a term they dubbed GNH. 

For more on Asian culture, please visit Fujimini Island on Facebook and Twitter.

GNH is a term coined in 1972 by Jigme Singye Wangchuck, Bhutan's fourth Dragon King. It stands for "Gross National Happiness". The term, GNH, serves to show Bhutan's dedication to building an economy based on Buddhist spiritual values. 

The leaders of Bhutan wished to prevent the loss of culture that seemed to occur with a country's increase in economic status. To prove their seriousness about this new development, Karma Ura developed a survey instrument designed to measure the population's general level of well-being.

To learn more about the cultural and diversity taught at Fujimini Island, please click here.

The "Four Pillars" of GNH are the promotion of sustainable development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and the establishment of good governance. 

The government in Bhutan believes spiritual and psychological well being and happiness are far more important to a nation than wealth based on materials and economic status alone. 

Takazawa Restaurant gives love to Japan with local Flavor

One of Tokyo's best kept secrets is also one of its most delicious, Takazawa Restaurant. With only three tables and a maximum of ten people served at a time, Takazawa is much more talked about than actually visited. Chef Yoshiaki Takazawa works virtually solo to whip up each customer some of Japan's most delicious dishes. 

For more on Asian culture, please visit Fujimini Island on Facebook and Twitter.

Chef Takazawa's wife Akiko works by his side warmly greeting and serving each customer. Akiko's fluent English makes the restaurant very tourist friendly. Recent changes have been made, but Takazawa's precision still remains the same. Changes include more use of local ceramics and chopsticks rather than knives and forks. Akiko explains these changes saying, "We wanted to give our love to Japan, to focus more on Japanese ingredients, flavors, and techniques." 

A night at Takazawa means eleven breath-taking courses, all specially prepared by the owner himself. The first dish of the night is a dish named "Sea", which includes a selection of percebes barnacles from northern Kyoto, a tiny pink crab, and honmirugai clam cooked in fish sauce, and strands of crunchy Okinawan umi-budo seaweed. 

The second course offers another selection of seafood, including soft white crab meat and green and red seaweed.

We produce and create Asian centric stories to blend society of the East with the West. To learn more about Asian themes, please visit ONCEKids Publishing.

Typically the next course would be the finale- but not at Takazawa, there are still eight courses left! Other dishes served during the meal include turtle soup, batter-fried sweetish, and sansai-mountain vegetables. The last course is dessert of tea, chocolates, and lime infused cheesecake. 

With ingredients changing seasonally, the Takazawa always has fresh, new dishes to liven up your night. 

Chinese Dragon Boat Festival June 10-16

Written by ONCEKids staff writer Aidan Metzger


Excitement is growing in China as the Annual Dragon Boat Festival is approaching. This festival is a lunar holiday, occurring on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, this year falling on June 10 and lasting until June 16. 

It is unique and special in the way that it is one of the festivals with the longest and most significant history. The purpose of the celebration is to protect people from evil and disease for the remainder of the year. 


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In order to encourage this protection, practices such as hanging healthy herbs on the front door, drinking and eating nutritious foods and concoctions, and displaying pictures of Chung Kuei, evil's enemy, are performed by the Chinese people. Standing an egg of it's end at exactly 12 pm is another practice which is meant to make the following year a very lucky one. 

To learn more about this article and Eileen Wacker's acclaimed book series, visit ONCEKids, ONCEKids on Facebook,  ONCEKids on Twitter.

The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated with races in boats shaped like dragons. The boat races are custom to this festival because in 277 B.C. patriotic poet, Chu Yuan, drowned on the fifth day of the fifth month, and the boat races are used to represent the attempts to rescue their hero. 

Another way to honor and celebrate Chu Yuan's life is to throw bamboo leaves filled with cooked rice into the water. 

Korean Times Survey: More than Half Daters don't meet Parents; Men want there Mommies

Oh, the dating world. We all wish there was a specific science to it, but as we all know there isn’t. Still our human instinct encourages us to analyze dating and break it down to some kind of mathematical fact.

The Korean Times just completed a study on the type of partners men and women like/dislike, and if those partners would be introduced to each other’s parents.

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Survey says: 43.8 percent of men will introduce their partner while 41.6 percent said they'd rather wait until it accidently happens. Some 66.1 percent of unmarried men have a good feeling toward women who look like their mother. Well ladies looks like if you want that invitation to Sunday dinner, the determining factor is that you have to look like mom. So if you are feeling insecure about your relationship throw on curlers and an unattractive nightgown and hope for the best.

Half of female interviewees said they would introduce their lover only if they happen to run into each other - in other words, she's not bringing you home. Another 26 percent said they would not introduce you as someone special and may even try to get away without speaking. The final 23.8 percent said they would formally introduce their partner to parents. The bottom line for you men is you will meet your special girl's parents by total accident ex: grocery store or restaurant.  Historically, parents played a major role in determining the mate of their children. Not quite arranged marriages, but close. So many young people hesitated to bring their boyfriend or girlfriend home because of the heavy scrutiny and inevitable involvement of the parents which could take the fun out of many relationships.

To learn more about the author of this article Eileen Wacker and her acclaimed book series,  visit ONCEKids, ONCEKids on Facebook,  ONCEKids on Twitter.

There is hope out there for most of us though. To the ones that are shaky about that first introduction, survey says overall: "parents have become more open minded about their child’s dating". And men, just to clarify I am sure your mom is a wonderful lady but do you really need two moms? I guess this is an entirely different issue.