The combination of simple pictures and unique onomatopoeia describes
the joy of making and eating pancakes. Shirokuma-chan no Hottokêki was welcomed by young children and became a best seller for more than 30 years.
One day, Shirokuma-chan decides to make pancakes. With the advice of
her mother, she makes them by herself. The bowl rattled when she mixes
the ingredients, the dough spread thick when it trickled down. When it
was cooking, it made splashing sound. Shirokuma-chan finally put the pancakes
on a plate, and ate them with Koguma-chan [Little Gray Bear]. After eating,
they washed the dishes.
Wakayama Ken (1930 -) began his career as a graphic designer. His pictures
are simple; the position of eyes and a nose shows the characters' facial
expression, and the position of arms and the inclination of the body shows
their action.
Kogumasha is a company produces picture books under cooperative work.
Sato Hidekazu, the president, chooses the book to publish, and they create
about one picture book a year. Shirokuma-chan no Hottokêki was born from the cooperation of Wakayama Ken, Mori Hisashi, and Wada Yoshiomi, whose discussion bore the unique expression of sounds. It was serialized and fifteen books are published so far.
The detail of Shirokuma-chan no Hottokêki has slightly changed in accordance with the readers' comments. In the third edition, the picture of an empty pan was replaced with that of a plate with many pancakes, and in the 26th edition the picture of a sink full of bubbles was replaced with that of a sink without bubbles. The latter was done considering the environmental problem.
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