Crow Boy (Taro Yashima)

 

An oldie, but a good book! My students were a little taken back by the illustrations. They thought they were weird....but we ended up having a good discussion about the style and why the illustrator chose to illustrate it the way they did. 

Goodreads says:

"A shy mountain boy in Japan leaves his home at dawn and returns at sunset to go to the village school. Pictures and text of moving and harmonious simplicity". - Saturday Review.