This site is a resource for teachers and librarians for my middle grade novels, Somewhere Among (2016) and Beyond Me (2020) Caitlyn Dlouhy Books Atheneum , Simon & Schuster. My 30 years as a foreign wife in a multi-generational home in Japan inspired Somewhere Among and my experience of the 2011 earthquake and aftershocks was the basis for Beyond Me. My bicultural children helped when I started my photoblog for children, Here and There Japan, in 2006. Teachers, follow me on Facebook at Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu and Twitter at AnnieDonwerth_C and Instagram at annedonwerth.chikamatsu.

About Me

I grew up in Richardson, a community on the edge of Dallas, Texas. From age eleven, I spent weekends in the Texas countryside where I tamed butterflies and rode my red pony, Pokey. I had no idea at the time that I would end up living on the other side of the world in Japan. I have a Bachelor’s degree in English and a Masters degree in Applied Linguistics. I taught reading and English for Academic Purposes at university programs in the United States, Malaysia, and Japan until I married a Japanese citizen.

Our two binational, bicultural and bilingual children grew up in our multi-generational home in Tokyo and went through the Japanese public school system. They both chose to go to the United States for university studies. I had no idea they would end up living on the other side of the world. I miss them, but I am busy gardening, reading, writing and taking photographs. I followed our neighborhood farmer around for years (with his permission) before he retired at age 90 several years ago.

My middle grade novels, Somewhere Among (2016) and Beyond Me (2020) based on our life in Japan are published by Simon & Schuster, Atheneum, Caitlyn Dlouhy. I am represented by Holly McGhee at Pippin Properties.

This site is written mainly for teachers. Here and There Japan, a blog of the things we saw, ate and did in our daily lives, is written especially for children.