Harvard's author-of-the-moment discussed trends among Japanese young people at a Stoughton Library reception Wednesday night to celebrate the release of his new book.

Over wine, cheese, and crackers, nearly 30 friends, professors and family members honored Steven W. Wardell '94-'95 for writing Rising Sons and Daughters: Life Among Japan's New Young.

Wardell, an economics concentrator, said his book draws parallels between Japanese and American youth.

"Parents and children in Japan don't see eye to eye. That is literally, the children stand several inches above their parents because they eat McDonald's hamburgers," Wardell said with a smile.

Wardell said he was interested in Japanese youth because no one had written about them before.

"I am trying to show the human side of Japan," he said.

Sandy Satterwhite, a representative from the book's distributor, Atrium Publishers, said that Wardell's book is selling especially well in the Boston area. She said the author may go on a book tour next spring.

Keiko Kibune, Wardell's Japanese pen pal for three years and now a junior at Simmons College in Boston, said: "In the book, Steven gives Americans a fresh insight into Japan."

Wardell's father, William, who was at the ceremony, said that in Steven's hometown of Ann Arbor, Mich., the book is on the bestseller list, tied at No. 9 with Barbara Bush's latest book, Barbara Bush: A Memoir.

Eliot House resident Kathrine A. Hannon '96 said she found the book so fascinating that she is now considering a visit to Japan.

Maier Professor of Political Economy Benjamin M. Friedman and Martha Henderson Coolidge '46, the former head of the Japan Society, both attended the reception.