Dalkey, Kara

HEAVENWARD PATH sequel to LITTLE SISTER Haunted by a broken promise to a powerful god, fifteen-year-old Mitsuko again enlists the aid of a mischievous shape-shifter who helps her learn to think for herself.

1998

230 p.

Dalkey, Kara

LITTLE SISTER Thirteen-year-old Fujiwara no Mitsuko, daughter of a noble family in the imperial court of twelfth century Japan, enlists the help of a shape-shifter and other figures from Japanese mythology in her efforts to save her older sister's life.

1996

200 p.

Haugaard, Erik

THE BOY AND THE SAMUARI Having grown up as an orphan of the streets while sixteenth-century Japan is being ravaged by civil war, Saru seeks to helpa samurai rescue his wife from imprisonment by a warlord so they can all flee to a more peaceful life.

1991

221 p.

Haugaard, Erik

SAMUARI'S TALE In turbulent sixteenth-century Japan, orphaned Taro is taken in by a general serving the great warlord Takeda Shingen and grows up to become a samurai fighting for the enemies of his dead family.

1984

234 p.

Hoobler, Dorothy & Thomas

THE SWORD THAT CUT THE BURNING GRASS In his latest adventure in eighteenth-century Japan, fourteen-year-old samurai apprentice Seikei, with the help of a servant girl and an imperious old man, sets out to rescue the young Emperor Yasuhito from his kidnappers.

2005

211 p.

Namioka, Lensey

WHITE SERPENT CASTLE "There was once a castle shaped like a writhing serpent and reputed to be haunted. According to the villagers, the daughter of a former lord of the region had thrown herself into the castle moat and changed into a monstrous white serpent. From that time on, the White Serpent emerged from its resting place whenever a crisis threatened. Set against the background of sixteenth-century Japan, this exciting mystery follows the adventures of Zenta and Matsuzo, two unemployed samura.

1976

177 p.

Paterson, Katherine

OF NIGHTINGALES THAT WEEP The vain young daughter of a samurai finds her comfortable life ripped apart when opposing warrior clans begin a struggle for imperial control of Japan. Gempei Wars 1180-1185.

1989

170 p.

Paterson, Katherine

SIGN OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUM A teen-ager comes to know himself through contacts with social ills and political unrest while searching for his father in Japan's capital, centuries ago.

1998

132p.

Place, Francois

THE OLD MAN MAD ABOUT DRAWING Tojiro, a young seller of rice cakes in the Japanese capital of Edo, is amazed to discover that the grumpy old man who buys his cakes is a famous artist renowned for his sketches, prints, and paintings of flowers, animals, and landscapes.

2003

105 p.

Preus, Margi

HEART OF A SAMURAI In 1841, rescued by an American whaler after a terrible shipwreck leaves him and his four companions castaways on a remote island, fourteen-year-old Manjiro, who dreams of becoming a samurai, learns new laws and customs as he becomes the first Japanese person to set foot in the United States.

2010

201 p.