Temple Alley Summer
by Sachiko Kashiwaba (Author) Miho Satake (Illustrator)
From renowned Japanese children's author Sachiko Kashiwaba, Temple Alley Summer is a fantastical and mysterious adventure filled with the living dead, a magical pearl, and a suspiciously nosy black cat named Kiriko featuring beautiful illustrations from Miho Satake.
Kazu knows something odd is going on when he sees a girl in a white kimono sneak out of his house in the middle of the night--was he dreaming? Did he see a ghost? Things get even stranger when he shows up to school the next day to see the very same figure sitting in his classroom. No one else thinks it's weird, and, even though Kazu doesn't remember ever seeing her before, they all seem convinced that the ghost-girl Akari has been their friend for years! When Kazu's summer project to learn about Kimyo Temple draws the meddling attention of his mysterious neighbor Ms. Minakami and his secretive new classmate Akari, Kazu soon learns that not everything is as it seems in his hometown. Kazu discovers that Kimyo Temple is linked to a long forgotten legend about bringing the dead to life, which could explain Akari's sudden appearance--is she a zombie or a ghost? Kazu and Akari join forces to find and protect the source of the temple's power. An unfinished story in a magazine from Akari's youth might just hold the key to keeping Akari in the world of the living, and it's up to them to find the story's ending and solve the mystery as the adults around them conspire to stop them from finding the truth.
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Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly
Japanese novelist Kashiwaba (The Marvelous Village Veiled in Mist) introduces Kazu, a nervous Japanese fifth grader who's sure the girl in a white kimono he sees slipping out of his house one night is a ghost. Then she appears, normally dressed, in his classroom the next morning. His classmates all seem to know her, and they're baffled by his questions about her provenance. Kazu soon discovers that his family's old house contains a small Buddhist statue with the power to bring the dead back to life--a statue that may have some connection to Akari, the mysterious girl. Under the guise of a summer project, Kazu turns detective in a story that reveals an entirely separate nested fairy tale--one that has unsettling parallels to Akari's own. The more he discovers about her, the more deeply Kazu comes to care about Akari, and readers will, too. Though a detailed, exposition-heavy initial 50 pages may stymie readers, the sturdily translated story eventually recovers, bringing Kashiwaba's imaginative power, and Satake's occasional comics-style b&w vignettes, to English-speaking readers. Ages 8-13. (July)
Copyright 2021 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.School Library Journal
It all starts with a ghost story show on TV one night, a show self-proclaimed scaredy-cat Kazuhiro Sada knows he has no business watching. Late that night, Kazu sees a pale figure sneaking out of his family's altar room. Could it be a ghost? Then he sees the same figure in his class the very next day—a girl known as Akari who all of his friends insist he's known since kindergarten. When he learns the street he and Akari live on used to be called Kimyo Temple Alley, a name that implies the dead coming back to life, Kazu's sure something fishy is going on. But as he spends the summer delving deeper into this mystery and befriending Akari, things will become even more complicated and strange than he could've imagined. A humorous yet thoughtful mystery chock-full of the fantastical, this is a must-read for young fans of Studio Ghibli—an especially warranted comparison, as another book by Kashiwaba served as inspiration for Spirited Away. Lovingly translated into English from the original 2011 text, this version is completely accessible to an English-language audience while retaining a classic Japanese sensibility and storytelling style. All characters default as Japanese. VERDICT An excellent choice for fantasy lovers of all ages, particularly those who enjoy magical realism and a dose of the supernatural. Highly recommended.—Kaitlin Frick, Darien Lib., CT
Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.ALA/Booklist
Review quotes
About the Author: Sachiko Kashiwaba is a prolific writer of children's and young adult fantasy whose career spans more than four decades. Her works have garnered the prestigious Sankei, Shogakukan, and Noma children's literature awards, and her novel The Mysterious Village Veiled in Mist influenced Hayao Miyazaki's film Spirited Away. She lives in Iwate Prefecture.
About the Illustrator:Miho Satake is a Japanese artist and illustrator. She is best known for illustrating the classic fantasy novel Howl's Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones, three books in the Kiki's Delivery Service series by Eiko Kadono, and also illustrated the twentieth anniversary Japanese editions of the Harry Potter series. About the Translator: Avery Fischer Udagawa grew up in Kansas and studied English and Asian Studies at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. She holds an M.A. in Advanced Japanese Studies from The University of Sheffield. She has studied at Nanzan University, Nagoya, on a Fulbright Fellowship, and at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies, Yokohama. She writes, translates, and works in international education near Bangkok, where she lives with her bicultural family.
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