Heart of a Samurai in Pick-a-Shelf

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Heart of a Samurai

Margi Preus

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Feb 14, 2011 Susan rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, young-adult, historical-fiction

Manjiro was a 14-year old Japanese boy who, in 1941, got caught in a storm while fishing, and ended up shipwrecked on an island. He and his friends were rescued by an American whaler, and this is the story of what happened to him over the next 10+ years. It is based on a historical person who is believed to be the first Japanese person ever to set foot in America.

I appreciated the book's simple, straightforward language and the richness of the characters, both good and not-so-good. (This is that ...more

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Jan 10, 2011 Luann rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio, 2011, newbery-honor, historical-fiction, childrens, biography

This reminded me a bit of Moby-Dick, which I normally wouldn't count as a good thing in a book. But Margi Preus didn't make me suffer through pages and pages of boring nonfiction information about whales, so I'll forgive her.

This also reminded me quite a lot of Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, which is the Newbery award-winning story of the life of Nathaniel Bowditch who also loved to sail and loved to learn. So I thought it was very fun when he was mentioned in this book in a roundabout way when Manjir ...more

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Mar 03, 2011 Lahni rated it it was amazing

Shelves: multicultural, historical-fiction, juvenile, all-time-favorites, award-winner, 5-stars

This book is a prime example of why I love to do the challenges for the GoodReads groups I'm in. I hadn't even known this book existed and would have never read it but it was a great book. A Newberry Honor book, Heart of a Samurai is based on the true account of a 14 year old Japanese boy who gets lost at sea on a small fishing boat. The story takes place in the mid 1800's. After washing up on a deserted island he and is 4 companions are rescued by the feared western barbarians on their whaling ...more

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Mar 29, 2014 Lorna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: childrens, newbery-medal, fiction-historical, fiction-adventure-survival, fiction-multicultural, a-z-challenge-2014

What a great story! This book begs to be read aloud as it reads like poetry. It has a high interest level and is very rich in history (based on a true story). Highly recommended for anyone.

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