Heart of a Samurai

Author: Margi Preus

Reading level: Grade 5- up

Summary:
In 1841, a Japanese fishing vessel sinks. Its crew is forced to swim to a small, unknown island, where they are rescued by a passing American ship. Japan’s borders remain closed to all Western nations, so the crew sets off to America, learning English on the way.
Manjiro, a fourteen-year-old boy, is curious and eager to learn everything he can about this new culture. Eventually the captain adopts Manjiro and takes him to his home in New England. The boy lives for some time in New England, and then heads to San Francisco to pan for gold. After many years, he makes it back to Japan, only to be imprisoned as an outsider. With his hard-won knowledge of the West, Manjiro is in a unique position to persuade the shogun to ease open the boundaries around Japan; he may even achieve his unlikely dream of becoming a samurai.

Review:
This is an action-packed historical fiction story which I thought to be a page-turner. Middle grade readers will welcome this engaging tale of a courageous child who survived near starvation on a deserted island, earned the respect of a bunch of rough sailors on a whaling ship, adapted to an entirely different culture, and risked execution for returning to Japan. The important lessons to be learned in this novel are about work, reserves, and natural resources. The historical context provides an interesting opportunity to discuss the repercussions of sealing a country's borders to the outside world, an issue that is still relevant today.

Award: 2011 Newbery Honor Book