Tokaido Road

Lucia St Clair-Robson, Lucia St Clair Robson. Ballantine Books, $5.99 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-345-35639-0

Robson bases this romance on an actual feud and steeps it in the customs and culture of 18th-century Japan. Despite the book's impressive historical detail, its young heroine's picaresque adventures lack a vital spark. (May) *CHILDREN'S *BOOKS*

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