The Boy and the Samurai

Saru (``monkey'') lives by begging in feudal Japan. Orphaned and abandoned, Saru watches the constant battling of the warlords and their hired samurai with disgust. He recalls his adventures as a street urchin--he runs afoul of a band of thieves, then sees them massacred; he spends the winter alone living under the shrine of a minor deity, and makes a true friend in Priest Jogen. It is with Jogen that Saru has his greatest adventure. Despite his prejudice against samurai, the boy concocts a plot to rescue the imprisoned wife of the samurai Murakami. Offering a vivid look at an unusual place and time, Haugaard ( The Samurai's Tale ) has created a character that will linger in the reader's memory. Saru's story is drawn with a verisimilitude that overcomes a potentially alien setting, and makes his reminiscences immediate and sympathetic. Ages 10-14. (Mar.)