Mariko Tatsumoto: 3 books

In 1959 when her mother dies, grieving twelve-year-old Ayumi leaves her home in Japan and crosses the Pacific Ocean alone to find the American father she’s never met. Biracial, she is confronted with a resentful half-sister and a racist stepmother. The family maid and her rebellious fourteen-year-old...

Guilt weighs down fourteen-year-old Kenji. He could have saved his family from the tsunami that decimated his seaside village in Japan if he hadn’t been gutless. Orphaned and ashamed, he moves to Tokyo to live with his estranged uncle, his last living relative. Amidst the glitter of the city, Kenji...

In 1863, Aritomo Genji, a twelve-year-old heir to a samurai lord, training to become a warrior, yearns to fight against his family’s archenemy, the Kuroda clan. But he and his loyal dog, Tama, are sent away on a ship to keep them safe. After the ship sinks in a typhoon, and they’re rescued by...