Message from mburditt

[Anonymous]

The Samurai's Tale By Erik Christian Haugaard is a great book to read with the class while teaching about Japan in the middle ages. It takes place during the transitional period of the Ashikaga and Tokugawa. Most of my students really loved this book. Some had trouble pronouncing some of the Japanese places and names, as did myself. However, with a little practice the pronunciations can be achieved. Other than the Japanese words the rest of the book is not to difficult and the plot is exciting and easy to follow. There are great examples of the blending of Buddhism and Shintoism in the book. Since a few of the characters really lived it also teaches a little about the real history as well (still historical fiction though). The author spent a year in Japan consulting professors and descendants before writing the book. The code of Bushido is clearly shown and the students get a good feel for how samurai really lived. I used the book to help supplement what they were already learning from the text and just added a few questions about the novel on the unit test.