“Sarah had plans for her summer.
They didn’t include being in Japan.
Visiting her grandparents and spending two months at a lakeside camp with an international community might suit her brother and her friend Melanie just fine, but all Sarah Jones can think about are the friends she’s leaving behind—and the lost revenue from the job she’s supposed to be working. She’s resigned herself to a solitary summer of reading and writing, but an unexpected encounter with a boy who loves books, being persuaded to join the cast of Brigadoon, and meeting families from all over the world begin to stretch Sarah in new ways. Maybe the lake is not such a bad place to be after all.
Sarah discovers that growing up means learning about herself, friendships, and the world around her—all during her seichō summer.”
Series: As of now, no. It seems to be a stand-alone novel.
Spiritual Content- Singing hymns; Mentions of churches/chapels, pastors, church services, & singing hymns; Mentions of missionaries (including Gladys Aylward); A couple mentions of God & praising Him; A couple mentions of blessings over food; A mention of a stained glass of Jesus; A mention of a family Bible; A mention of Bible retreats; A mention of a mission trip;
*Note: Sarah writes that she’s not afraid of demons because she believes in a higher power; Seeing a shrine dedicated to a god of mountains, sea, and war; Mentions of shrines & idols of Shinto gods; A few mentions of luck & being lucky; A mention of hero-worship.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘dumb’, a ‘idiot’, and a ‘sucker’; Eye rolling & Sarcasm; A bit of eavesdropping (accidentally); Playing games that feature murder (called ‘murder-wink’ and ‘mafia’); Mentions of War World II, suicide pilots, bombings, & internment camps; Mentions of crimes, thieves, & stealing; Mentions of kidnappings (in the story of the Pied Piper); Mentions of lies, lying, & deception; Mentions of jealousy; A few mentions of possible vandalism & thugs; A few mentions of wine & drinking (a flight attendant accidentally offers a teenager wine, not realizing the girl is a minor; The girl does not except the offer); A couple mentions of concern about plane crashes; A couple mentions of graffiti; A couple mentions of a bartender in a play; A mention of murder, kidnapping, & theft in mystery novels;
*Note: Sarah comments about it being hard to be fourteen because she’s not a kid who relies on her parents to make all her plans (as she has a job and people she wants to see), but doesn’t have a say when the adults make plans to go overseas for the summer (*Spoiler* At the end, Sarah realizes she’s not a adult or a child and understands now that it’s okay as all changes take time *End of Spoiler*); Sarah worries about others back home forgetting about her while she’s gone for the summer, but quickly realizes that it’s a silly and childish thought; Sarah’s mother tells her about the time she hitchhiked through the country and camped at night (which Sarah says she would never let her do that and her mother completely agrees, adding that it was a different time then and Japan had low crime rate); At a gathering, Sarah is uncomfortable with the direction of a conversation between some adults and older teens (not written, but implied to be crass/crude) so she gets up and goes to another part of the house (noting that one of the difficulties of getting older is to know what conversations to participate in and which ones to walk away from; She is proud of herself for discovering she can walk away from a social situation that makes her uncomfortable); Sarah isn’t allowed to wear makeup normally, but does for the play and is impressed by her appearance with it on (one guy says she looks “kind of pretty” with makeup on); A side character (older teen boy) has a realistic looking gun that shoots BBs and darts; Going to & mentions of Tokyo Disneyland; Being part of a play of the movie ‘Brigadoon’ & many mentions of it, different scenes, the characters, & songs; Many mentions of and references to authors, books, & fictional characters (such as ‘Magnificent Obsession’ by Lloyd Douglas and other books by him, ‘Quo Vadis’, Agatha Christie and a handful of her books, ‘The Lord of the Rings’, Frank Peretti, Robert Browning, Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare, ‘Jane Eyre’, ‘Sense and Sensibility’, ‘Wuthering Heights’, ‘The Princess Bride’, ‘Little Women’, ‘Little Men’, Romeo and Juliet, Lancelot and Guinevere, Professor Higgins and Eliza, & a quote from ‘Little House in the Big Woods’ by Laura Ingalls Wilder is shared at the end of the book in the author’s note); Mentions of movies, Broadway musicals, actors, actresses, & fictional characters (‘Brigadoon’, ‘Singin’ in the Rain’, ‘Wallace & Gromit’, ‘My Neighbor Totoro’, ‘The Sound of Music’, ‘Deep Impact’, ‘Pirates of Penzance’, ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, Gene Kelly, & Cyd Cherisse); Mentions of pop culture & brand names (Barbie, Wonder Woman, Cleopatra, SkyMall, Encyclopedia Britannica, Yahoo! News, McDonald’s, Signo pens, Hello Kitty and other Sanrio characters, Sesame Street and Big Bird, Walkman, Pocky, Kit Kat, Boggle, Costco, Dr. Pepper, Star Wars, & Mickey Mouse); A couple mentions of other songs (‘My Heart Will Go On’ & ‘Oh Shenandoah’); A mention of a pimple;
Sexual Content- Sarah thinks it would be gross to be an actor and have to kiss random people; Sarah and her friend flush when an older boy make eye contact and compliment them (Sarah writes that eye contact with a boy like him is like “chocolate cake—too rich for more than one serving”; Sarah adds that while she admires him, it’s more like hero-worship than in a starry-eyed way); A side character has a crush on a boy and comments on the boy being a “catch”, which makes Sarah uncomfortable because the girl is only thirteen & the boy is her friend and it seems like the girl’s comment is “crass and objectifying” him (Sarah thinks it’s “grossly inappropriate” to think of the friend in any other way besides friendship); A side character asks a boy who he thinks is the ideal woman (because of her crush on him); Some of the boys tease about the kisses/kissing in the play; Mentions of kisses & kissing in a play (the play is acted by teenagers and the director says it will all be “stage kisses”); Mentions of boyfriends/girlfriends, dating, & crushes; A mention of a song that talks about “kissy lips” often (from the ‘Brigadoon’ play);
*Note: A reference to the scandals of the current president (Bill Clinton) and the “unsavory accusations” against him; A girl asks Sarah if her legs look okay or does she need to shave (which confuses Sarah as it’s a random question).
-Sarah Jones, age 14
P.O.V. of Sarah (1st person, through journal entries)
Set in1998
232 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
What an interesting debut book! I haven’t read a book fully told in journal entries in a while (letters yes, journals no) so that was a fun feature about this book. I enjoyed learning about Japanese culture as I’m not super familiar with it. It was interesting to learn a little bit through this book and our main character, Sarah, who is half-Japanese. There was some humor thrown in with her thoughts that unexpectedly made me laugh throughout the book.
Because of the journal entry style of this book, it felt like a calm, summer-themed book as a friend is telling us about her vacation. There’s not really any drama or angst moving the plot, just Sarah sharing her days and activities while in Japan. One of those activities is acting in the chorus of a play. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the ‘Brigadoon’ movie the play was based on, so the play that Sarah and the other kids put on of it and all the mentions of the characters (plus the characters they were playing) were a little lost on me for a while, but I was able to follow along better by the end. I think those who have seen the movie would probably enjoy these many scenes more than me as it made the book a little slow as I didn’t really know what they were referring to—along with all the classic literature references as well. For me, this book was around 3 stars because I didn’t know all of these references concerning the movie, classic literature, and how heavily both elements are mentioned in the story, but others may enjoy it more.
Set in 1998 (the year before I was born!), it was kind of funny to read about cassettes, pagers, and VHS tapes. But because of the lack of cell phones and social media mentions, it added a summer and the charm of being on the cusp of childhood to the book.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
*I received this book for free from the Author for this honest review.
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