Saki Yamamoto is a Tokyo girl through and through, and the last thing she wants is to be dragged to her grandmother's tiny mountain village for the summer rtly because it sounds boring, and partly because she dreads the fallout of being separated from her mean-girl friends. But when Saki defaces one of her family's ancestral shrines, she brings a death curse down upon her family, and life is about to be anything but boring. Over the next three nights, Saki is visited by Japanese spirits who guide her through their world as she tries to undo the curse pay the ultimate price. Saki, initially a spoiled, self-involved girl who must learn a valuable lesson, is a quintessential fable heroine, and the use of Japanese myths and history provides a rich background. Though there are several missed opportunities, either for whimsy or for creepiness, this has significant shades of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, and it will appeal especially to readers with an interest in adventure stories and Japanese folklore.

Gr 5-7 A young teen learns to appreciate tradition and think more of others than herself after some unsettling interactions with magical beings. Nascent mean girl (or at least uncaring follower) Saki would much rather hang out with herfor lack of a better term"friends" in Tokyo than accompany her parents and younger brother to her grandmother's tiny mountain village during summer vacation, but she has no choice. Almost immediately, she falls in with the wrong crowd, who goad her into a disrespectful act at her family's ancestral shrine, which, combined with lazy, uncaring preparations for the Obon ceremony, gets her in deep trouble with the spirits. Now Saki has three nights to undo the death curse she's brought down on her family. Her guides in the Night Parade include an untrustworthy four-tailed fox, a feathered tengu (a heavenly doglike creature), and a mischievous tanuki (a subspecies of raccoon dog) in the shape of a furry teapot. Saki has adventures of all sortsfunny, scary, dangerous, disgustingand ultimately prevails, though not without whining, backsliding, giving up, and then starting over again and again. She is smug, sarcastic, and basically unlikable at the start but in the end is potentially nicer and more respectful, both of herself and others. VERDICT An entertaining mix of Japanese folklore and teen angst, suitable for larger collections. Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library