Kazumi Yumoto

The Friends is a Japanese book that was translated into English. It is about 3 friends who are in "cram school" together. They go to this school in the summer so they pass the exam to get into a good junior high. They decide that they need to see a dead person and begin to spy on an old man thinking that he will drop dead at any second. The boys get to know the old man and he becomes a father figure to them all.
This would be a good book to read before the elementary to middle school transition. It shows the universal elements for this age - bullies, fear of the unknown, sports -- as well as some things unique to the Japanese culture. For example, when one of the friends fails his exam, he goes to work for his parents fish shop instead of continuing with his education.… (meer)

La joven Mizuki lleva tres años obsesionada por la misteriosa desaparición de su marido, al que la policía ya da por muerto. Una noche, él aparece de improviso en su cocina y, mientras devora sus dulces favoritos, le relata cómo murió ahogado en el mar.

A la mañana siguiente, Mizuki comprueba que no se trataba de un sueño y acepta lo que él le pide: que lo acompañe en un último viaje a la costa donde se originó todo.

En esta fascinante novela de la autora de Los amigos, los vivos y los muertos se confunden a lo largo de un Japón enigmático donde los fantasmas resultan más reales que la gente entre la que deambulan.… (meer)

Kiyama and his two best friends, Yamashita and Kawabe, are morbidly fascinated with death after Yamashita's grandmother dies. Learning that there is an old man who lives alone in a little dump of a house nearby, and is not expected to live much longer, they decide to spy on him regularly so that when he does die, they can see it. This morbid idea leads the three boys to learn a great many things. A little about death, but a lot about life.
This is a Japanese novel translated into English. There are a few little shocks - just things that would feel out of place in a middle grade novel written in the West, including the very premise of the novel... three sixth grade boys spying on a lonely old man and waiting for him to die. But it is a sympathetic and very human tale in the end.… (meer)