The Night Parade

Starred review from October 26, 2015
Wonder and imagination abound in Tanquary’s debut, a fantasy set in a contemporary Japanese mountain village; filled with respect and admiration for cultural tradition, it evokes both Grimm’s
fairy tales and Miyazaki’s films. Saki, a city girl from Tokyo, isn’t looking forward to traveling with her family to her grandmother’s remote village for the festival of Obon, which celebrates the spirits of the dead. She quickly finds herself in trouble—and fighting a “death curse”—after playing a dangerous game with a group of local kids in her ancestors’ graveyard. The next three nights find Saki as part of the Night Parade, the spirit tradition running parallel to the Obon festival—and her only chance for redemption, if she can survive her encounters with three spirit guides. Saki’s decided love for technology (she’s glued to her phone) is a perfect foil for an examination of how the present can be influenced by the past, and vice versa, with both coexisting peacefully. Vivid details and realistic situations ensure accessibility, and subtle teaching moments are wrapped in wide-eyed enchantment. Ages 10–14. Agent: Thao Le, Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.

October 1, 2015
A Japanese teen travels the spirit world to break a curse upon her family. Tanquary's debut explores the Japanese spirit world through 13-year-old Saki. Her family travels to her grandmother's rural village for its Obon ceremony, but she'd rather spend her summer vacation with her friends back in Tokyo. On the first evening of the night parade, when ancestors' spirits return to visit their relatives, Saki is tricked by local kids into ringing a sacred bell. Later that night, she is awoken by the first of three spirit guides who aid her quest to break the curse of death upon her family. She soon learns that the entire human world is in grave danger. During her journey she meets spirits she has only seen in her childhood books. Most spirits do not care for human children, but Saki manages to find help in unexpected places. Tanquary provides a cursory introduction to Shinto tradition and culture but fails to fully commit to the Japanese spirit world. Some spirits are called by their Japanese names while others use the English translations ("fox" instead of "kitsune" and "ogre" instead of "oni"; but "kappa" for a water-spirit and "tengu" for a birdlike spirit). This inconsistency, together with a tendency to tell rather than show, distracts readers from the supernatural elements of Saki's adventures and keeps them from immersing themselves in her world. An introductory foray into Japanese culture for fantasy readers. (Fantasy. 9-13)

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December 1, 2015

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 her-for 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 sorts-funny, scary, dangerous, disgusting-and 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

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2016
Grades 5-8 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 summerpartly 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 curseor 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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2016
While visiting her grandmother in rural Japan, Saki is tricked by bullies into ringing the temple bell, precipitating a journey to the spirit world to lift a death curse before the three-day Obon Festival ends. Although the pace is sometimes slow, the cultural details are intriguing, and the fantasy--strongly reminiscent of Miyazaki's anime Spirited Away--is wonderfully weird.

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)