Welcome to the third Children’s Novel Club pick: 帰命寺横丁の夏 / Temple Alley Summer!
Start date: June 13
Join the Children’s Novel Club here! 
Summary - Japanese
全米図書館協会バチェルダー賞、大賞受賞!!
アメリカで翻訳された児童書の中で、傑出した作品に贈られるバチェルダー賞の大賞を、2022年1月に受賞。
死んだ人が生き返る!?
帰命寺横丁からあらわれた幽霊の女の子。気がつけばクラスの一員だった!!
祈れば生き返ることができる「帰命寺様」からくりひろげられる、柏葉幸子の大ファンタジー!
帰命寺横町には不思議なご本尊「帰命寺様」が、代々まつられていた。「帰命寺様」に祈ると、死者がよみがえるという。
ある夜、トイレに起きたカズは、庭を横切る白い影を見る。それは、よみがえった少女・あかりの影だった。
二人の不思議な夏休みがはじまる!
From a review:
帰命寺はお参りすると死んだ人が帰ってこられるふしぎなお寺。小学５年生のカズは、帰命寺のなぞや昔の町や自分の家のことをいろいろ調べていきます。主人公の少年とよみがえった同級生の女の子がどうなっていくのか気になり、本の中で別の物語が展開されていたりするので、読み応えのある本だと思いました。
Summary - English
National Library Association Bachelder Award, Grand Prize Winner!
The Bachelder Award Grand Prize for Outstanding Children’s Book Translated in the U.S. was awarded in January 2022.
A dead person comes back to life!
A ghost girl appears from Kimeiji Yokocho. She finds herself a member of the class!
Sachiko Kashiwaba’s great fantasy unfolds from “Kimeiji-sama” who can come back to life if she prays!
In the town of Kumeiji Yokomachi, the mysterious “Kumeiji-sama,” the main deity of the temple, has been worshipped for generations. It is said that if you pray to “Kimeiji-sama,” the dead will come back to life.
One night, Kazu wakes up to go to the bathroom and sees a white shadow crossing the garden. It was the shadow of a revived girl, Akari.
Their mysterious summer vacation begins!
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
From a review:
Kimei-ji Temple is a mysterious temple where dead people can come back to life when they visit. Kazu, a fifth grader, investigates the mysteries of the temple, the old town, and his own home. I was curious about what would happen to the main character, a boy, and his revived classmate, a girl, and thought the book was worth reading because there are other stories unfolding in the book.
How it works
We create a reading schedule with a set number of pages to work through each week. Each week, we create a new discussion thread for that week’s reading. In those threads, we discuss everything from vocabulary and grammar to the characters and story.
How do I join in?
- Get yourself a copy of the book (see “Where to purchase” below)
- Click on the participation poll below to let us know you’re planning to join in
- Set this thread to “watching” so you get updates on the group (go just past the last post in this thread, click on the grey box that says “normal” or “tracking” and change this to “watching”)
Where to purchase
Digital: bookwalker
Physical: cdjapan
For additional suggestions or guidance, just comment with your questions!
Reading Schedule
| Week | Date | Chapter | Pages | Page count | Last sentence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | June 13 | 1 | 5-14 | 9 | 明け方の雨は本降りになっていた。 |
| 2 | June 20 | 1 | 14-26 | 11 | おれはとにかく、あかりのことなんか、ほんとにおぼええていないんだ。 |
| 3 | June 27 | 1-2 | 26-37 | 10 | どうしてそんなことになってしまったのかが、わからない。 |
| 4 | July 4 | 2 | 37-46 | 9 | …ちがうものだなといいながら帰っていった。 |
| 5 | July 11 | 2 | 46-57 | 11 | to end of chapter |
| 6 | July 18 | 3 | 58-68 | 10 | …情けなくて涙も出ない。 |
| 7 | July 25 | 3 | 68-75 | 8 | to end of chapter |
| 8 | Aug 1 | 4 | 76-84 | 8 | … おれはかけだしていた。 |
| 9 | Aug 8 | 4 | 84-94 | 10 | … いっしょに安藤さんちをさがすんだ。 |
| 10 | Aug 15 | 4 | 94-101 | 8 | to end of chapter |
| 11 | Aug 22 | 5 | 102-115 | 14 | …なことしかわかっていない。 |
| 12 | Aug 29 | 5 | 115-133 | 17 | end of chapter |
| 13 | Sep 5 | 6 | 134-144 | 11 | …力があるんだ。 |
| 14 | Sep 12 | 6 | 144-153 | 9 | end of chapter |
| 15 | Sep 19 | 7 | 154-167 | 13 | …知られたくなかった。 |
| 16 | Sep 26 | 7 | 165-181 | 14 | end of chapter |
Table of remaining chapters in the book:
| Chapter | Pages | Page count | Weeks | Alternate, faster possibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 182-208 | 27 | 17-18, Oct 3 - 10 | 17, Oct 3 |
| 9 | 209-232 | 24 | 19-20, Oct 17 - 24 | 18, Oct 10 |
| 10 | 233-258 | 26 | 21-22, Oct 31 - Nov 7 | 19, Oct 17 |
| 11 | 259-286 | 28 | 23-24, Nov 14 - 21 | 20, Oct 24 |
| 12 | 287-319 | 33 | 25-26, Nov 28 - Dec 5 | 21-22, Oct 31 - Nov 7 |
| 13 | 320-332 | 12 | 27, Dec 12 | 23, Nov 14 |
Nice to know that either way we will finish before next year. And we can mull it over for the next few weeks before deciding.
Resources and Links
- Jisho is a popular online Japanese-English dictionary.
- ichi.moe is a tool for parsing out sentences. You can type/paste in a whole sentence, and it will try to break it down into individual parts.
Discussion Rules
- Please use spoiler tags for events in the current chapter(s) and refrain from discussing content in future chapters.
- When asking for help, please mention the chapter and page number.
- Don’t be afraid to ask questions, even if they initially seem embarrassing. All of us are here to learn.
- To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation; it’s fun!
Membership
- Yes
- Maybe
- I’ll read at my own pace
- Not this time
- I’m just here for the discussion
- Digital
- Physical
- Something else
Guess I’ll have to read it digitally.
