The House of the Lost on the Cape, Sachiko Kashiwaba
The House of the Lost on the Cape, Sachiko Kashiwaba
List: $15.00 | Sale: $10.50
Club: $7.50

The House of the Lost on the Cape

Author: Sachiko Kashiwaba, Avery Fischer Udagawa

Narrator: Nanako Vera Mizushima

Unabridged: 5 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/16/2024


Synopsis

A 2024 Mildred L. Batchelder Award Honoree
A 2024 USBBY Outstanding International Book
One of Kirkus Reviews’ 10 Essential Middle-Grade Books for Fall 2023 ― Starred Review
One of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Middle-Grade Family Stories of 2023
A 2023 Cybils Awards Finalist for Speculative Middle Grade Fiction

From the author and translator of the Batchelder Award-winning novel Temple Alley Summer comes the moving story of three generations of women adapting to their new home, and its mythical inhabitants, in the tragic aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake disaster.

In the wake of a devastating earthquake and tsunami, Yui, fleeing her violent husband, and Hiyori, a young orphan, are taken in by a strange but kind old lady named Kiwa in the small town of Kitsunezaki​​. The newly formed family finds refuge in a mayoiga, a lost house, perched atop a beautiful cape overlooking the sea. While helping to rebuild Kitsunezaki, the three adapt to their new lives and supernatural new home, slowly healing from their troubled pasts. Kiwa regales Yui and Hiyori with local legends—from the shapeshifting fox-woman who used to roam the mountains, to the demon Agamé and a sea snake who once terrorized the townspeople, preying upon their grief and fears until they trapped the snake and the demon’s claws in an underwater cave.

But when mysterious and sinister events start happening around town, the three fear the worst. Did the earthquake release Agamé and the sea snake into the world again? Kiwa, Yui, and Hiyori join forces with a merry band of kappa river spirits, a bold zashiki warashi house spirit, and flying Jizō guardian statues to save their new family and home and banish Agamé and the snake once and for all. Now a hit anime film, The House of the Lost on the Cape is a heartwarming tale about the strength of family and friendship in the face of natural and mythical forces.

About The Author

Sachiko Kashiwaba is a prolific writer of children's and young adult fantasy whose career spans more than four decades. Her works have garnered the prestigious Sankei, Shogakukan, and Noma children's literature awards, and her novel The Marvelous Village Veiled in Mist influenced Hayao Miyazaki's film Spirited Away. Her works have recently been animated as the films The Wonderland and The House of the Lost on the Cape, and her novel Temple Alley Summer, illustrated by Miho Satake and translated by Avery Fischer Udagawa, won the American Library Association's 2022 Mildred L. Batchelder Award. She lives in Morioka, Iwate.Avery Fischer Udagawa grew up in Kansas and studied English and Asian Studies at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. She holds an MA in advanced Japanese studies from the University of Sheffield. She has studied at Nanzan University, Nagoya, on a Fulbright fellowship, and at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies, Yokohama. She writes, translates and works in international education near Bangkok, where she lives with her bicultural family.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Charlotte on July 21, 2023

this was an utterly lovely magical found family book, in which an orphaned girl, a woman fleeing an abusive marriage, and an old grandmother with no immediate family of her own are brought together after the devastating Japanese tsunami of 2011. They move to an abandoned house on a lovely, secluded......more

Goodreads review by Alison on September 18, 2023

"...Even though The House of the Lost is a children’s book, Kashiwaba doesn’t pull any punches. She doesn’t hide the fact that 3/11 was a traumatic experience for the children—and adults—in Tohoku. The town of Kitsunezaki is in ruins. Shops have been abandoned. Shopping districts have turned into me......more

Goodreads review by DaNae on March 27, 2024

In the aftermath of the Japanese Tsunami, a young girl and two women create a new family unit in a small house near the sea. Ancient predators rise up from the disturbed shrines. Magical protectors amass to keep them at bay. Popsugar24: #35 - A book with magical realism 52 Book Club24: #5 - Magical Re......more

Goodreads review by Beth on November 02, 2023

2023 Cybils Elementary Middle Grade Speculative Fiction nominee This book was aimed right at me. A newly orphaned girl is saved by a runaway wife during the 2011 earthquake in Japan, and their found family in increased by a strangely competent grandmother. Most grandmothers are competent, of course,......more

Goodreads review by Mel on November 16, 2023

Un très chouette livre que je suis heureuse d’avoir découvert. Ce n’est pas un style que j’ai l’habitude de lire, mais j’ai trouvé ça très lent, doux et poétique. C’est une jolie histoire entre une orpheline, une femme qui fuit son mari violent et une mamie. Trois femmes qui se retrouvent grâce au h......more