When twelve-year-old Sayuri Kato and her little brother Keiji enter the root cellar in their new home, they find themselves transported to Living Earth, a magical world in which humans are the story-book characters, and kappas, shape-shifting foxes, onis, tanukis, and other creatures of Japanese folklore are the real-life beings. When Keiji becomes lost, Sayuri must journey through this myth-inhabited land, accompanied by her new friends Echo and Machigai. Her search leads her to Great Uncle Mischief the fox, who calls himself the Patriarch, and is destroying Living Earth and its inhabitants in his quest for power...

This lovely book was published by Coteau Books, a small Canadian press located in Saskatchewan, and is part of their multicultural series In the Same Boat. It functions on a variety of levels, all of which appeal to me. First and foremost, it is an engaging fantasy story that should please young readers of all stripes. It is also a multicultural story that encourages the young reader to think about issues of diversity, without ever being preachy. It is especially valuable in this regard, because of its genre, since so much fantasy has a European or Euro-American cultural background (which I don't object to, as long as it's not the only thing being made available). The folkloric content is especially high, which pleases the researcher in me.

But most of all, it is a very philosophical book. During her journey, Sayuri learns important lessons about balance, and the need for all beings to respect one another and the environment in which they live. In keeping with the idea of balance, Goto resists the urge to demonize the villain of the piece, and although Great Uncle Mischief's actions are seen as evil, he is never depicted as completely bad. His great crime, in trying to usurp all power for himself, was to ignore the virtue of balance: between creatures and environment, and between male and female (his overthrow of Yamamba). But even he is not hopeless, and is offered a chance to redeem himself... which in avoiding extreme notions of punishment, again demonstrates balance. Goto's strong feminist and ecological themes are worked seamlessly into the excellent writing and storytelling. A simply wonderful book... ( )

I liked this enough that I will be looking for other books by this author. It was a good kids or ya book about a girl and her little brother opening a door into another world.

I liked the family; a father who is a nurse, a mother who is a novelist who wears crazy platform shoes and rude tshirts. The main character is an athlete, a competitive swimmer, her little brother has asthma and all in all it reads like a modern family. Which is a nice change up, since kids fantasy so often seems to happen in the past.

I also like that the world they travel into is filled with creatures from Japanese folklore, that's interesting and different too. Some of the creatures are really fun, charming, scary, weird. So all of that worked well for me.

What didn't work so well for me was that I felt like the plot kind of rambled and lagged at times. Also I don't quite understand what role the little brother played, it seems like he never really did anything, he was just sort of along for the ride, and then he dropped out of the story for the whole middle section, and then came back and didn't do anything again in the last few chapters.

Although there were some things I didn't like, overall I did like it enough that as I say I will look out for more things to read by the same author. ( )