Young Samurai – The way of the Sword.

Young Samurai: The Way of the Sword (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Title: Young Samurai – The way of the Sword.

Author: Chris Bradford
Main Characters: Jack Fletcher, Akkio, Yamato, Masamoto, Saburo, Yori, Kiku, Dokugan Ryu, Sensei Yamada, Hiroko, Sensei Hosokawa, Sensei Yosa, Sensei, Kyuzo, Kazuki, Nobu, Tenno, Taka-san and Father Lucicus. 

Description Of One Of The Main Characters: Yamato is Masamato- Sama’s second son his brother Tenno died and Jack became his brother. Yamato excels in Bojutsu.

Whom I Like and Why: I like Sensi Yamada very much. He is the Zen master. He is very old and wise. He knows Origami. He is from the sect of an old clan – the warrior monks. He teaches Jack the butterfly kick when he participated in the Taryu-Jiai.

Whom I dislike and Why: Sensei Kyozo is a very strict teacher of the Niten Ichi Kyu. He always calls Jack as gaijin – foreigner, barbarian. He does not accept Jack as one of them even though Masamato declares that Jack is his own son. But he is faithful and loyal to Masamato – Sama.

Setting/Theme Of the Story: Jack applies and conquers the circle of the three. Yamato and Akiko also apply with him. Jack and Akiko qualifies themselves by winning the circle of the three to learn the technique of Two Heavens. Kazuki forms the scorpion gang to kill Jack. Dokugan Ryu steals Jack’s father’s rutter. They go to search Dokugan Ryu. This is the end of The Way Of The Sword.

Part I Enjoyed The most: I enjoyed the part when Jack conquered the circle of the three. He gets qualified to learn the two heavens technique. 

Young Samurai – The way of the Dragon

A katana (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Title: Young Samurai – The way of the Dragon

Author: Chris Bradford

Main Characters: Jack Fletcher, Akkio, Yamato, Masamoto, Saburo, Yori, Kiku, Dokugan Ryu, Sensei Yamada, Hiroko, Sensei Hosokawa, Sensei Yosa, Sensei, Kyuzo, Kazuki, Nobu, Tenno, Taka-san and Father Lucicus.

Description Of One Of The Main Characters: Hiroko is Akiko’s mother. She is very kind. She is a very soft-hearted women. She was the one who took care of Jack when he was new to Japan.

Whom I Like and Why: I like Masamato-Sama very much. He is a brave warrior. His first son, Masamato Tenno was killed by Dokugan Ryu, the Dragon eye. He adopts Jack as his son. He mastered the Two Heavens technique.

Whom I dislike and Why: I dislike Nobu, Kazuki’s friend. He is one among the scorpion gang. He is fat and has no fighting skills. He is very stupid and cannot think for himself. He and his other friends are Kazuki’s bodyguard. He is a coward but acts as if he is a great warrior when Kazuki is near him.

Setting/Theme Of the Story: Jack learns and masters the Two Heavens technique. He goes with the rest of the Niten Ichi Ryu to fight a war against Daimyo Kamakura. Kazuki becomes a traitor. He sets fire to the Niten Ichi Ryu along with his friends. Yamato dies while fighting Dokugan Ryu. But he also kills Dokugan Ryu. Jack fights the war and at the end gets defeated. Jack rescues his father’s rutter and sets to Nagasaki so that he can board a ship back home. Back to his sister, Jess.

Part I Enjoyed the Most: I enjoyed the part when Akiko reveals that she is a ninja to Jack. She had been training as a ninja to save her brother from the ninjas. 

39 clues: The Emperor’s code

The 39 Clues (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Title: 39 clues: The Emperor’s code

Author : Gordan Norman

Main Characters: Amy, Dan, Nellie, Alistair Oh, Ian Natalie, Isabael, Cora Wizard, Jonah Wizard, Eisenhower, Hamilton and McIntyre.

Description of one of the main characters: Isabel Kabra is the head of the Lucian branch. She is Ian and Natalie’s mother. She is really cold and unkind to everyone. She killed Irina, Hope Cachill and Arthur Trent. She doesn’t believe her own children. She threatens to kill them if they don’t obey her. She is like a venomous snake.

Whom I Like and Why: I like Ian in this part. Even when Isabel asks Ian to hurt Dan or Amy, he doesn't kill anybody for the 39 clues. He is smart and brave. He is Natalie’s brother.

Whom I dislike and Why: I dislike Cora wizard. She is very much like Isabel except that she does not try to kill someone personally but will ask her son, Jonah Wizard to do it.

Setting/Theme of the story: Amy and Dan Cahill go to China as they find Hope and Arthur had gone there too. There they find a piece of cloth saying:

Lucian + Janus + Ekatrina + Tomas = Cahill 

They get a fight and Dan runs away alone. He joins forces with Jonah and searches for clues. Meanwhile Amy and Nellie opt to continue the clue hunt as they are sure they will meet Dan as he would also continue the clue hunt. They meet Dan at the foot of Mount Everest. Dan apologizes and, Amy and Dan go up in a helicopter where they find their cousins who are there to search clues but Amy and Dan find the clue which is the Tomas serum before their cousins. When they are about to come down, Ian Kabra slips from the ice and is about to die. Amy is the nearest to help him and she has to decide whether she has to hold the clue and let Ian die or drop the clue and save Ian. She choose the latter and saves Ian. Amy and Dan decide to go to Bahamas in search of the next clue.

Part I enjoyed the most: I enjoyed the part when they find the Tomas clue on the Mount Everest peak.

Young Samurai: The Way Of The Warrior

Young Samurai: The Way of the Warrior (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Title: Young Samurai: The Way Of The Warrior
Author: Chris Bradford

Main Characters: Jack Fletcher, Akkio, Yamato, Masamoto, Saburo, Yori, Kiku, Dokugan Ryu, Sensei Yamada, Hiroko, Sensei Hosokawa, Sensei Yosa, Sensei, Kyuzo, Kazuki, Nobu, Tenno, Taka-san, Father Lucicus.

Description of one of the main characters: Jack is a boy from England. He is the son of a pilot of a ship. He and his father set out on a journey to the ‘Japans’. He chooses the way of the warrior and learns the Japanese Martial arts – Kenjutsu, Taijutsu, Kyujutsu, Zen – to be come a “Young Samurai”.

Whom I like and why: I like Akiko very much. She is from a Samurai family, she is Jack’s best friend in Japan. She is a samurai. She is skilled in Kenjutsu – bow and arrow.

Whom I dislike and why: I dislike Kazuki as he is rude and arrogant. Even after Masamoto declares that Jack is his son and one of the Samurai family, Kzuki thinks that the ‘giaijin’(foreigner) is unfit to learn ‘their’ secrets and ‘their’ martial arts.

Setting/Theme of the story: Jack Flectcher along with his father goes on a voyage to the Japans. When they almost near Japan they are attacked by Wako, Japanese ninja pirates. Masamoto, a legendary Japanese samurai, saves Jack and brings him to his house. Dokugan Ryu, a ninja, kills Jack’s father. Jack is taken-care of in Masamoto’s house by Masamoto’s sister Hiroko. Father Lucius, a Portugese priest, who knows English acts as a translator for Jack. Masamoto gives Jack, ‘the rutter’, a book which Jack’s father had. Jack’s father had told Jack to never loose the book as it contains secrets about steering ships. Father Lucius is keen on getting the rutter from Jack. Father Lucius teaches him to speak Japanese and soon Jack starts speaking Japanese fluently. Masamoto asks Jack who killed his father. Jack describes Dokugan Ryu, the same ninja who killed Tenno Masamoto, his son. So, he adopts Jack as his son in place of Tenno and declares that he is a young samurai and no more a ‘gaijin’, a foreigner. He meets Akiko and become good friends with her. He goes to study Japanese martial arts in Masamato’s school, Niten Ichi Ryu where he learns the way of the warrior – Kenjutsu, Taijustsu, Kyujutsu and Zen. He becomes the enemy of Kazuki, a student of Niten Ichi Ryu. Jack and Kazuki’s two cousins who study in Yagyu Ryu, get into a fight. The founder of Yagyu Ryu, Kamakura proposes a Taryu-Jiai between Yagyu Ryu to see which school trains better. Jack, Saburo and Akiko participate from Niten Ichi Ryu. The Niten Ichu Ryu wins the Taryu-Jiai and becomes the No.1 martial arts school. Jack proceeds from bushido - way of the warrior – to kindo – way of the sword.

Part I enjoyed the most: I enjoyed the aprt when Jack learns all the Japanese etiquettes.

'I would never get the Japanese etiquettes right, he thought. There was just so much to think about for each and every action and occasion.'

39 clues – In Too Deep

In Too Deep (The 39 Clues) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Title: 39 clues – In Too Deep

Author: Jude Watson

Main characters: Amy, Dan, Nellie, Shep, Ian, Natalie, Isabel, Irina and Alistair.

Description of one of the main characters:

Irina Spasky is a Russian. She is one of Amy and Dan’s cousin. She usually tries to kill them like all other cousins of Dan and Amy. But when the house where uncle Alistair, Dan and Amy were staying catches fire, she saves them all and looses her life warning Amy about Isabel Kabra, Ian and Natalie’s mother.

Whom I like and why: I like Nellie because she is truthful and trustworthy. She has taken care of Dan and Amy ever since they ran away from Aunt Beatrice’s house. Nellie helps Amy and Dan when they are in trouble. Nellie is their “au pair”. She buys them cell phones and all other things they need.

Whom I dislike and why: I dislike Isabel Kabra. She is cold-hearted. She was the one who killed Amy and Dan’s parents, Arthur and Hope, by setting fire to the house they live in. she now tries to kill Amy, Dan and their “au pair” Nellie. She sets fire to the house where Amy, Dan and uncle Alistair are but Irina saves them and dies in the fire instead. Isabel is happy at Irina’s death even though Irina was a Lucian, the same as she is.

Setting/ theme of the story: Amy and Dan Cahill along with Nellie try to find out what their parents knew about the 39 clues. They get a lead on a man called Bob Troppo and while trying to find more about him, they get struck with their uncle Alistair in an island. Uncle Alistair takes them to a house. Isabel Kabra, the person who killed Arthur and Hope, tries to  kill Alistair, Amy and Dan by setting fire to the building but Irina saves them and she dies instead. Amy and Dan understand that even though Irina had acted as if their enemy she had been a hidden ally. They decide to revenge the people who killed and people who supported Isabel and helped her carry out the plan. They make up their mind to win the hunt for the 39 clues for their parents, Arthur and Hope.

Part I enjoyed the most: I enjoyed the part when Amy and Dan go surfing in Australia with their father’s brother ship.