The Spring Tone

This book isn't all about cats feeding and a boring spring break, if you can understand the story well then you know this is a great book. Tomomi is a typical Japanese girl, she has a lot to say and always so irritated, but she is too tired to speak up, or she doesn't want to offend her family. She has friends but she feels that they don't fully understand her, so her childish little brother Tetsu annoys her a lot but he is the only company she has. This book illustrates how Tomomi, who seems to be selfish and arrogant at first, has hidden worries and grieves which she herself does not seem to realize, and all the people in this book have their roles to make her learn about herself. This book tells us that people may seem ignorant and indifferent about other people, but actually they have their own reasons to act that way - Tomomi has a lot to say, the stupid Tetsu has a lot to say although he never tells anyone, and even the woman who feeds stray cats every day, she has deep, deep sorrow which will never fully heal. Ok I am Japanese so I read this book in Japanese, so I dont know if it is still good in English as LOTS of things are usually lost in translation. And I admit the book cover sucks, I doubt the painter even read the book once - but it is a great book, which makes me cry every time. There is a part where Tomomi has a dream about her old house. She says, her old house was filled with water, and she could swim in the house like she was a marmaid. The kitchen light was bright and shiny in the water, and it was pretty, her mother was in the kicthen and her long hair was waving beautifully like a princess. After she wakes up, she notices she has been crying in her sleep. That really made me cry. Her mother in real life is always so nervous and irritated, because of the land issues with the neighbors, who used to be the family's good friends. Tomomi is unhappy to see her family always irritated, but as a grade school student, she knows there is nothing she can do. But she is not childish enough to get all mad and get her way. I love this book so much as you can see.. so, please read it.

Struggling with onrushing adolescence, Tomomi Kiriki confronts her personal "monsters" and her troubled home life in The Spring Tone. Escaping her quarreling parents and her grandfather, Tomomi accompanies her little brother into the streets of Tokyo as he looks for dead cats with which to torment their evil neighbor. They soon discover the woman who feeds the strays and eventually nurse her and the cats. Intertwined in the struggle to heal the woman is Tomomi's own journey to come to terms with growing up. Eventually acquiring the self-assurance she previously lacked she also begins to deal with her world in a grown-up way. The Spring Tone is a book written for young adults. The author writes with respect towards those struggling to break from their childish way. Unlike so many American books, this story (translated from Japanese) captures the dialogue and troubles of adolescents in a true and vivid fashion. Tomomi's fight against growing up, and her subsequent maturation, has a ring of truth sorely lacking from most other books.