Rayleigh Nam
asked
Pamela S. Turner:
Ms. Turner I am a 4th grade student of Shirin F and I wanted to ask you what inspired you to right the book, and why Japans history out of all the other countries history?
Pamela S. Turner
When I was a teenager, I was fascinated by stories about King Arthur. I read every version of his story that I could get my hands on. (And watched, because there are musicals and movies about him too.) Many years later my family moved to Japan. We lived there for six years, and I wanted to learn more about Japan so I started reading some of the classics of Japanese literature. One work (The Tale of the Heike) is based on 12th-century Japanese history. Yoshitsune was one of many characters but he really stood out to me. I thought Yoshitsune's story was a lot like King Arthur's--he is raised in obscurity, grows up to become a hero, and finds that his greatest enemy is someone in his own family. But Yoshitsune's story is true. Years later, when I was back in the U.S., I started practicing kendo (Japanese swordfighting) with my son Connor. That made me think about Yoshitsune again and how hard it must have been for him to learn samurai skills after being raised to be a monk. And one day I thought, "There really should be a book about Yoshitsune in English for young people," followed by the thought, "Well, I could write that." And after quite a bit of research, I started writing.
Thanks for your interest in SAMURAI RISING!
Thanks for your interest in SAMURAI RISING!
More Answered Questions
Shirin T
asked
Pamela S. Turner:
Ms. Turner, I am a fourth grade teacher who purchased your book about Samurai Rising about three weeks ago. Already, three of my students have completed it, and a fourth is half way done having started it two days ago. One of my students' family is from Japan, and his mother was able to share her knowledge of Yoshitsune with him. It fills my heart to hear my students rate your book a 10 on our scale of 1-10! ?
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