The Sakamota Journals

If you think being assigned to a tiny bridge in the middle of nowhere would be boring, you obviously don't live in Wenapaj. My life used to be calm and peaceful at the Saybaro, but that was before the princess was kidnapped by a dragon, of all things ? and guess who's job the king made it to find her? At least I don't have to go it alone, though an ancient android, a punk student, a neophyte guard, an aspiring playwright and photographer, and a possessed doll aren't exactly the allies I would have chosen to face off against one of the most fearsome creatures in the known worlds. My name is Jimmy Olsen Sakamota, bridgekeeper and aspiring samurai, and have I got a story to tell you.

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER When the Second World War broke out, Ralph MacLean chose to escape his troubled life on the Magdalen Islands in eastern Canada and volunteer to serve his country overseas. Meanwhile, in Vancouver, Mitsue Sakamoto saw her family and her stable community torn apart after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Like many young Canadian soldiers, Ralph was captured by the Japanese army. He would spend the war in prison camps, enduring pestilence, beatings and starvation, as well as a journey by hell ship to Japan to perform slave labour, while around him his friends and countrymen perished. Back in Canada, Mitsue and her family were expelled from their home by the government and forced to spend years eking out an existence in rural Alberta, working other people's land for a dollar a day. By the end of the war, Ralph emerged broken but a survivor. Mitsue, worn down by years of back-breaking labour, had to start all over again in Medicine Hat, Alberta. A generation later, at a high school dance, Ralph's daughter and Mitsue's son fell in love. Although the war toyed with Ralph's and Mitsue's lives and threatened to erase their humanity, these two brave individuals somehow surmounted enormous transgressions and learned to forgive. Without this forgiveness, their grandson Mark Sakamoto would never have come to be.

"Tank Tankuro ... is the preeminient robot superhero manga from pre-WWII Japan. First published in 1934, it featured one of the most famous manga characters of the time ... Join Tank Tankuro and his pal Key-ko in their slam-bang, humorous, and courageous fight against their masked enemy, Kuro-kabuto."--Jacket.

This is a story of a scarecrow who leaves his field in search of memories from his past and the future that awaits him. After a chance meeting draws Wander into the woes of a wrongfully-imprisoned flock of crows, he joins with a lost daughter of the flock, a teddy sheriff, and wisps Merry and Luna to prove the flock's innocence. Their adventure will take them from the Patchwork Woods to the depths of the Lumen Mountains before they discover what truly threatens the town of Jardinfae, but will it be enough to stop the once-peaceful farming community from being taken by the shadows?

From the prize-winning author of The Electrical Field comes Citizen Kane reimagined: a novel about ambition and the relentless desire to belong. Shortlisted for the Toronto Book Awards. Frankie Hanesaka isn't afraid of a little hard work. An industrious boy, if haunted by the mysterious figures of his mother's past in Japan, he grows up in a floating house in the harbour of Port Alberni, BC. With all the Japanese bachelors passing through town to work in the logging camps and lumber mills, maybe he could build a hotel on the water, too. Make a few dollars. But then the war comes, and Frankie finds himself in a mountai n internment camp, his small dreams of success dashed by the great tides of history. After the war, Frankie tries his luck in Toronto, where possibility awaits in the form of a patron who teaches him how to turn effort into money, and a starry-eyed architect who teaches Frankie something harder to come by: the ability to dream big. Buckminster Fuller's role as Frankie's outsized spiritual mentor is one of just many real-life touchstones and extraordinary points of colour in this fairytale-like story about family, ambition and the costs of turning our backs on history and home.

Lyrically told true story of the teacher who coached Hawaiian swimmers to Olympic glory. When the children of workers on a 1930s Maui sugar plantation were chased away from playing in the nearby irrigation ditches, local science teacher Soichi Sakamoto had an idea. He would take responsibility for the children and train them to swim. Using his science background, Sakamoto developed a strict practice regime for the kids, honing their skills and building their strength and endurance. They formed a team and began to dominate events, first nationally and then internationally — until they made it all the way to Olympic gold! Told in simple rhyme, Sakamoto’s story will inspire athletes, coaches — and everyone who believes impossible dreams can come true.