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.

The Friends, by Kazumi Yumoto, is a book in which the characters have a wild imagination. This book is about three boys, who are all friends, who after one of the boys' experiences death become interested in that one topic. The three boys find an old house, which in it lives an old man, alone in that house. They think that he may die soon, and so they continuously come back to his house to watch him.
I would not recommend this book because it has a weird plot and what the characters do in the book is very strange because they are associated with death. Another reason I would not recommend this book is because the dialogue may be confusing to some readers, and there may also be too much dialogue that may bore readers.
A reader may disagree with me because they may enjoy reading a lot of dialogue, and when the dialogue may see to be confusing the reader may want to try and understand what the character means to say. My recommendation may not be good enough because readers may not know what I mean by too much dialogue: like is there just too much talking going on in the book, or does one character say too much alone in the book? I still think that people should not read this book because the topic may seem depressing to some people.

This book was really thought provoking and was put together very nicely. I would recommend this book to young adults and adults who are looking for a fast read. The author uses a great deal of descriptive words. He used similes one example of this is when the main character is looking at the ocean and the waves are coming in. He says that the waves are like the world breathing. I also like how the author shows you how the characters change over the course of the book. At the beginning they have no idea what death is about. They have never known anyone who has died. In the end you get to see how they have changed and it is amazing. There is not an apparent climax to this book. The book is told through the main character. This perspective adds to the book. You get to know exactly what he his thinking. Like I said before this book was thought provoking. Since this book is about death you wonder about death yourself. Is there life after death? No one knows the answer but after reading this book you might come to your own conclusions. If you are a person who likes action this is not the book for you. The end is apparent at the beginning of the book but something happens to the friendship of the boys. My overall impression of this book is good. I think you gain an understanding about how you feel about death. I know that my opinion about it has changes and some of my questions were answered.

This book was really interesting because kids my age wanted to learn more about death. The topic was one that I have never read about before in my life. I think that is why the story was so interesting to me. This book one of the best book I have ever read. Steven Yum, ASI