Risuko: A Kunoichi Tale (Seasons of the Sword)

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Samurai, assassins, warlords... and a girl who likes to climb
“Tight, exciting, and thoughtful!” -- Kirkus

Kano Murasaki, you may not realize it, but I have done you a great favor. I have it in my power to give you a gift that you don’t even realize you desire. Make yourself worth my trouble, and you will be glad of it. Disappoint me, and you will be very, very sorry.

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Though Japan has been devastated by a century of civil war, Risuko just wants to climb trees. Growing up far from the battlefields and court intrigues, the fatherless girl finds herself pulled into a plot that may reunite Japan -- or may destroy it. She is torn from her home and what is left of her family, but finds new friends at a school that may not be what it seems.

Someone — a student? a teacher? someone from outside? — is playing the kitsune. The mischievous fox spirit is searching for… something. What do they want? And what will they do to find it?

Magical but historical, Risuko follows her along the first dangerous steps to discovering who she truly is.

Can one girl win a war?

Kano Murasaki, called Risuko (Squirrel), is a young fatherless girl, more comfortable climbing trees than down on the ground. Yet she finds herself enmeshed in a game where the board is the whole nation of Japan, where the pieces are armies, moved by scheming lords, and a single girl couldn’t possibly have the power to change the outcome.

Or could she?

Historical adventure fiction for teens