[.ca] The Sign of the Chrysanthemum (ISBN 0064402320)

The Sign of the Chrysanthemun Review:
This book was fairly good. Muna is a boy whos mother just past away. Because Muna's mother past away, he decides to search for his father whom Muna knows a little of. Muna learned from his mother that his father was a samurai and had a chrysanthemun tattoo on his shoulder. After his mother's burial, Muna leaves on his adventure. I think this book was fairly good because it had a great storyline. The end was the most terrific part because no one would have saw it coming.

The Sign of the Chrysanthemum:
The Sign of the Chrysanthemum is a book about a boy named Muna. Muna is a name that people would laugh about; some might say, "What kind of name is that?" People teased Muna because of his name. Muna doesn't want to be tease anymore and wants to be a man, so he would try to find his father, who is a warrior. Muna used to lived only with his mother and him, without a father with them. Then Muna's mother died and decides to find his father, so people won't tease him. But before Muna's mother died, she said some descriptions about his father. His father is a warrior and has a chrysanthemum tattoo. But that is the only things that Muna knows about his father. So the journey begins with some adventures. I think that this book is okay, but it isn't really that good. I wanted to give the rate to be 3 and a half, but it doesn't have it. But in the other hand, it was a little bit good. Muna had some dreams about his father. This book was kind of boring, but there are adventures that are exciting. This book has some pictures in it and is kind of short. I enjoy reading part of the story, it is a good book.

Not Paterson's best work:
Although splendidly researched as always with any of Katherine Paterson's work, I found this story sluggish at times. The characters were not very sympathetic, so it was hard to relate to their struggles.

Mediocre, at best:
_Sign of the Chrysanthemum_ is a halfhearted stab at _Johnny Tremain_, set in feudal Japan. Again, young lad searches for his identity and his father. Again, young lad is swept up in political events beyond his understanding. Unfortunately, the writing is nowhere near as vivid, nor are the characters nearly as sympathetic in _Sign_. There's got to be a better look into feudal Japan for young readers than this.

A Pedal of the Chrysanthemun:
The book starts off with a boy named Muna, the nameless one, whos mother just passed away. He now wants to look for his warrior father so that he would be able to be highly respected and change his name of his 14th birthday to a name more proper for a man, but the only thing he knows about his father is that he has a chrysanthemun tattoo and a he is a Heike warrior. I thought this book was quite good. It had many dialogues, a good storyline, and some action. Most of all, I liked how the book was easy to understand.