Notes

Jack Fletcher, a 12-year-old English boy, is shipwrecked off the coast of Japan in 1611. His beloved father and the crew of his ship have been slaughtered by ninja pirates. Rescued by the legendary sword master Masamoto Takeshi, Jack has to learn a new language and adjust to a very different culture. Masamoto-sama decides to take him, Jack, to train as a samurai warrior, after he hears that he had defeated a ninja. But life at the samurai school is a constant fight for survival. Even with his friend Akiko by his side, Jack is singled out by bullies and treated as an outcast because he is a gaijin or foreigner; a barbarian. Though he is even friends with her, and many others, even then, he is always considered lower than them by them. Book 1 in series Senior fiction Y7/8 only