Thirteen-year-old Margaret Chatsworth and twelve-year-old Oda Tadakatsu are sent away by their fathers, a British admiral and a renowned Japanese samurai warrior, respectively, nearly seventy years apart. In 1939, Margaret discovers Oda's 1867 journal chronicling the final days of Japan's 700-year samurai legacy. When she pays a visit to the family of a Singapore bookstore owner near Thieves Market, a bustling open-air market, she rescues the journal from a treasure chest opened by a sailor.

The heartrending tale of the youngsters' traumatic loss of their mothers and separation from their fathers plays out in alternating chapters when Margaret takes the journal home and explores Oda's writing. "Such was that day when, against my will, I left my home in the capital city of Edo and sailed in a Spanish ship somewhere too far to ever come back." Admiral Chatsworth sends Margaret back to London for her own safety, confiscating the fascinating journal before she finishes reading it, when his friend, the bookstore owner, is accused of harboring terrorists and deported.

Caught between circumstance and choice, neither Oda nor Margaret can cut through the uncertainty of their new lives by seeking their fathers' advice. Oda presumes his father has died resisting the rise of the Emperor's power over the shogunate system as he learns to navigate the world's seas, and Margaret refuses to answer her father's letters as she grows up.

This is an engaging tale of two vulnerable young people from two vastly different cultures. Clarke and Arce up the ante on every page, spicing the adventure tale with thrilling action and the compelling legend of the Chosen Pearls—remote, hidden islands said to harbor paradise and the Fountain of Youth. Flawless prose and exquisite AI-enhanced illustrations by Geoff Brown make this a cinematic tale readers of all ages will treasure.

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