Samurai Rising: The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune

Minamoto Yoshitsune should not have been a samurai. But his story is legend in this real-life saga.

This epic warrior tale reads like a novel, but this is the true story of the greatest samurai in Japanese history.

When Yoshitsune was just a baby, his father went to war with a rival samurai family—and lost. His father was killed, his mother captured, and his surviving half-brother banished. Yoshitsune was sent away to live in a monastery. Skinny, small, and unskilled in the warrior arts, he nevertheless escaped and learned the ways of the samurai. When the time came for the Minamoto clan to rise up against their enemies, Yoshitsune answered the call. His daring feats and impossible bravery earned him immortality.

PAMELA S. TURNER is the author of Life on Earth—and Beyond, The Dolphins of Shark Bay (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), and the Orbis Pictus Honor Book The Frog Scientist (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Pamela lives in Oakland, California.

Gareth Hinds is the creator of critically-acclaimed graphic novels based on literary classics, including Beowulf (Candlewick), which Publisher’s Weekly called a “mixed-media gem”, King Lear (Candlewick), which Booklist named one of the top 10 graphic novels for teens, The Merchant of Venice (Candlewick), which Kirkus Reviews called “the standard that all others will strive to meet” for Shakespeare adaptation, The Odyssey (Candlewick), which garnered four starred reviews and a spot on ten "best of 2010" lists, Romeo and Juliet (Candlewick), which Kirkus Reviews called "spellbinding", and Macbeth (Candlewick), which the New York Times called "stellar" and "a remarkably faithful rendering".