図書館からの冒険（読みもの）
Adventure from the Library
カテゴリー: Japanese Children's Books、おすすめ！日本の子どもの本、読みもの／chapter books and novels
『図書館からの冒険』（Toshokan kara no boken）
小学６年生の渉（わたる）は、廃校寸前の柴野崎小学校の図書室で一晩明かす計画を立てて潜り込む。そこへ異世界から同い年のサキがやってきて、一緒に異世界に行くことに。そこは、渉が大叔父の敬二郎から作り話だと思って聞いていたシバノザキ島だった。連れていかれた東の屋敷には、動物にもアナグマにも変身可能なゴーダさん、カワウソに変身可能なマリちゃん、庭師のバクさんがいた。ゴーダさんによると、島は薬草を作って大儲けをしたが、その薬草には人に悪影響を与えるものが含まれていることが判明し、草も土もすべて川に捨てたという。その後、地震や大嵐が起こって大勢の人が島を出ていった。その頃から、黒っぽい輪郭のないものが島に出現するようになり、湖や川は干上がってしまったという。
渉はゴーダさんたちに、敬二郎から聞いた、島の住人のミレイさんが島の水を守る龍であるという話を伝え、全員で西の屋敷にいるはずのミレイさんに会いに行く。ところが、ミレイさんはそこにはおらず、渉たちは、ミレイさんを見つけ、黒いものたちの正体を暴こうと知恵を絞る。
島で次々と不思議なことが起こり、その謎を渉やサキが解いていく過程がおもしろい。また、島の危機的な様子は寓話性が強く、現代社会について考えさせられる。（土居）
| 出版社 | 偕成社 |
|---|---|
| 初版年 | 2019年 |
| ISBN | 9784035405702 |
| ページ数 | 304頁 |
| サイズ | 22×16 |
| 対象年齢 | 11歳から |
| キーワード | ファンタジー 冒険 龍 |
Adventure from the Library
Wataru at tends six th grade at Shibanozaki Elementary School, which is on the verge of being closed. He spends a night holed up in the school library trying to make a plan. When a girl his age named Saki arrives from another world, she takes him back with her. Her world turns out to be Shibanozaki Island—a place Wataru had thought his great-uncle Keijiro made up for a story. Saki takes Wataru to the island’s eastern estate, where they find Goda, a man who can become a badger; Mari, a woman who can become an otter; and Baku, the gardener. Goda says that they once grew a medicinal plant on the island that earned lots of money, but they learned that it had a bad effect on humans, and so they threw all the plants and the soil they grew in into the river. Then an earthquake and a massive storm occurred, and many people fled. Since that time, black-ish figures that can take the shape of people or animals have appeared, and the rivers and lakes have dried up.
Wataru shares a story that Keijiro once told him, about how an island woman named Mirei is the dragon who protects the island’s water. Everyone goes to the island’s western estate, expecting to find Mirei, but she is gone. They realize that the black-ish figures are actually people from the island, and Mirei is leading them. Working with people from the western estate, Wataru and Saki get the black-ish beings to an underground lake and restore their humanity.
Mysterious happenings occur one after the next, and it’s fascinating to watch Wataru and Saki solve them. This island’s crisis is allegorical, causing readers to consider our modern society. (Doi)
- text/illus. Okada, Jun
- Kaiseisha
- 2019
- 304 pages
- 22×16
- ISBN 9784035405702
- Ages 11 +
Fantasy, Adventure, Dragon