地図を広げて（読みもの）
Spreading Out the Map
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
『地図を広げて』（Chizu o hirogete）
中学１年生の鈴は父とふたり暮らしだったが、父と離婚していた母が急死したため、４年ぶりに４歳年下の弟圭と３人家族になる。鈴は圭が毎週のようにおばあちゃんの家にいきたがることや、市街地図を買ってもらって毎日、帰宅後に自転車ででかけることに不安を感じる。そして、圭の後をついていったり、祖母の家に一緒にいったりする。鈴はそれによって、圭や母との記憶を少しずつ取り戻すと同時に、母と圭と離れて過ごした空白の４年間も自覚し、自分と母の関係について思いをめぐらしたり、圭の孤独や不安を想像したりする。作品には、鈴の学校生活も描かれており、唯一の友人である月田と学校生活の息苦しさを共有したり、文芸部で白雪姫のパロディを誰の視点から書こうかと悩んだりもする。主人公である鈴の意識の流れを追う展開が、読者の思考を促す青春小説。（土居）
| 出版社 | 偕成社 |
|---|---|
| 初版年 | 2018年 |
| ISBN | 978-4-03-613180-9 |
| ページ数 | 246頁 |
| サイズ | 20×14 |
| 対象年齢 | 12歳から |
| キーワード | 家族 離婚 死 |
Spreading Out the Map
This story of adolescence focuses on the awkwardness of reuniting as a family after four years of living apart and the process of overcoming it.
Twelve-year-old Suzu has been living with her father since he and her mother divorced four years ago. When Suzu’s mother suddenly dies, however, Suzu and her father must welcome Kei, Suzu’s eight-year-old brother, back into the family after an absence of four years. The story begins with Suzu waiting for her father to bring Kei home. Kei is quiet and polite, but he wants to spend every weekend at their grandmother’s on his mother’s side. He gets his father to buy him a map of the neighborhood and starts disappearing on his bicycle every day. Worried about him, Suzu follows along. She also begins spending the weekends at their grandmother’s. By doing so, she learns that Kei has been visiting the neighborhood they used to live in before their parents divorced, searching for people who might remember him, recording all these places on his map, and looking at photos on his mother’s cellphone which their grandmother has kept.
The book’s 24 chapters cover the period from mid-May to the end of June. Suzu’s memories, which have been awakened by her mother’s death and Kei’s addition to her family, are inserted throughout, carrying the reader along.
Suzu’s father, a newspaper reporter, likes to photograph rivers, and a river runs through the town where they live. The image of characters crossing the top of the dam recurs throughout the tale, symbolizing Suzu’s feelings of anxiety and release. Unique supporting characters, such as her father’s former classmate Makiko, Suzu’s only friend Tsukita, and her mother’s high school friend, contribute to Suzu’s deepening understanding. (Doi)
- Text: Iwase, Joko
- Kaiseisha
- 2018
- 246 pages
- 20×14
- ISBN 978-4-03-613180-9
- Ages 12 +
Family, Divorce, Death