Find Another Book

Book details

Songs for Ghosts

Name: Songs for Ghosts
ISBN: 9781803288086

Jump to At a Glance & Reader Fit

Lists This Book Appears In

UKLA Book Awards 2026 longlist

These links show the original reading lists. Inclusion is not a guarantee of suitability for your child.

Clara Kumagai - Author

Head of ZeusISBN 9781803288086ENGOther464 pages

Consider this for a teenager drawn to ghost mysteries and belonging between cultures; check comfort with haunting, bereavement and romantic relationships.

More about this book

Japanese-American teenager Adam finds a diary in his attic written by a young Japanese woman about a century earlier. He is drawn to her experiences of being caught between cultures, relationships and heartbreak, but dismisses her accounts of ghosts until he begins to be haunted too. The mystery leads him to Nagasaki as he investigates the diary and his own identity. The YA ghost story connects cultural identity, love, heartbreak, memory, haunting and a cross-generational mystery.

Add to Compare Explore

Book Analysis

At a Glance

Discover

Cultural connection· AffirmedMysteryIdentity

Consider

Supernatural themesBereavementRomance

Personalised Fit

Beyond the Cover

mysterysupernatural themesidentityhistoryromance

FictionNovel

Themes in Context

A haunting as a route into family history

Adam encounters a diary from 1911 Nagasaki and a haunting connected with its writer.Provisional reading

Talk about: Does understanding someone’s history change how we understand their choices?

Connection across time and culture

Adam’s investigation links his own life with the diarist’s experiences in Japan.

How the book presents it: The review’s account supports a provisional reading of connection as valuable, without making their experiences interchangeable.

Talk about: What do these two lives share, and what must remain different?

Why It May Be Worth Reading

Adam's investigation of an old diary links the mystery with questions about his own heritage. Following the two time periods offers more than a supernatural puzzle: it can prompt a discussion about who gets to tell a family's story.

What Deserves Attention

Ghosts and romantic relationships feature in the story. The US-edition review also identifies maternal bereavement and a former boyfriend; edition differences have not been checked.

A Conversation Worth Having

How does learning about someone else's past change Adam's understanding of himself?

Reading Approach

For a reader drawn to ghost stories, discuss the connection between the diary and Adam's identity; preview first if haunting is a concern.

Kirkus: 13–18, reviewing US ISBN 9781419768538; the UK edition has not been compared. This is audience guidance, not a measured reading level.

Confidence & Basis

Theme indicators describe how the book presents a topic; they are not a verdict on the whole book or your family's values. Confidence reflects how much book-specific material was checked. Only part of the book information was available, so some details remain unconfirmed.

What remains unconfirmed

A haunting as a route into family history: The review covers a different edition; the ending and precise narrative stance have not been checked.
Connection across time and culture: This is work-level interpretation from a different edition.

Book information

catalogue record · ISBN 9781803288086

Relevant to: A haunting as a route into family history; Connection across time and culture

Professional review

same work; different edition · ISBN 9781419768538