Keita, a soccer-loving boy in suburban Sapporo, keeps meeting transfer students named Yuki at turning points in his elementary school life. Through his encounter with the fourth Yuki in sixth grade, the novel vividly portrays children’s hopes, anxieties, isolation, and growth.

Each Yuki appears and leaves, marking a new season in the boy’s heart.

This volume gathers Hiroshi Sunada’s criticism on children’s literature from the 1960s through the 1990s. Moving across society, war, media, and writer studies, it reconsiders literature for children amid historical change.

The book gathers the work of a critic who read children’s literature within society and history.