Osaka in the 1700s and the desperate plight of the impoverished Japanese are the chief elements in a brilliant novel by [Katherine Paterson]…. She offers not only a compelling drama but engrossing details on the art of puppetry…. ["The Master Puppeteer"] is swift and exciting…. (p. 85)

Jean Mercier, in Publishers Weekly (reprinted from the April 19, 1976, issue of Publishers Weekly by permission of the critic, published by R. R. Bowker Company, a Xerox company; copyright © 1976 by Xerox Corporation), April 19, 1976.