Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window - Softcover

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1568363915 ISBN 13: 9781568363912

Publisher: Kodansha Amer Inc, 2012

Synopsis

This engaging series of childgood recollections tells about an ideal school in Tokyo during World War II that combined learning with fun, freedom, and love. This unusaul school had old railroad cars for classrooms, and it was run by an extraordinary man--its founder and headmaster, Sosaku Kobayashi--who was a firm believer in freedom of expression and activity.

About this title

Review

"[Totto-chan] is a quiet indictment of sterile education." --New York Times

"Sensitively written, delicately illustrated, poetically translated, Totto-chan is, like a haiku, filled with aesthetic and philosophical depth." --Library Journal

"[Totto-chan] has reminded millions of Japanese what children think education should be." --International Herald Tribune

"Totto-chan can be expected to attract American educators, parents, and perhaps some children who appreciate the international view beyond their own first-floor window." --Christian Science Monitor

About the Author

Born in Tokyo, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi is the daughter of a celebrated violinist. She majored in opera at the Tokyo College of Music and then trained in theatre at Tokyo's Bungakuza Theatre and in New York at the Mary Tarcai Studio. Ms. Kuroyanagi has won Japan's highest television honour - the Cultural Broadcasting Award - for her daily TV talk show, Tetsuko's Room, which she has hosted since 1976. She has been voted Japan's favourite television personality 14 times and has received all the major awards in Japan for performing artists. Her childhood memoir, Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window, has sold more than 7 million copies. With royalties from her book sales she established the Totto Foundation to train professional actors with hearing impairments. She is also the author of Totto-chan's Children: A Goodwill Journey to the Children of the World based on her UNICEF missions. Ms. Kuroyanagi has received several awards for her humanitarian work. In 1981, the International Year of the Disabled Person, she was honoured by the Prime Minister of Japan with a special award for her work with people with disabilities. She was awarded the first UNICEF Child Survival Award in 1987 for her fundraising and advocacy, and in 1998, the Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi Education Award from Hiroshima for her advocacy efforts on behalf of underprivileged children. In October 2000, Ms. Kuroyanagi was presented with UNICEF's first Leadership for Children Award. On 12 May 2003, she was decorated with The Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon by the Government of Japan in recognition of her two decades of service for the world's children. On 20 May 2009, she received a commemorative plaque from UNICEF for her 25 years of dedicated service as a Goodwill Ambassador.

About this edition

• Publisher: Kodansha Amer Inc
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1568363915
• ISBN 13: 9781568363912
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 232
• Illustrator: Chihiro Iwasaki