This engaging series of childhood recollections tells about an ideal school in Tokyo during World War II that combined learning with fun, freedom, and love. This unusual 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. In real life, the Totto-chan of the book has become one of Japan's most popular television personalities-Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. She attributes her success in life to this wonderful school and its headmaster. The charm of this account has won the hearts of millions of people of all ages and made this book a runaway bestseller in Japan, with sales hitting the 4.5 million mark in its first year.

Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (1982-05-04)

History

Kuroyanagi, Tetsuko

Asia

Kodansha International

This engaging series of childhood recollections tells about an ideal school in Tokyo during World War II that combined learning with fun, freedom, and love. This unusual 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. In real life, the Totto-chan of the book has become one of Japan's most popular television personalities--Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. She attributes her success in life to this wonderful school and its headmaster. The charm of this account has won the hearts of millions of people of all ages and made this book a runaway bestseller in Japan, with sales hitting the 4.5 million mark in its first year.

Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

A story about the values of the unconventional education that Kuroyanagi received at Tomoe Gakuen, a Tokyo elementary school, founded by educator Sosaku Kobayashi during World War II.It is considered her childhood memoir.

Totto Chan the Little Girl At the Window

Kodansha/see Oxford U

Kodansha USA

Every year all over the world some 13 million children die needlessly of malnutrition and preventable illnesses. Children are also among the hardest hit in armed conflicts -- over 20 million have suffered from wars in the last ten years. The same children, of course, live, play, and grow up and try to have some fun, too.
Tetsuko Kuroyanagi is Japan's most beloved TV personality. She has also been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for over fifteen years. This book records the journeys she made in this important capacity to visit the world's most unfortunate children in fourteen countries from 1984 to 1996. Readers will be shocked by her description of a six-year-old, undernourished boy who could not think, speak, walk, or run. In Haiti she met a girl who sold herself for less than a dollar. "I'm so afraid I will get AIDS, but I have to eat tomorrow", she explained. No one will forget the Indian boy who wished her health and happiness as he lay dying of tetanus.
This book, however, is more than just a sad and sentimental report on the world's dying children. Kuroyanagi's undeniable and universal love for kids gives her a rare gift for seeing beyond their struggle for survival. Indeed, it is her familiar descriptions of children at play -- like all kids everywhere -- that bring home the fact that they all deserve something better and that we should be doing more to give them a better chance at life.
Anger, pity, despair, delight, hopelessness -- these are the emotions recorded in this moving and horribly accurate report on how natural and man-made atrocities have robbed millions of children of everything but their smiles.

Totto-Chan's Children: A Goodwill Journey to the Children of the World

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Kodansha Amer Inc

Toto-chan Bên Cửa Sổ

Nha Nam

The little Girl and the Children (Chinese Edition)

Children's Books

Literature & Fiction

Nanhai Publishing Company

Totto-chan in the Zoo (Chinese Edition)

Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window (Chinese Edition)

Totto-Chan The Little Girl Alone (Hardcover) (Chinese Edition)

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Books by Kuroyanagi, Tetsuko