Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window by…

Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window (edition 1996)

by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, Chihiro Iwasaki (Illustrator)

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
609	9	38,605	(4.21)	10
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, SosakuKobayashi-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.… (more)

▾Book information

Member:	josephinep
Title:	Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window
Authors:	Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
Other authors:	Chihiro Iwasaki (Illustrator)
Info:	Kodansha International (1996), Edition: 1997, Paperback, 232 pages
Collections:	Your library
Rating:
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Work Information

Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

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English (8) French (1) All languages (9)

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Showing 1-5 of 8 (next | show all)

I truly enjoyed her school, her way of education which makes more sense especially in the world we live in now. Humans would be more compassionate, coexisting without any prejudice and more humane with love. Make love, not war.

You can read my full review here:
http://www.sholee.net/2016/06/mpov-totto-chan-little-girl-at-window.html (

)

Sholee | Sep 9, 2021 |

Wonderful story of an educator and his small school in Tokyo 1937-1945 and the story of a young girl who thrived there after being expelled from a conventional kindergarten. (

)

marilynsantiago | Mar 5, 2016 |

Interesting look at a Japanese school just before WWII. Lovely book. I was glad to find a book about Japan by a Japanese author after reading so many by ex pats. (

)

njcur | Feb 13, 2014 |

this is my first book when I was 8 years old. It gave me inspiration for reading and I realized there are a lot of girls out there who are at the windows and can do day dreaming like me.

hninn | Oct 21, 2012 |

I'm not sure why my dad bought me this book., but I'm glad he did. He proved that it is possible for school to be fun, and for students to be intrinsically motivated. Ironically, this book is from Japan, which along with almost all Asian countries, tend to go down the rote-learning route.

I wish I had a school like that. But since it doesn't exist anymore, I'm glad that I had, at least the chance to read about this magical, ideal, school (

)

EustaciaTan | Oct 17, 2011 |

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▾Other authors

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Tetsuko Kuroyanagi	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Britton, Dorothy	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Iwasaki, Chihiro	Illustrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

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講談社文庫

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Canonical title

Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window

Original title

窓ぎわのトットちゃん (Madogiwa no Totto-chan)

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2012-03-23 [English]

People/Characters

Information from the French Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.

Totto-Chan

Important places

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

To the memory of Sosaku Kobayashi

First words

They got off the Oimachi train at Jiyugaoka Station, and Mother took Totto-chan by the hand to lead her through the ticket gate.

Quotations

"You're really a good girl, you know." - Mr. Kobayashi to Totto-Chan

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

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Original language

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Wikipedia in English (1)

Chihiro Iwasaki

▾Book descriptions

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, SosakuKobayashi-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.

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Book description

The story of the unconventional early education of a popular television personality, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. 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.

Available online at The Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/tottochanl...

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