Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window [Paperback]

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] is a quiet indictment of sterile education. —New York Times



Sensitively written, delicately illustrated, poetically translated,Totto-chanis, 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-chancan be expected to attract American educators, parents, and perhaps some children who appreciate the international view beyond their own first-floor window. —Christian Science MonitorTETSUKO KUROYANAGI, daughter of the celebrated violinist, was voted Japan's most popular television personality fourteen times. She studied to become an opera singer but then became an actress instead, winning a prestigious award for her work in radio and television. She spent 1972 in New York studying acting, and was critically acclaimed in Japan for her leading role in works by Albee and Shaffer and in Melchior Lengyel's Ninotchka. Her daily television talk show, Tetsuko's Room, is still going strong after more than twenty years. Japan's firls)