Totto-chan

Totto-chan by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. Translated by Dorthy Britton.

I have to say before anything else that this book amazed me and moved me to laughter, tears, excitement, sorrow, and many other emotions and feelings! It is incredibly descriptive and well written in a simple sort of way, and something about it touches its readers soul.

Totto-chan is in the first grade and she is transferring to Tomoe Gakuen because she was expelled from her previous elementary school for being disruptive (ex. opening and shutting her desk repeatedly because she's really excited that her desk opens and shuts, getting up in the middle of class and calling out to the street minstrels on the road so that they will come and play at the window for her and her class). When she arrives at Tomoe, Totto-chan is welcomed by classrooms made of train cars and a very kind headmaster with an unusual method for teaching children. Totto-chan loves Tomoe School very much immediately and she makes friends with all the students there very quickly (there were only around 50 students). This story follows the time Totto-chan spent attending Tomoe School and the good things and bad things that happened during that time.

The beginning of the book is happy and cheerful, but about 3/4ths of the way through the book, a sort of sadness is painted outside the world of the children at Tomoe School. This is because the Pacific War (the part of WWII that took place in the Pacific) was beginning at this time and it was gradually becoming more evident in the lives of the children. Even though the last story in the book is very sad because of what happened due to the war, the characters leave no room for sadness, they remain hopeful and optimistic about what life will bring them next.

My favorite sections are some of the happy stories and also some of the saddest. These stories resonated with something inside of me and made me feel the joy or the pain that Totto-chan felt. The Great Adventure, "The Only Thing I Want!", Talking with Your Hands, "Thank You", "Shabby Old School", Visiting the Wounded, and "Yasuaki-chan's Dead" are my favorite of the stories, even though some of them made me cry.

In the end, Tomoe burned down due to an American air raid, but the headmaster continued to educate children until his death. He believed strongly that children need freedom in their learning and he worked hard to help children be more accepting of others with disabilities especially. He also tried to help children become more comfortable with themselves and confident.

The part about this book that I found mind-blowing is that everything in this book is true! Totto-chan is the author, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, who is a famous actress and talk show host. This book, as she explains in her Postscript at the end of the book, is the story of her early childhood and education in the three or so years she spent at Tomoe. Every story is an actual experience from her childhood, every person written about is real. For me, that makes this book very special. I also like that at the end of the book, in the Epilogue, Tetsuko (Totto-chan) tells the readers what all of her friends from Tomoe are doing now. Some of them are very famous people! (Of course, she is also famous.)

This book, Totto-chan, is an amazing story. In one year 4,500,000 copies of this book were sold in Japan making it an "unexpected best seller", and I can see why! I highly recommend Totto-chan to anyone! Tetsuko said that children at 7 years old read and enjoyed it just as much as a 103 year old Literature Scholar did.

So, if you happen across Totto-chan in a store or library or online or on your Kindle, iPad, Whatever-you-use, please consider reading it. It is a simple yet intense story and I hope you enjoy it very much! Thank you and happy reading!