Totto-Chan The Little Girl At The Window

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Literature & Fiction
Author:	Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

Originally written by the famous Japanese actress and TV personality Tetsuko Kuroyanagi.
English version translated by Dorothy Britton.

Very entertaining book to read.

Totto-chan, the author's name as a child, was a hyperactive little girl in first grade, perpetually having full of excitement and enthusiasm.

The story begins with Totto-chan's mother knowing of her daughter's expulsion from the school. She realises that what Totto-chan needs is a school where more freedom of expression is allowed for her daughter.

Totto-chan is re-enrolled at Tomoe Gakuen, a school made of numbers of railroad cars, headed by Mr Sosaku Kobayashi, an extraordinary educator, a firm believer in freedom of expression and activity, who understands children very well and strives to develop their qualities of mind, body and heart.

There are no formal lessons in class, the students studying the things they need to in any order during the day, asking the teacher when they have difficulties.

For lunch, Mr Sosaku always encouraged students to have a balanced meal, one portion of things from land (vegetables, meat, etc.) and one portion from the sea(fish, seaweed, etc.). He would inspect the lunches and if anything was missing, it was supplied by his wife, so that the students always got a balanced meal.

I liked the incident when Toto-chan dropped her favorite purse into the toilet, she used a wooden garden-watering ladle to empty the cesspool scoop to find it. Mr Sosaku came by, never scolded her, instead in a friendly tone, 'You'll put it back when you've finished, won't you?”, then he went off.

The story goes on following Totto-chan through the wonderful 4 years of her life at the school. Lots of attitudes of self-respect, freedom of expression, joy of discovery are being “taught” in this wonderful school. All of these are presented to us through the eyes of a child.

The children lead happy lives, unaware of the great things happening in the world. The World War II has started, yet in this school, no signs of it are seen. One day the school is bombed, and is never rebuilt, which ends Totto-chan's years as a pupil at Tomoe Gakuen, and the best side of a Japan that was lost forever in the war.