First, there’s the book and then there’s the movie.  Where to encounter the narrative first is always the question!  Most of us ‘older’ folk tend to encounter the narrative first in a book, and then later in the movie version.  But for today’s children and for me — especially in the case of Japan’s Studio Ghibli movies at any rate — it’s often the movie first.    When I first got wind of Studio Ghibli’s movie release, Arietty (it came out in Japan in 2010, DVD release July 2011) I noted quickly that it was based on Mary Norton’s The Borrowers (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1953).  The directors at Studio Ghibli — notably Hayao Miyazaki and son, Goro Miyazaki — have occasionally gone to British children’s books for inspiration for their movies.  Their previously released Howl’s Moving Castle was based on Diana Wynne Jones’ book of the same title (published in 1986) and it was through that movie, that I was introduced to Wynne Jones’ writing.

Thanks to Studio Ghibli again, my daughter and I have had a chance to experience The Borrowers by Mary Norton.  I picked up a hardback edition of the novel at a used book sale in Nishinomiya where I lived and began reading it at night to my daughter.  The Borrowers are little people who live under a house in England, and who ‘borrow’ things from the much larger humans that dwell above them.  The family in the first series of the Borrowers books is a small one comprising of the father, Pod, the mother, Homily, and their fourteen year old daughter, Arietty (on whom the movie title is based.)    My daughter and I got about halfway through the novel before she got to see the movie (we rented the DVD in Japan just before the day we left) and it was clear from the snippets I saw of it that the Studio Ghibli team was well into animating the tiny world of the Borrowers with its signature, detailed and colorful animation for which it is famous.  I hope Arietty makes it into the North American viewing market soon, but barring that, The Borrowers still make a great read for parents and children alike.

Today is Aug. 6, the anniversary date of the bombing of Hiroshima.  Shortly afterwards Japan surrendered.  In the wake of such catastrophic defeat, thousands of children were orphaned.  Kenji and the Cricket by Adele Wiseman, illustrated by Shizuye Takashima (Porcupine’s Quill, 1988)  is the story of such a war orphan.  Kenji is from Tokyo.  With no parents or place to live, he wanders the city alone, scrounging for food from fish markets and restaurants.  One summer evening, he discovers a cricket in the bushes in the park.  The soothing music of the insect comforts Kenji and he adopts him as a pet.  But where and how will he keep such a precious but fragile creature?  Kenji sets out with the cricket stuffed in his shirt, determined to find it a home.

Kenji and the Cricket is a little known classic of  Canadian children’s literature.  Written by the late Adele Wiseman in 1988, and illustrated by late Japanese Canadian artist, Shizuye Takashima (author of A Child in Prison Camp), the work is a collaboration by two well known Canadian women artists.   I don’t think I’d ever read anything about Japanese war orphans in English for children until I read this book.  Up until then my only knowledge of the plight of such children was through John Dower’s Pulitzer Prize winning historical analysis of Japan in the immediate post-war period Embracing Defeat published in 1999.  And also, there was a film by well known Japanese filmmaker, Hayao Miyazaki called Grave of the Fireflies, which was also released in Japan in 1988 alongside his children’s blockbuster, My Neighbor Totoro.

If you’re looking for a book that describes the plight of war orphans, you might just look up Kenji and the Cricket.  Do you know of any good books that cover this topic for children?  Do recommend them to me and others by leaving a comment!