Totto-chan: The Little
Girl at the Window
Author: Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, Translator:
Dorothy Britton. Publisher: Kodansha International, 1996.
ISBN: 4-7700-2067-8
This book was given me as a gift by my
sister-in-law, an educator and avid reader. It is the autobiography
of a famous actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. The book
concentrates on a short period of time when the author attended Tomoe
primary school in Tokyo. In fact, the book is more a description of
the school founder's practice than it is a life story.
Expelled from first grade!
The book starts by telling of
Totto-chan's expelling from her previous school, when she was only in
grade one. You see, "the little girl at the window" would
wait all morning for street bands to walk by the school and call them
over to play their music. This was seen as highly disruptive
behaviour and, exasperated, her teacher decided the girl did not
become at the school. Eventually, her mother found a school that
would take her:…
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