Totto-Chan

Author: Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
Publisher: Kodansha USA
ISBN: 1568364520
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 152

Book Description
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.

I Luv Myself

Author: Manukul
Publisher: Pustak Mahal
ISBN: 8122311199
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 70

Book Description
Every child is a born genius. Out of 100 children, 90 are potential genius. Parents, teachers, school, friends & society make them average and small in just 18-20 yrs. Potential winners and greats are converted into average & small people by us. Very few, who escape our pressures & tactics of making them small & average, become successful and greats! — MANUKUL

The Tiger

Author: John Vaillant
Publisher: Knopf Canada
ISBN: 0307375277
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 407

Book Description
It's December 1997 and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia's Far East. The tiger isn't just killing people, it's annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. To their horrified astonishment it emerges that the attacks are not random: the tiger is engaged in a vendetta. Injured and starving, it must be found before it strikes again, and the story becomes a battle for survival between the two main characters: Yuri Trush, the lead tracker, and the tiger itself. As John Vaillant vividly recreates the extraordinary events of that winter, he also gives us an unforgettable portrait of a spectacularly beautiful region where plants and animals exist that are found nowhere else on earth, and where the once great Siberian Tiger - the largest of its species, which can weigh over 600 lbs at more than 10 feet long - ranges daily over vast territories of forest and mountain, its numbers diminished to a fraction of what they once were. We meet the native tribes who for centuries have worshipped and lived alongside tigers - even sharing their kills with them - in a natural balance. We witness the first arrival of settlers, soldiers and hunters in the tiger's territory in the 19th century and 20th century, many fleeing Stalinism. And we come to know the Russians of today - such as the poacher Vladimir Markov - who, crushed by poverty, have turned to poaching for the corrupt, high-paying Chinese markets. Throughout we encounter surprising theories of how humans and tigers may have evolved to coexist, how we may have developed as scavengers rather than hunters and how early Homo sapiens may have once fit seamlessly into the tiger's ecosystem. Above all, we come to understand the endangered Siberian tiger, a highly intelligent super-predator, and the grave threat it faces as logging and poaching reduce its habitat and numbers - and force it to turn at bay. Beautifully written and deeply informative, The Tiger is a gripping tale of man and nature in collision, that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the Siberian forest.

Monsters, Animals, and Other Worlds

Author: Keller Kimbrough
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231545509
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Book Description
Monsters, Animals, and Other Worlds is a collection of twenty-five medieval Japanese tales of border crossings and the fantastic, featuring demons, samurai, talking animals, amorous plants, and journeys to supernatural realms. The most comprehensive compendium of short medieval Japanese fiction in English, Monsters, Animals, and Other Worlds illuminates a rich world of literary, Buddhist, and visual culture largely unknown today outside of Japan. These stories, called otogizōshi, or Muromachi tales (named after the Muromachi period, 1337 to 1573), date from approximately the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries. Often richly illustrated in a painted-scroll format, these vernacular stories frequently express Buddhist beliefs and provide the practical knowledge and moral education required to navigate medieval Japanese society. The otogizōshi represent a major turning point in the history of Japanese literature. They bring together many earlier types of narrative—court tales, military accounts, anecdotes, and stories about the divine origins of shrines and temples––joining book genres with parlor arts and the culture of itinerant storytellers and performers. The works presented here are organized into three thematically overlapping sections titled, “Monsters, Warriors, and Journeys to Other Worlds,” “Buddhist Tales,” and “Interspecies Affairs.” Each translation is prefaced by a short introduction, and the book features images from the original scroll paintings, illustrated manuscripts, and printed books.

I Dream of a Journey

Author: Akiko Miyakoshi
Publisher: Kids Can Press Ltd
ISBN: 152530478X
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 40

Book Description
Akiko Miyakoshi’s enchanting new book explores how it feels to harbor a secret dream. People from all over the world come and go at the gracious innkeeper’s little hotel, some even becoming friends over the years. Only, sometimes, the innkeeper feels the desire to travel far away himself. He longs to pack a big bag and journey from one unfamiliar town to another. He imagines stopping to visit his friends. And having wonderful and unexpected experiences. The innkeeper continues to go about his daily routine at his hotel. But, someday, he is sure, he will explore the world. For every child — and adult — who yearns for what lies beyond the horizon.

Small Worlds

Author: Elliott West
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 426

Book Description
Thirteen essays treat children from the pre-Civil War generation to 1950 as active, influential participants in society. The essays are organized into four topics: cultural and regional variation, toys and play, family life, and the ways evolving memories of childhood shape how adults think of themselves.

The Girl with the Brown Crayon

Author: Vivian Gussin PALEY
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674041836
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 112

Book Description
Flit across the classroom walls. Soon enough we are drawn into Reeny's remarkable dance of self-revelation and celebration, and into the literary turn it takes when Reeny discovers a kindred spirit in Leo Lionni - a writer of books and teller of tales. Led by Reeny, Paley takes us on a tour through the landscape of characters created by Lionni. These characters come to dominate a whole year of discussion and debate as the children argue the virtues and weaknesses of.

We Need New Names

Author: NoViolet Bulawayo
Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books
ISBN: 0316230839
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Book Description
This unflinching and powerful novel tells the "deeply felt and fiercely written" story of a young girl's journey out of Zimbabwe to America (New York Times Book Review). Darling is only ten years old, and yet she must navigate a fragile and violent world. In Zimbabwe, Darling and her friends steal guavas, try to get the baby out of young Chipo's belly, and grasp at memories of Before. Before their homes were destroyed by paramilitary policemen, before the school closed, before the fathers left for dangerous jobs abroad. But Darling has a chance to escape: she has an aunt in America. She travels to this new land in search of America's famous abundance only to find that her options as an immigrant are perilously few. NoViolet Bulawayo's debut calls to mind the great storytellers of displacement and arrival who have come before her — from Junot Diaz to Zadie Smith to J.M. Coetzee — while she tells a vivid, raw story all her own. "Original, witty, and devastating." —People

The Girl with the White Flag

Author: 比嘉富子
Publisher: Kodansha International
ISBN: 9784770029317
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 148

Book Description
In 1945 Okinawa, a seven year old girl is wandering about carrying a white flag.

The Courage to Imagine

Author: Roni Natov
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474221238
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 217

Book Description
The act of imagining lies at the very heart of children's engagements with literature and with the plots and characters they encounter in their favorite stories. The Courage to Imagine is a landmark new study of that fundamental act of imagining. Roni Natov focuses on the ways in which children's imaginative engagement with the child hero figure can open them up to other people's experiences, developing empathy across lines of race, gender and sexuality, as well as helping them to confront and handle traumatic experience safely. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical approaches from the psychological to the cultural and reading a multicultural spectrum of authors, including works by Maya Angelou, Louise Erdrich, Neil Gaiman and Brian Selznick, this is a groundbreaking examination of the nature of imagining for children and re-imagining for the adult writer and illustrator.