Tottochan- The little girl at the window
–Tetsuko Kuroyanagi–
I am so happy that I have the soft English version of this book. Its one of the most interesting books for children Ive ever read! Children must love this book but for sure adults, especially parents, love it too ’cause it not only tells you how lovely kids are but also teaches you how to give benevolent looks at kids and how to love children tenderly.
I’ll extract some small pieces of the stories to post here so that you will have some ideas about it before accessing to the full PDF version posted at the end of this entry.
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His Bride
Totto-chan was very sad.
She was in third grade now and she liked Tai-chan a lot. He was clever and good at physics. He studied English, and it was he who taught her the English word for fox.
“Totto-chan,” he had Said, “do yoU know what the English word for kitsune is? It’s ‘fox.’ ”
“Fox.”
Totto-chan had luxuriated in the sound of that word all day long. After that, the first thing she always did when she got to the classroom-in-the train was to sharpen all the pencils in Tai-chan’s pencil box as beautifully as she could with her penknife. She didn’t bother about her own, which she just hacked at with her teeth.
In spite of all that, Tai-chan had spoken roughly to her. It happened during lunch break. Totto-chan was sauntering along behind the Assembly Hall in the region of chat notorious cesspool.
“Totto-chan!”
Tai-chan’s voice sounded cross, and she stopped, startled. Pausing for breath, Taichan said, “When I grow up, I’m not going to marry you, no matter how much you ask me to.” So saying, he walked off, his eyes on the ground.
Totto-chan stood dazed, watching until he and his large head disappeared from view. That head full of brains that she admired so much. That head that looked so much bigger than his body the children used to call him “The Improper Fraction.”
Totto-chan put her hands in her pockets and thought. She could not remember doing anything to annoy him. In desperation she talked it over with her classmate Miyochan.
After listening to Totto-chan, Miyo-chan said, maturely, “Why, of course! It’s because you threw Tai-chan out of the ring today at sumo wrestling. It’s not surprising he flew out of the ring the way he did because his head’s so heavy. But he’s still bound to be mad at you.”
Totto-chan regretted it with all her heart. Yes, that was it. What on earth made her beat the boy she liked so much She Sharpened his pencils every day! But it was too late. She could never be his bride now.
“I’m going to go on sharpening his pencils all the same,” Totto-chan decided. “After all, I love him.”
“Look before You Leap!”
On the way home from school, just as she had almost reached home, Totto-chan discovered something enticing by the side of the road. It was a huge pile of sand. How extraordinary to find sand there, so far from the sea! Was she dreaming! Tottochan was thrilled. After a preliminary little hop she ran at great speed toward the pile of sand and leaped onto its summit. But it wasn’t sand after all! Inside, it was a heap of Read the rest of this entry »
posted in Book of the week, Stories, Stories for kids | 0 Comments
