Hayao Miyazaki's Best Loved Children's Books

MIYAZAKI'S SPIRITED AWAY (2001). Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/144_1539868/1/144_1539868/cite. Accessed 10 Oct 2017.

We can't help it - we're unashamed fangirls of the films of Hayao Miyazaki, as you can see from our past blog posts. So, when we found a list of Miyazaki's 50 favorite children's books, we were intrigued and wanted to share. There were some obvious ones - several "time-tested Western classics," and he made a movie based on The Borrowers, after all - and you can find a few of his choices namechecked in the documentary The Kingdom of Madness and Dreams. So, without further ado, we present to you the complete list of Miyazaki's favorite children's books, as available in the library catalog! We hope you find something you'd want to check out, or share with the children in your life, that will hopefully create a bit of  Miyazaki magic.

The Borrowers by Mary Norton

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson [eAudiobook]

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome 

The Flying Classroom by Erich Kästner

Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Eagle of The Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by  Lewis Carroll

The Little Bookroom by Eleanor Farjeon

Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne

Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling [eBook]

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

The Hobbit by  J. R. R. Tolkien

Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en [eBook]

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by  Jules Verne

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

 

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

The Little Humpbacked Horse by Pyotr Pavlovich Yershov

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge [eAudiobook]

The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

 

For Miyazaki Fans

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (1988). Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/144_1473505/1/144_1473505/cite. Accessed 19 Jan 2017.

We are big fans of the animated films of Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, the film and animation studio he co-founded in 1985. The films of Miyazaki first gained renown in the west with Princess Mononoke  in 1997, after he had already created 6 full-length animated movies to great acclaim in Japan. Fans of manga and anime will enjoy his films, which are catalogued as children's DVDs in the library catalog, but can be enjoyed by all ages.

Once we watched the films, we got to wondering - if you love the worlds and vision created by Miyazaki, where might you go from there? There are some picture books based on the films and screenplays of the films available in the library catalog, and a couple of his movies have been based on books, but we thought it might be interesting to provide a list of readalikes not so much based on the book, or in manga format, but with similar subjects that might entertain Miyazaki fans. We've used NoveList, which you can access from the Quick Links in our Books and Literature guide, to find suggested titles. We've tried to provide a couple suggestions for each Miyazaki scripted-and-directed film in the catalog, with readalikes mostly for more than one age range (assuming most adults won't mind young adult titles). Let us know how we did in the comments!

Princess Mononoke
readalikes: Wildwood by Colin Meloy [J]; The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente [YA]

Spirited Away
readalikes: The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Edwards [J]; The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman [YA]

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
readalikes: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle [J], Meridian by Barbara Kesel [YA]

Porco Rosso
readalikes: Riddle in Ruby by Kent Davis [J]; Dark Run by Mike Brooks [adult] 

Lupin the III: The Castle of Cagliostro 
readalikes: Newt's Emerald by Garth Nix [YA]; The Accidental Highwayman: Being the Tale of Kit Bristol, His Horse Midnight, A Mysterious Princess, and Sundry Magical Persons Besides by Ben Tripp [YA]

Howl's Moving Castle
readalikes: Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones [J]; A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin

Ponyo
readalikes: Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown [YA]; The Mermaid's Sister by Carrie Ann Noble [YA]

Kiki's Delivery Service
readalikes: Egg & Spoon by Gregory Maguire [YA]; Worst Witch by Jill Murphy [J]

Castle in the Sky
readalikes: The Apothecary by Maile Meloy [J]; Airman by Eoin Colfer [YA]

My Neighbor Totoro
readalikes: Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures by Jackson Pearce and Maggie Stiefvater [J]; Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier [YA]

The Secret World of Arrietty
readalikes: The Borrowers by Mary Norton [J]; The Carpet People by Terry Pratchett [J]

The Wind Rises
readalikes: Dragonwings by Laurence Yep [J]; The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt [adult]


If you are a Miyazaki fan, also consider checking out the films of Isao Takahata, another Studio Ghibli co-founder. To learn more about the workings of Studio Ghibli's animation studio, also check out the documentary The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness. We hear Miyazaki might be coming out of retirement to make one more film! Fingers crossed.

The Artistry of Hayao Miyazaki & Studio Ghibli

Did anyone out there check out the Studio Ghibli Festival at the Guild Cinema recently? I revisited Princess Mononoke - 16 years down the road, it was a like a new movie to me, and still great! (Plus, the kodama - tree spirits - are quite adorable.) I was very sad to learn that Hayao Miyazaki, writer and director of Princess Mononoke and co-founder of the studio, has recently announced his retirement from filmmaking.

For anyone out there who might be unfamiliar with Studio Ghibli, the studio was co-founded in 1985 by acclaimed Japanese director, anime, and manga artist Miyazaki and his collaborative partner Isao Takahata.  Miyazaki was virtually unknown in the west until the huge success of Princess Mononoke in 1997, but he has written and/or produced and/or directed much if not all of Studio Ghibli's output. What are the hallmarks of a Miyazaki movie, you ask?  "Miyazaki's films often contain recurrent themes like humanity's relationship with nature and technology, and the difficulty of maintaining a pacifist ethic. The protagonists of his films are often strong, independent girls or young women." [Wikipedia] A couple of his movies are adaptations from novels - Eiko Kadono wrote the novel on which Kiki's Delivery Service is based, Diana Wynne Jones is the author of Howl's Moving Castle, and The Secret World of Arrietty is taken from Mary Norton's Borrowers series.

I missed a lot of the films during the festival this go-around, but I was delighted to discover many of the films and some Studio Ghibli related material available in the library catalog! 

Books

The Animé Art of Hayao Miyazaki by Dani Cavallaro

Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation - Films, Themes, Artistry by Helen McCarthy

Kiki's Delivery Service: Picture Book [English adaptation] by Naoko Amemiya

Anime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke, Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation by Susan J. Napier

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Vol. 1 by Hayao Miyazaki


International Collection

Ya shang no Boniu  yuan zuo, jiao ben, jian du Gongqi Jun [Chinese]


eVideo

The Castle of Cagliostro [1979]


Films by Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli

The Secret World of Arrietty [2010]

Castle in the Sky [1986]

Ponyo [2008]

Kiki's Delivery Service [1989]

My Neighbor Totoro [1988]

Howl's Moving Castle [2004]

Porco Rosso [1992]

Spirited Away [2001]

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind [1984]

From Up on Poppy Hill [2011]


Links


Ghibli Museum

Yahoo!'s Beginner's Guide to Studio Ghibli

The Wondrous, Melancholy Worlds of Hayao Miyazaki