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    The Secret of the Blue Glass
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    The Secret of the Blue Glass
    Unavailable
    The Secret of the Blue Glass
    Ebook182 pages2 hours

    The Secret of the Blue Glass

    By Tomiko Inui

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A magical miniature family's adventures in wartime Japan

    In a dusty library, in the quietest corner of a house in a Tokyo suburb, live the Little People: Fern and Balbo, Robin and Iris. Just a few inches high, sleeping in cigarette boxes and crafting shoes from old book jackets, they need only one thing from their Humans - a nightly glass of milk, served in a sparkling Blue Glass goblet, by a trusted young member of the Human family.

    But when the Second World War comes to Japan, bringing a dangerous new kind of patriotism, both Humans and their beloved Little People face a world they could never before have imagined. It will take great love, bravery, and a rather loyal pigeon, to bring their unique families back together once more...

    Born in Tokyo in 1924, Tomiko Inui joined a publishing house in 1950, where she began working as an editor, as well as writing books for children. She published many books over her long career, winning prizes along the way including the Mainishi Publishing Culture Award and the Akaitori Award for Children's Literature. She was also runner-up in 1964 for the Hans Christian Andersen prize. The Secret of the Blue Glass is the first of her books to be translated into English. She died in 2002.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPushkin Children's Books
    Release dateJul 30, 2015
    ISBN9781782690795
    Unavailable
    The Secret of the Blue Glass
    Author

    Tomiko Inui

    Born in Tokyo in 1924, Tomiko Inui joined a publishing house in 1950, where she began working as an editor, as well as writing books for children. She published many books over her long career, winning prizes along the way including the Mainishi Publishing Culture Award and the Akaitori Award for Children's Literature. She was also runner-up in 1964 for the Hans Christian Andersen prize. The Secret of the Blue Glass is the first of her books to be translated into English. She died in 2002.

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    Reviews for The Secret of the Blue Glass

    3.5/5

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    • 3/5
      I am a fan of The Borrowers, so I looked forward to this story of tiny people in Japan.

      Unfortunately, while it is an interesting portrait of war-time Japan, it has a slow and meandering plot, with relatively flat characters and somewhat inexplicable parameters. We hear, for instance, that the small people must be given milk and only milk, but that does not appear to be true later on. Also, there is a timeframe that must be met before they can return to their large people and that is oddly arbitrary. There is never an explanation for so many things about the small people, and the adult tinies seem, passive, relatively helpless, and not particularly helpful or kind to their large caretakers.

      I think if Miyazaki turned it into a film, I might enjoy it, but short of that, it has little to recommend it, and has failed to capture the joy and intrigue of the lives of tiny people.

      Advanced reader's copy provided by Edelweiss.