Secrets of The Earth
- Aika Tsubota
- (Click here to see the official author’s page)
- Dimensions: Modified A4 size (21x290), Hardcover, 41 pages
- Set price: 1,470 yen (1,400 plus tax)
- ISBN 4883383075
- Publication date: December 2004
Even though this book attempts to teach children the importance of the environment, it is received as highly appropriate and fun book for children of all ages.
This important book has also won the United Nations Environmental Programme Global 500 award. It has thus far been translated into 11 languages worldwide, making it an excellent and timeless folk tale by the author who has touched the world deeply. “I believe that we have to stop thinking that we can’t achieve anything individually. If everyone thought this way then the situation would become untenable in a single stroke. But with everyone working together I believe we can maintain a beautiful planet.”
Aika Tsubota, a year 6 student of Ritsunishino Elementary School, Hikawa City in Hikawagen Shimane Prefecture, researched environmental problems and wrote them in her owns words and pictures in this smartly written Manga. The book was born into the world on the 25th of December 1991 as “Secrets of the Earth”. Unfortunately however, only hours after the book was released, author Ai Tsubota collapsed from an aneurism. After only a short life she passed away on the 27th of December, aged 12.
Ai’s parents distributed her book posthumously to students and schools. Only six months after this small impetus an English version of the book was in New York in the hands of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) being placed in their first “Paint for the planet” exhibition, and at the same time being introduced to the world at the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro of June 1992. The marvel that it inspired in the world leaders, dignitaries and anyone who saw it quickly spread to Japan. On the 5th of June 1993 the UNEP recognized the remarkable impact that this small book had on the world’s environmental awareness by awarding it with a United Nations Global 500 award. Moreover, it was the first of its kind in the world.
A Message from the Forests
- Author: Yoh Shomei
- Author’s Official Homepage
- Dimensions: Non-standard sized hardcover, 36 pages
- Set Price: 1,575 Yen (1,500 yen plus tax)
- ISBN 4883382346
- Published: August 1990
When you close your eyes, and listen carefully with a pure heart you can hear the whispers of the forest…… Young and young at heart, those who can revive the forests, can you hear it’s whispering? The profit from each book sold can plant 30 trees (a part of the profit and author’s royalty goes to environmental organizations to be used in forest management) providing water, land and air. To re-grow our precious forests we must grow generation-spanning old-growth forest. Those who must carry this important responsibility on their shoulders will be today’s children. That is the hope that I hold for today’s children, their children, as well as humanity and indeed the planet. From the bottom of my heart I hope that through this book children will gain a new understanding of the forest and that new stories of the forest are born. (Taken from the author’s afterword)
Anne’s Roses: Memories of Anne Frank
- Author and Illustrator: Yoh Shomei
- Author’s official site
- Dimensions: Non-Standard A5 Hardcover, 48 pages
- Set Price: 1,575 Yen (1,500 plus tax)
- ISBN 4883382656
- Published: May 2002
In this picture book author-illustrator Yoh Shomei considers what could have happened if Anne Frank was not killed during the war on the grounds of being Jewish. What kind of person could she have become, what would she have thought as a little girl watching the post-war world, and what kinds of dreams would she have of peace are contained in this beautifully illustrated picture book.
English and Japanese are printed side by side on the page. Please read along with your children in order to develop a good understanding of Anne’s time on earth and the importance of peace in ours.
Furthermore, a part of the proceeds of this book go to the peace project of the Holocaust museum. (http://www.urban.ne.jp/home/hecjpn/indexENGLISH.html) located in Hiroshima.
