The Secret of the Blue Glass

(Paperback)

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Description

'I love this book' Michael Morpurgo


A classic story about a magical miniature family's adventures in wartime Japan.


In a dusty library, in the quietest corner of a house in Tokyo, live the Little People: Fern, 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.


But when the Second World War comes to Japan, both Humans and their beloved Little People face a world they could never have imagined. It will take great love, bravery, and the help of one very loyal pigeon to bring their unique families back together...


The Secret of the Blue Glass is a timeless adventure and a heartwarming reminder that everyone, no matter how small, can make a difference.


Part of the new Pushkin Children's Classics series of thrilling, magical and inspiring stories from around the world, which young readers will return to time and again.


Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori


Tomiko Inui (1924-2002) was born in Tokyo and joined a publishing house in 1950, where she began working as an editor while also writing. A pioneer of children's fantasy literature in Japan, she published many titles over her long career, during which she won numerous prizes and was a runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.


Ginny Tapley Takemori lives at the foot of a mountain in eastern Japan and has translated fiction by over a dozen Japanese authors for both adults and children. Her translation of The Whale That Fell in Love with a Submarine is also available from Pushkin Children's.

Reviews

'I love this book. Pushkin Childrens Books are to be congratulated in making it available to an English audience. How important it is, in these times, that our children read the stories from other peoples, other cultures, other times.... While the story has elements of the work of Oscar Wilde and Hans Christian Andersen, the author admits to having been inspired by Kenneth Grahame and Antoine de Saint-Exupery' - Michael Morpurgo

'[The book] has a sensibility and a poetry of its own' - Independent on Sunday

'The Secret of the Blue Glass is a tender and beautifully written story full of adventure, hardship and cultural revelations' - Lancashire Evening Post

'A glorious fantasy story... utterly captivating' - Read it Daddy

'Enchanting and charming, and written with a lovely lightness of touch' - BookTrust

Author Bio

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.