My Neighbor Totoro Picture Book (My Neighbor Totoro Picture Book (New Edition))

My seven-year-old and I have been ardent fans of Studio Ghibli movies, and have gradually amassed quite a collection of the animated features. I've also been building up a library of the picture books as they contain many of the beautiful, vivid artwork found in the feature films and the text in each book capture the essence of each movie. The story of "My Neighbor Totoro" is simple and sweet without being overly cloying. A father and his two daughters, Satsuki and Mei, move to the countryside whilst their mother recovers from an illness in the hospital. There, the sisters discover that their home is haunted by benign spirits and the younger sister Mei discovers a creature named Totoro which is a forest spirit (he looks like an oversized bunny). Totoro is a sight to behold - his large appearance and loud growls belie a gentle nature, one which is in harmony with Mother Nature. One night, as the sisters wait for their father at the bus-stop, older sister Satsuki finds Totoro standing beside her in the rain. The sisters then witness an unusual sight - a cat which is also a bus, which looks like it was inspired by Lewis Carroll's Cheshire cat! There are no villains in this charming and engaging story, and I found that quite refreshing. Even the mother's illness is vague and not a real cause for concern except perhaps in the later part of the story when Mei goes missing trying to find the hospital her mother is in. My daughter could not get enough of Totoro and begged for repeated viewings. She loves the giant, endearing creature and would watch with rapt fascination each time Totoro appeared on screen. She first watched Totoro when she was five and is still a great fan two years later. There is a magical quality about Studio Ghibli movies that make them classics one will want to watch over and over. I loved the gentle ecological message of being in harmony with nature - Totoro bequests a gift of seeds to the sisters which they plant in their garden. This is a sweet story perfect for any age, and the book makes an excellent companion to the movie.

My 3 and 4 year old love Totoro and are so excited about this book. They love looking at all the pictures and talking about all the different scenes, and the story is something you can read a couple of chapters at a time for bedtime every night. The outer dust cover is so adorable, and the cover of the book itself is gorgeous. Overall I am so happy with this purchase.

My five year plan of grandson loves this movie and when he opened this book for Christmas he looked through the whole book. He wanted to watch the movie and followed the movie with the book. The illustrations are beautifully done.

This book is perfect! My 2 year old is barely transitioning away from board books and into paper hardcover books. She was absolutely captivated! So much that she wouldn’t let me put the book down and we read it in two nights (which is about 40 minutes total). The pictures to words ratio is spot on, the storyline wasn’t at all butchered by summarizing for younger minds, and it was easy for her to understand enough to enjoy. Best of all, this book was enjoyable for us to read as parents/adults. What a relief it is to not have to count with Sesame Street’s Count Dracula for once.

My daughter enjoyed the animated movie, so I bought her this book and she loves it. Has a lot of pictures which she enjoys.

Came in perfect condition! Great baby shower gift!

7 year old able to read some of it - with several pictures on each page, about 1/2 the space is pictures that are color saturated and engaging.

We found this book on Amazon and figured it would be worth a try to order as our family has been looking for a picture book or an illustrated version of our favorite movie Totoro. This book starts out by introducing the characters and it goes into the story with beautiful images from the movie throughout the book, which is exactly what we were looking for. I highly recommend this if you are a Totoro fan as a must have to your book collection. So far our son has had us read it to him every night since the book arrived. It gives us another way to celebrate one of our favorite stories.