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.

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.

The artwork is straight from the movie and is clear and beautiful. Many pictures on most pages and beautiful spreads as well for big scenes. Goes through the whole movie really well.Perfect for us. My kids love the movie and want to watch it all the time. This is our alternative when we are limiting screen time and they love it!

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.

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

I’m blown away by the quality and content of this book. It’s not a short, watered down version of the movie, nothing gets left out. My whole family loves this book. I cannot recommend it enough!

So maybe I bought this for me more than my son, but my two-year old loves it. We usually read 1/3 of the book at bedtime. It’s a good abridged version of the movie, and the text matches up with the pictures well. Great idea and execution.

Our 3 year old loves the movie My Neighbor Totoro. It was the first movie we took her to in the theater. This book is a great alternative when you don't want to watch the movie over and over and over (as we have, though it's adorable so I can't complain). The pictures are taken directly from the movies scenes and the story is almost identical down to some of the thing the characters say. There's a map of the village and an explanation of each character (which is great when granma is visiting and hasn't seen the movie). It's are first longer book and it's fun to bookmark and read more the next night. Highly recommended for Totoro fans!