明日的孩子們

by Hiro Arikawa, 有川浩, 蘇暐婷 (Translator)

明日之家守則第一條：看到弄亂的鞋子，千萬不要出手整理——

「咦？？？？」　　這是剛入育幼院的熱血老師三田村，看到這條守則的第一反應。三田村原本是位民間公司的業務，後來偶然看到一部以育幼院為主題的紀錄片，大受感動，於是下定決心，投身兒童教養事業，然而，當他實際踏入院內，才發現一切都跟他想的不同……

「如果有人幫孩子做，那他們就永遠學不會自己動手。」任職三年的女老師和泉嚴厲地說。「我最討厭看了紀錄片就跑來說『好可憐』的人了，根本就是偽善！」就連院內的模範生，人稱「乖寶寶」的奏子，也用不友善的眼光瞪著他。——天啊，我只是覺得孩子可憐，想幫忙做點什麼，這樣也有錯嗎……？
　　
完全搞不清楚狀況的三田村，真能贏得「明日之家」孩子的信任嗎？
面對這些孩子的苦惱，他又真能一本初衷，為孩子們真正做些什麼嗎？

放棄之前，先勇敢踏出步伐
粉碎刻板印象的高牆吧！

432 pages, Paperback

First published August 8, 2014

About the author

Hiro Arikawa won the tenth annual Dengeki Novel Prize for new writers for Shio no Machi: Wish on My Precious in 2003, and the book was published the following year. It was praised for its love story between a heroine and hero divided by age and social status, and for its depiction of military structures. Although she is a light novelist, her books from her second work onwards have been published as hardbacks alongside more literary works with Arikawa receiving special treatment in this respect from her publisher, MediaWorks. Shio no Machi was also later published in hardback. Her 2006 light novel Toshokan Sensō (The Library War) was named as Hon no Zasshi's number one for entertainment for the first half of 2006, and came fifth in the Honya Taishō for that year, competing against ordinary novels.

She often writes about the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) and her first three novels concerning its three branches are known as the Jieitai Sanbusaku (The SDF Trilogy); she also wrote about the fictional Library Forces in the Toshokan Sensō series. Raintree no Kuni, which first appeared as a book within a book in Toshokan Nairan was later published by Arikawa as a spin-off with another publisher. It was adapted into a film titled World of Delight released on November 21, 2015.[2][3]Her novel Shokubutsu Zukan (ja) will be adapted into a film titled Shokubutsu Zukan: Unmei no Koi, Hiroimashita and scheduled for release on June 4, 2016.

Reviews

[Taka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this as part of research on childcare homes in Japan. The story is quite predictable and manga-esque with minimal descriptions and reflection, almost flat characters, and maximum amount of dialogue, but once you accept it as it is—a fictionalized documentary of sort—and ditch any expectations for it to aspire to literary heights, it ceases to be painful to read. Or rather, it becomes entertaining. It even becomes quite moving in places. Don't really recommend it for anyone who wants to read something highbrow or deep. If you want literary potato chips to munch on, this isn't a bad read.

[Haru · Rating 4 out of 5]

児童館で新米教師のと子どもたちの成長のお話。細かい会話まで、書かれていてよくできた作品だった。
新米教師の三田村は、ありそうな人間だった。子どもたちを支えるために、という目標で児童館で働くことになった。それぞれの抱えている悩みがすーっと解決されていくところが何箇所かあり(和泉先生は、片思いの相手、暗い先生は、昔の施設の子)すっきりした。
児童館施設に対してのイメージが変わった。
良いところだ。