Japanese Literary Awards

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Juvenile Literature Newcomer Award じどうぶんげいしんじんしょう

Edition 18 (1989)

Original fairy talesNovelsNon-fictionPoetryChildren's songs

Winners

3 people
Emu Namae award

UFO Ringo to Uchu Neko is a children's book written by M. Namae with illustrations by Hisakuni Hiko. Starting from the playful idea of a strange apple and a cat from space, it expands a child's curiosity and imagination toward a cosmic scale.

A familiar fruit and a cat from space meet, turning everyday life into a gently strange adventure.

181 pages
spaceimaginationencounterchildren's literature

Futari dake no Hitoribocchi is a children's novel centered on eleven-year-old Akiko, portraying childhood loneliness and the wish to stand beside another person. It follows the emotional uncertainty of opening one's heart while recognizing the loneliness that can remain even when two people are together.

A story of two lonely children gradually beginning to hear each other's voices.

lonelinessfriendshipage elevenemotional growth

Yokoso Swing Kazoku is a children's novel about the Nobeyama family, who spend a year in a small village through a mountain-village study program. Through days in which the family works together, the eldest son Arata encounters different forms of family life and individual dreams, and grows through them.

A year in a mountain village leads a boy to think about the shape of family and his own dreams.

269 pages
mountain-village studyfamilygrowthcommunal life