The History of Iwanami Shonen Bunko 1950-2020 (Iwanami Shoten, Publishers. 2021)
Compiling and writing: Akiko Wakana
The book looks back on the 70-year history of Iwanami Shonen Bunko, including not only the authors, but also the publisher, editors, translators, book binding and design, pricing, and more.
The Shonen Bunko was published on December 25, 1950, five years after the end of the war. I imagine it was accepted by the children of that time with a sense of hunger and enthusiasm.
The position of children’s books in society and their content might be a reflection of how children are understood and treated in that country.
I was impressed by Momoko Ishii’s recollection that Japanese children’s books at that time were still mostly short, and purity and innocence of children were the core value of the stories, and that it was difficult to include them in the Shonen Bunko.
This was a very good book, showing the culmination of the factors that have supported the Shonen Bunko’s progress of the past 70 years.
(Finish reading:1/30/2024)
