I first encountered Kiki's Delivery Service at Barnes & Noble. I looked at the cover, was immediately intrigued, and thought to myself, "Hey, I'll see if the library has that!" And it did.
Kiki's Delivery Service is the story of a half-witch, appropriately named Kiki, who on her thirteenth birthday moves out with her black cat named Jiji and goes to Koriko, a fairly sizable town on the seashore. There she does... what do you think?
She starts a delivery service! And, because she's half witch, she delivers things by flying them places on her broomstick. This makes for some fairly interesting scenarios, as the people of Koriko slowly get used to her flying things to where they need to go. That's basically the entire book: her delivering stuff on her broom.
But don't be put off by what I said in the last sentence, because it is not boring. Not at all. It's a very fun and cute book, and I am still amused by the idea of magic sneeze medicine (which doesn't actually play any real part in the book, but still amuses me.)
If this was a movie, I would rate it also PG not because it's violent or anything, but there are some things in there that smaller kids just wouldn't understand. And actually, it is a movie! There is literally a movie made from this book. It's presumably an anime-style movie, but I don't really know, having never watched it.
I will rate this book 5/5 stars. I really loved it, as you can see from my rating system (which I really do need to give its own post at some point, but right now, just go here).
Favorite lines:
"My sister lives in Pointy Manor on Dead Tree Road." Pg. 104. The names "pointy manor" and "dead tree road" probably fall into the category of things that I think are funny, but no one else does.
Kokiri chuckled and said, "Did you go to Mount Green?"
"You can tell?" Kiki asked.
"Yes, you still have very clear grass lines on your face!" Pg. 192.
I have seen the movie version of this! It came out when I was in college, and my roommate was a big fan of anime, so we watched it as soon as it came to video in the US. We should see if the library has the movie too. And also My Neighbor Totoro, which is from the same filmmakers.
ReplyDeleteDead Tree Road sounds like it was named by the same people as Dismal Hollow Road.
Maybe. I honestly don't want to watch the movie, as I already have my own voices and faces for all the characters. But if you could find out what it's rated, thanks in advance.
DeleteAlso, yes! I'll have to poke around seeing whether it was full of dead trees or not.
The movie versions of both My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service are rated G.
DeleteOkay, cool. Thanks for finding that out (:3
DeleteGreat review of what looks like your kind of book! Your blog posts have really improved, Sam! Very informative and fun to read. Keep it up. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! Honestly, I look back on my old ones and think "I could do so much better than this" so thank you for confirming that I can (:3
DeleteShe must be an early predecessor of UPS! Perhaps with a little more pizzazz, since she is able to fly. I wonder when this book was written? That would give a little better context to the creativity of the book.
ReplyDeleteI don't have the book anymore, but it was in 1980- or 1990-something. That's why there aren't any cell phones or computers or anything.
DeleteI think it was in 1981, but I'm not sure.