[Kodansha Co., Ltd.] The new work of “Mottainai Grandma”, which has been passed down for 20 years, wins the 34th Kenbuchi Picture Book Village Grand Prize! Kodansha Co., Ltd. Press release: October 2, 2024 The new version of “Mottainai Grandma”, which has been passed down for 20 years, won the 34th Kenbuchi Ehon no Sato Grand Prize! “Important things” that Mariko Shinju put into “Mottainai Grandma’s Grandma”
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“Mottainai Grandma’s Grandma” won the Kenbuchi Picture Book Village Grand Prize It was in 2004 that picture book author Mariko Shinju published “Mottainai Baasan.” Since then, this picture book has become a series, and Mottainai Grandma has taught many children the spirit of valuing things. The children who learned this from Mottainai-ba-san eventually grow up and read “Mottainai-Basan” aloud to their own children… In this way, he became a character that is loved and felt close to across generations. In March of this year, which marked the 20th anniversary since its birth, a new work, “Mottainai Baasan no Grandma”, was published by Kodansha, and on October 1st, good news arrived. This picture book won the 34th Kenbuchi Picture Book Village Grand Prize. What is the Kenbuchi Picture Book Village Award The Kenbuchi Ehon no Sato Award is a literary award for picture books held by Kenbuchi Town, Kamikawa District, located about an hour and a half north of Asahikawa Airport in Hokkaido. The main body is Kenbuchi Ehon Village Creation Executive Committee). Past award-winning works include “You Look Delicious” (written and illustrated by Tatsuya Miyanishi, Poplar Publishing), “Panda Public Bath” (written by tupera tupera, Picture Book Museum), and “I’m Not Nugenai” (written by Yoshitake). Currently popular picture books such as Shinsuke, Bronze Shinsha) are available. Mariko Shinju, who received the award this time, also wrote “Mottainai Baasan”, the first volume of the series, and “Mottainai Baasan is coming!”. ” “Aren’t you doing something wasteful?” ” (Kodansha) and has won the Picture Book Village Grand Prize a total of four times. This year, 2024, there will be a voting period for two months from August 1st to September 30th, during which visitors to the “Kenbuchi Picture Book Hall” will be able to choose their favorite picture book from among the candidate works on display. One vote is cast, and the picture book village award will be awarded to the work that receives the most votes. This year, the 34th time, we received 263 entries, more than last time, and the total number of votes reached 10,357. What kind of story is “Mottainai Grandma’s Grandma”? “Mottainai Grandma’s Grandma”, which won the Kenbuchi Picture Book Village Grand Prize, is a story that explores the background of the character, “Why did Mottainai Grandma become a wasteful old lady?” , that grandma appears. As a child, Mottainai Grandma learned from her grandmother who was growing rice in the rice fields what is important in life, such as being grateful for food, having compassion for living things, and feeling connected to life. I have been taught this in a natural way. “I learned all the important things from my grandmother. It would be a waste not to pass them on.” This message, which also appears in picture books, is a theme that runs through this book. If you look closely at the picture, you can see that each individual rice plant is very realistically expressed. This took a lot of time and effort to create by cutting dyed washi paper into the shape of rice and pasting it on the background. Winners of the 34th Kenbuchi Picture Book Village Grand Prize The results of the 34th Kenbuchi Picture Book Award are as follows. Picture Book Village Grand Prize “Mottainai Grandma’s Grandma” (Written and illustrated by Mariko Shinju, Kodansha) Biba Karasu Award “You look delicious Goodbye Umasou” (Written and illustrated by Tatsuya Miyanishi, Poplar Publishing) Bibakarasu Award “One Class per Year: Teacher’s Selection of Children’s Tweets” (Selector: Kazuo Kashima, Illustrations: Shinsuke Yoshitake, Rironsha) Alpaca Award “Let’s play baseball! “The Story of Shohei Otani” (text/Koji Torigoe, illustrations/Kana Yamada, Sekai Bunkasha) The award ceremony is scheduled to be held on Saturday, February 15, 2025 at “Kenbuchi Onsen Lakeside Sakuraoka” in Kenbuchi Town.
