Eiko Kadono

, real name , born January 1, 1935, is a Japanese author of children's literature, picture books, non-fiction, and essays. Her most famous work Kiki's Delivery Service, released in 1985, was made into an anime film by Hayao Miyazaki, and spawned a series of sequel novels. In 2018, she won the Hans Christian Andersen Award. Currently, she serves as a guest professor at the Nihon Fukushi University in Aichi Prefecture.

Biography

Early life and education Kadono was born in Tokyo, Japan. As a child during the World War II, she was evacuated to North Japan. Kadono stated that living through World War II sparked her rebellious nature and had a profound impact on the way she viewed the world.

She has published almost two hundred works, mainly books for children, including picture books and prose works for older children, as well as essay collections. In 1985, she published the children's novel Majo no Takkyūbin (魔女の宅急便, Kiki's Delivery Service), about a young witch-in-training who starts a delivery service in a seaside town of Koriko. The book received several awards, including the Noma Prize for Children's Literature, the Shogakukan Children's Publication Culture Award, and the IBBY Honor List. The book was also adapted into a live-action film in 2014, directed by Takashi Shimizu. She has written eight sequels and prequels to Kikis.

Selected bibliography Kiki's Delivery Service (1985) (1993) (2000) (2004) (2007) (2009) (2016) (2017) (2022)

Stand-alone Spagetti ga Tabete Iyo (1979) Grandpa's Soup (1989), with illustrator Satomi Ichikawa Sarada De Genki (2005)

Awards Kadono won the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing. The judges described her work as having "an ineffable charm, compassion, and élan" and praised her inspirational female characters as "singularly self-determining and enterprising."