Abstract

The story is told through the eyes of an elementary school boy.
Our cat Kotora (little tiger) is 16 years old. He has been a member of our family since before I was born. We love him a lot even though he is mischievous. But now he is ill. He sleeps a lot and won’t eat his favorite food such as roasted seaweed …
My mother and I took him to an animal clinic and a doctor told us Kotora had a disease that can’t be cured. I cannot imagine Kotora will die someday. I hope that day never comes…

By exploring the boy’s various feelings about his cat, this story encourages readers to think about topics such as “life” and “family”.
This story won the 38th Joji Tsubota Award in 2023.

Author’s Information

Miku Ito: Miku Ito was born in Kanagawa prefecture. She has won the Japanese Association of Writers for Children Prize for New Authors, the Japan Juvenile Writers Association Prize, the Noma Prize for Juvenile Literature and the Hirosuke Fairy Tale Award.

Daisuke Soshiki: Illustrator, was born in Hiroshima. The book “Het verlangen van de egel” translated into Japanese with his illustrations won the Japan Booksellers’ Award for translated novels in 2017.