A Green Turtle And A Boy – Kazuo Oga Art Book Review

Posted By yonghow on May 12th, 2013

A Green Turtle & A Boy (Umigame To Shonen) is a picture book/short novel illustrated by famed Ghibli background artist Kazuo Oga ( read more about his amazing 2007 background art exhibition ) and written by Japanese novelist Akiyuki Nosaka.

Many of Nosaka-san’s novels have been adapted into successful films, including The Pornographers, directed by Imamura Shohei, and The Grave Of The Fireflies, the sombre Ghibli film directed by Takahata Isao.

A Green Turtle And A Boy - Kazuo Oga Art Book

The story is set in Okinawa during WWII, and tells the tale of a young boy orphaned by the war and his encounters with a sea turtle during those tumultuous times.

A Green Turtle And A Boy - Kazuo Oga Art Book

An english translation (by Hayakawa Atsuko) of the short novel is also included in book.

A Green Turtle And A Boy - Kazuo Oga Art Book

I’m a big fan of Kazuo Oga’s work and had to pick this up once I saw it in a bookstore on my recent Tokyo trip. There is a gentleness to his soft watercolors that I really love.

“A Green Turtle & A Boy – Kazuo Oga ウミガメと少年野坂昭如男鹿和雄戦争童話集” picture book/short novel details :

– Dimensions – 8.8 x 7.2 x 0.6 inches
– Hardcover, 80 pages
– Full color, in Japanese/English