Kiki's Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono, translated by Emily Balistrieri (Yearling Books) ~Ernie Hoyt

Eiko Kadono is a Japanese children’s author and illustrator. She is also a nonfiction writer and essayist. One of her most popular books to be translated into English and which has also been adapted into a feature length animation film by Studio Ghibli is Kiki’s Delivery Service. 

The previously reviewed Kiki’s Delivery Service (Asia by the Book, September 2024) was the graphic novelization of the movie and was written and drawn by Hayao Miyazaki. As much as I enjoy watching the movie, I was interested in reading the original story. As a reminder, the story was originally written in the Japanese language with the title 魔女の宅急便 (Majo no Takkyubin) which translates to The Witch’s Delivery Service and was published in 1985. 

This English edition of Kadono’s story was published in 2021 by Yearling Books, a division of Random House Children’s Books. The book includes a note from the author. She tells her readers that the story was inspired by one of her daughter’s drawings. It was a picture of a witch flying in the sky while listening to a radio. The picture included musical notes that danced around the witch. 

Kiki’s Delivery Service is a young girl’s coming-of-age story. It is set in a world where witches still live among ordinary humans. The protagonist, Kiki, is the daughter of Kokiri and Okino. Kokiri is Kiki’s mother and comes from a long line of witches. Her father, Okino, is an ordinary human. Okino is a folklorist who studied legends and tales about spirits and magic. Kiki was about to turn thirteen years old. 

In Kadono’s world, when the daughter of witches and humans turn ten years old, they must decide if they want to follow in their mother’s footsteps and become a witch. If they chose this path, they would learn their mother’s magic and would have to choose a full-moon night of their thirteenth birthday to leave home. 

This meant that a young witch would have to search for a town of their own where there wasn’t a witch in residence. Over the years, the witches' powers have gotten weaker and their population has decreased. It is also difficult for young witches to find a witchless town or a town that will welcome a witch to their community. 

Kokiri had only two magic powers. One was to grow herbs to make sneeze medicine and the other was flying through the air on a broom. Kiki took to flying pretty well but would often get distracted and fall to the earth. She was never able to get the hang of growing herbs to make the sneeze medicine her mother perfected. Still, Kiki believes she can become anything she wants. 

Kiki would leave her home accompanied by her black cat Jiji. They would have all kinds of adventures, not only searching for a new town, but also in becoming a member of that town. As a young girl, Kiki will have her ups and downs as do all adolescents. She must also find a place to live and needs to find a way to make a living. It may seem like an impossible task for such a young girl but it’s a well known fact that girls mature faster than boys. I imagine a young female witch matures even faster!