As a self-described “physically weak” child, beloved director, writer, animator and manga artist Hayao Miyazaki spent much of his childhood in worlds of imagination. His profound love of children’s literature was showcased in 2010 for an exhibition celebrating publisher Iwanami Shoten’s “Boy’s Books” series. For it, he selected 50 favorites that range from tales of American adventure to talking animals and fantasy worlds.
“I do believe in the power of story,” Miyazaki once said. “I believe that stories have an important role to play in the formation of human beings, that they can stimulate, amaze and inspire their listeners.” Read on for a list of the acclaimed artist’s earliest literary inspirations.
Les Princes du Vent by Michel-Aime Baudouy
Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Nine Fairy Tales: And One More Thrown in For Good Measure by Karel Čapek
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (also rec’d by John Lennon, Patti Smith & Rose McGowan)
Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en
The Otterbury Incident by Cecil Day-Lewis
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge
The Radium Woman by Eleanor Doorly
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Tistou of the Green Thumbs by Maurice Druon
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Souvenirs entomologiques by Jean Henri Fabre
The Little Bookroom by Eleanor Farjeon
The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge (also rec’d by J.K. Rowling)
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (also rec’d by Anthony Bourdain)
A Norwegian Farm by Marie Hamsun
City Neighbor, The Story of Jane Addams by Clara Ingram Judson
The Flying Classroom by Erich Kästner
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
Nihon Ryōiki by Kyokai
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Ship that Flew by Hilda Winifred Lewis
Children of Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
The Forest is Alive & Twelve Months by Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak
Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne (also rec’d by Jimi Hendrix & Kim Gordon)
The Restaurant of Many Orders by Kenji Miyazawa
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
What the Neighbours Did, and Other Stories by Ann Philippa Pearce
The Flambards Series by K. M. Peyton
There Were Five of Us by Karel Poláček (out of print)
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson
The Adventures of the Little Onion by Gianni Rodari
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (also rec’d by Trevor Noah)
The Treasure of the Nibelungs by Gustav Schalk
The Man Who Has Planted Welsh Onions by Kim So-un (out of print)
Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (also rec’d by Anthony Bourdain)
Eagle of The Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
The Rose and the Ring by William Makepeace Thackeray
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
Ivan the Fool by Leo Tolstoy
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Little Humpbacked Horse by Pyotr Pavlovich Yershov
(via Open Culture)