Kiki's Delivery Service

 Studio Ghibli has gotten me into many a different kind of book. Kiki's Delivery Service is another book that Studio Ghibli took and made into a movie and became a much beloved movie. 

The movie changed things, though, as it did with Howl's Moving Castle. 

Kiki is a young girl who has decided to follow her mother's footsteps and become a witch. There are so few left in the world and their abilities seem to be dwindling so Kiki is only able to fly, but she is determined to set off on her own and find her own town, like her mother did, and settle there. She flies from her little village to a big city and is able, with the kind help of a baker and her husband, settle and start her own delivery business. This is the story of her first year as a witch on her own and developing her own business. 

This is a very simple book, without much high stakes adventure or peril. Kiki makes her deliveries, makes friends, and befriends the city. She is young and grows a lot throughout this first year as a person and as a girl. The world is simple, the characters are simple--almost to the point of lacking though--and there doesn't seem to be much of a character arch. The story ends because she completed her first year on her own. It would have been nice if there was more too it, but there wasn't. 

It would be a good book to read to younger children. There is a reason it is beloved by many people who watched the movie, but it seems to be one that people who grew up with it enjoy more than an older audience entering this world for the first time. There is a bit of adventure or funny little stories as she delivers this or that item that younger audiences would enjoy.