I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. A young boy leaves his home in Afghanistan to work in the circus. Eventually, he missed home and heads for his village but finds that his village is destroyed and gone.

4.5★
“Since he left his small village in Afghanistan, Mirado has been traveling around the world with the circus. He has gotten used to living in strange places.

But every day, he remembers the village of Paghman and his friend Yamo.
‘I wonder how Yamo is doing.’”

This is the third in a series about a young boy, Mirado, who left his village to join a circus. We know the village was destroyed after he left. He has just heard the war is over. He loves playing his father’s wooden flute, but he’s in very different surroundings.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption:
Mirado, enjoying a drink in a fancy place

He is still a very popular circus performer, with TV cameras spotlighting him wherever he goes.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption:
Mirado, right behind the leader of the circus parade

But his father’s flute is beginning to crack and he’s getting homesick.

“Mirado has been thinking about something for a long time. Now he tells the circus master.

‘I would like to go back to Paghman.’”

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption:
Mirado and the kindly circus master

The circus master has a going-away party for him and gives him his own scarf to keep him warm. The boy is going to need more than that this winter! He buys seeds to take home to plant. (You will see in the first book what a glorious place this beautiful village once was.)

He’s wrapped up his precious flute, although it no longer plays, and takes off on the first leg of his journey.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption:
Mirado, setting off for home, beginning with a train trip

Next comes a lift from a kind man with a cart, and after that, it’s Shank’s Pony, as the Australian vernacular puts it.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption:
Mirado with the cart driver and then on foot, very much alone

Give the boy credit – he is determined! Note the handy circus master’s scarf.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption:
Mirado, braving the rain and wind on his way home

I struggle trying to imagine “Western” parents expecting, or even allowing, their children to attempt this kind of journey. He is desperately hungry, but he’s been warned to be careful of thieves along the way. Luckily, he stumbles on a family, happy so share soup and bread with him. (They are rather reminiscent of the Christian nativity scene, aren’t they, although I doubt that was intended.)

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption:
Mirado with a helpful family

Not only do they feed him, the father gives him his flute, which is just like Mirado’s father’s flute! Onward, ever onward.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption:
Mirado trekking through the mountains to get home

He finally makes it.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption, a quotation:
“The village is in ruins. It looks totally different.
‘Hey, it’s me, Mirado. I’m home!’

He will head into the town to see what he can find. We know the town from the first book, where he and his father sold their goods.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption:
Mirado walks to town in the early morning mist.

Will he know anyone? Will anyone remember him? He decides to play the flute as he used to do, and a crowd gathers.

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption:
Mirado walks into town as a stranger and plays his flute

You may notice a donkey and a small boy in green. Mirado hears someone singing along!

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption:
Mirado and Yamo hugging

This book ends on a hopeful note. Remember the seeds that Mirado packed up?

My Goodreads review includes an illustration with the caption:
“They will return to their village, carrying the bag of seeds.
Soon the village will be filled with green.”

As I said, this is the third book in this series. It’s unusual, in that the story really doesn’t pull any punches. The grim reality is that villages were destroyed and people died, but we all like to think we can do better ‘next time’, don’t we?

I reviewed the first two here:

Link to my review (with illustrations) of the first book, "The Most Beautiful Village in the World"
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2465939675

Link to my review of the second book (also with illustrations), "The Circus Comes to the Village"
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3009678248

Thanks to NetGalley and Museyon for the preview copy from which I’ve selected some illustrations. (I believe readers need to see what a picture book looks like.)

We did not read the first book, but I don't think you would have to just read this one. First, let me say the illustrations are really, very beautifully done. Even though Mirado wants to travel back home, I felt that this book was sad and happy in a way. Mirado wants to go home; he is missing his friends, village, and so much more. As he travels in many different ways, he is helped by strangers on his travels back home. He receives gifts and memories from those that helped him with his journey. When he finally returns to the village that has been destroyed, it does not look the same, but just maybe over time, with seeds and people coming together, the village could see once more rise from the ashes! Who knows?
This book was a good conversation started with K and A because we brought up why sometimes villages within other countries are destroyed and how sometimes they just are forgotten, and people move on. While people want to go back home to their village, it is their home. So I am thankful that this book opened that spark of asking questions.

'Return to the Most Beautiful Village in the World' with story and art by Yutaka Kobayashi takes us back to Paghman Village, and follows the travels of one citizen.

Mirado received a flute from his father, who he hasn't seen for a while. He is now traveling with a circus to escape the war back home. He misses his friend Yamo and decides to head back home to see his friend. That journey takes him by different means of transport and has him relying on the kindness of strangers. When he gets back home, he sees that he finds an abandoned town, but still there is hope.

I liked this book as much ast he first one. The first one had a bit more of a shocking ending. The art is a nice quality, and I liked this more somber story of a war torn country.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Museyon, Independent Publishing Group, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

This is the third and final book in the series and it is another one that pulls at the heartstrings. Mirado, a child flautist, left his home to travel with the circus. Although his life is exciting and he is seeing the world he yearns to go back to his beloved country of Afghanistan which has been ravaged with war and to meet up once again with his good friend Yamo.

Finally he hears that the war is over and he disengages from the circus and heads back home. His journey begins by train, then bus, by horse-drawn wagon and finally by foot. It's a long difficult trip but with the help of some kind strangers he finally arrives in his Paghman Village and sadly discovers it has been completely destroyed and his friend is no where to be found. Did Mirado undertake this long trek for nothing? Will he find his friend and restore his beloved village
calling it home once again?
This story was originally published in Japan in 2003. The illustrations are engaging and you can feel Mirado's emotions visually embedded in each page. It is a heartfelt book about adventure, following your heart, kindness, friendship and hope rising out of hopelessness. I love the book and highly recommend it.

A moving, well written and wonderfully illustrated story that I loved.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Mirado has been traveling with the circus and playing his flute. He enjoys the travel and playing the flute but he's getting homesick.

Museyon and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It will be published on November 1st.
He tells the circus master he wishes to go home and he lets him. It takes a lot of walking to get there. He meets a family that lets him sit around the fire and feeds him. The father even gives him his flute, which is a good thing because his own father's flute he was using broke.
He continues on his journey back to his home. When he finally gets there, the village has been destroyed and no one lives there anymore.
He heads for the next town. Will he find his friends and family? Read it and see.

Return to the Most Beautiful Village in the World is a sad, but hopeful story about a boy who returns home to his village at the end of the war and his journey along the way. I get the impression this book might be part of a series because of the way it started. The boy wants to leave the circus to head home, which made me wonder... how did this boy wind up in the circus without his family? Where is the family? What am I missing?

EDIT: After reading the reviews... I get it now. This was the third book of a trilogy and I hadn't read the previous two. Things make more sense now.

Return to the Most Beautiful Village in the World is a moving story of a boy who wishes to go back to his home. It is wonderfully written and beautifully illustrated. I enjoyed it very much.

Thank you to NetGalley and Independent Publishers Group for my ARC.

Return to the Most Beautiful Village in the World
by Yutaka Kobayashi
Sent to me by the publisher this book was much appreciated. The Most Beautiful village in the world has three books now. The Art work is beautiful and amazingly detailed. I found the story very endearing of the return to the village after all the destruction of World War II. The book is a great easy reader showing children of the story of small towns in recovery after the war.

Mirado wants to return home, as we all do, despite the fact that the most beautiful village in the world is destroyed in the first book in this series of three, as if the second village that he goes to, in the second book.

However, in this, the third book, he leaves the circus, to journey home, with seeds and the flute his father made for him. I'm not quite sure why he thinks the village would have risen from the ashes, but I suppose hope springs eternal.

He goes, and see the cherry groves, which as quire beautiful, but yes, the village is still destroyed. But, the ending gives a little hope as he and his friend, whom he runs into in a local village, journey back to the ruins to plant the seeds.

Sad book, but beautiful illustrations.

I seem to remember a pt 1 to this story a couple years back. It was so good, I had hoped there would be sequels. AND now there is one! Wonderful story of a young musician making his way back to his war torn village and his friend. I sure hope there will be a sequel to this one, too! Story is sort of sad, but lovely and the illustrations were beautiful. Kudos Yutaka Kobayashi.

A lovely story about a young boy on a journey to return home. To the place and the people. With striking illustrations and a heartfelt story, you will go along with Mirado as he takes his journey and encounters kind people along the way.

Return to the Most Beautiful Village in the World by Yutaka Kobayashi is the lovely story of a boy who longs to return to his home in Paghman, Afghanistan after a lengthy war. Leaving the circus, he travels many miles by train, carriage, and foot only to find that the village is no longer the beautiful place of his memory, and has been much changed by the war.

This is a beautifully illustrated story and, for me, brought to mind the novella by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Le Petit Prince. I was unaware that this is the third story of a trilogy, and I am now intrigued enough by this journey to seek out the previous two books.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Independent Publishers Group for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I received an advance copy of, Return to the Most Beautiful Village in the World, by Yutaka Kobayashi. This is a great childrens book, the pictures are amazing, and the story is moving. Mirado is in the circus but wants to go back home. This is a great journey.

I remember reading the first book and it was one that I loved so I was delighted to see that there was a follow up book and I read it pretty much as soon as I got my hands on a copy.

The story was lovely, it was thought provoking as I knew what has happened before, and I loved the ending. I hope that there is a follow up to this one so we can see what happens to the villages and the changes ahead.

It is 4 stars from me for this one – highly recommended but I would really recommend that the first book is read before this one so you get the background for this story.

A third book to suitably, and attractively, polish off this trilogy. We've seen two children before now reluctantly leave their village, only for both the books to pull the same trick off each time and show the village of the title is one just about to suffer in a typical Afghanistan war. Here, the winds from home are calling to a young circus flautist – but can the village he once called home, however beautiful, still offer hope and home and everything else he might want? Once again, these books are bursting with humanity and with craft in the visuals. A gentle story, getting a gentle resolution, despite all the off-screen violence.