WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE: Studio Ghibli's 2014 Film Will Be Adaptation Of Children's Novel

Japanese film distributor TOHO unveiled its 2014 slate and announced that the next Studio Ghibli film will be an adaptation of Joan G. Robinson's children's novel When Marnie Was There (Omoide no Marnie). This English-language book holds a special place on Miyazaki Hayao's 50 recommended Children's Books list. Here is its description (via Amazon):

Anna hasn't a friend in the world - until she meets Marnie among the sand dunes. But Marnie isn't all she seems...An atmospheric ghost story with truths to tell about friendship, families and loneliness. Anna lives with foster parents, a misfit with no friends, always on the outside of things. Then she is sent to Norfolk to stay with old Mr and Mrs Pegg, where she runs wild on the sand dunes and around the water. There is a house, the Marsh House, which she feels she recognises - and she soon meets a strange little girl called Marnie, who becomes Anna's first ever friend. Then one day, Marnie vanishes. A new family, the Lindsays, move into the Marsh House. Having learnt so much from Marnie about friendship, Anna makes firm friends with the Lindsays - and learns some strange truths about Marnie, who was not all she seemed...