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Since you're after all visiting this site and going through the trouble of reading this, I'd say you're already familiar with Kodomo no Omocha as a whole. But since there's also the possibility you came here in order to learn about it, I'll take the time to explain the very basics.
Kodomo no Omocha (Kodocha for short) is a shojo manga series created by the great manga-ka Obana Miho-sensei which was serialized in the monthly Japanese shojo magazine Ribon (where other popular mangas such as Marmalade Boy, Aishiteruze baby and Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne were published, between others). It ran from August 1994 to November 1998 in 51 chapters and it's also her longest series to date (and the only one to be made into an anime).
The story develops around Kurata Sana a 11-year-old child idol who's nothing but happy at first glance. Hayama Akito is the mastermind bully (or boss monkey) of her class... only he's not, really. So girls meets boy, girl threatens boy to show an embarrassing photo of him to make him calm down, boy becomes a lonely wolf, girl tries to fix boy's family, boy falls in love with girl, girl is painfully oblivious... the usual. Only Kodocha is really a story of adult-like kids growing and changing together in a world full of hardships. And falling in love, of course.
Kodocha has been compiled in two different editions in Japan, first the standard edition with 10 tankoubons, followed by the gorgeous deluxe edition of 7 (bigger and prettier) tankoubons. No matter if you don't know japanese, I strongly recommend buying the deluxe edition to any Kodocha fan (if only for the drool-worthy color illustrations).
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In addition to the manga, a 102-episode Kodocha anime was shown from April 1996 till March 1998 in TV Tokyo all fridays at 6:30 p.m. Despite following the original story quite faithfully at the beginning, the anime starts having huge differences around the middle of it and does not include crucial manga arcs, like Hayama's arm injury or Sana's illness, and even adds some original characters. It is, however, worth watching since it's quite well done and funny (but I'm manga-biased, sorry).
Kodomo no Omocha has been licensed in a good number of countries, so maybe you can find and buy the manga over where you live. The US's version is called Kodocha: Sana's Stage and was released by TokyoPop. The Spanish version was translated as El Juguete de los Niņos (literally, Childs' Toys) and released by Planeta. Other countries which have Kodocha translated to their language are Italy, Mexico, Germany, China and South Korea. So go pick it if you have the chance!
