This is an incomplete list of all the Level 6 books available from Nikkei Bunko, a Japanese-language library operated by the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington; it’ll be updated as I keep reading them.
From Extensive Reading in Japanese, the definition of a Level 6 book:
Level 6: Easy unabridged books for adolescent native readers from twelve to fifteen years old. These books still include furigana; and there are few pictures. The content is more complex. Some specialized vocabulary items appear.
I’ve added Amazon links for the benefit of having title images and just in case anyone wants to subsidize my reading, but if you’re interested in ordering any of these, I’d also recommend you look them up on Kinokuniya’s website or YesAsia.com and compare prices and shipping costs. They may also be available at a library near you or be available through inter-library loan; you can look them up at WorldCat.org. Also, all title translations are my own unless otherwise indicated, names are family name first, then given name, and 作 and 絵 mean “author” and “illustrator,” respectively.
Placeholder post.
This is an incomplete list of all the Level 5 books available from Nikkei Bunko, a Japanese-language library operated by the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington; it’ll be updated as I keep reading them.
From Extensive Reading in Japanese, the definition of a Level 5 book:
Level 5: Beginning at this level, material is quantitatively and qualitatively different from the lower levels. Level 5 books usually have more than 100 pages and fewer illustrations. Some kanji have furigana, but not all of them. Stories are fully developed and more detailed. Japanese native readers would be ten to thirteen years old.
I’ve added Amazon links for the benefit of having title images and just in case anyone wants to subsidize my reading, but if you’re interested in ordering any of these, I’d also recommend you look them up on Kinokuniya’s website or YesAsia.com and compare prices and shipping costs. They may also be available at a library near you or be available through inter-library loan; you can look them up at WorldCat.org. Also, all title translations are my own unless otherwise indicated, names are family name first, then given name, and 作 and 絵 mean “author” and “illustrator,” respectively.
心を育てる偉人のお話 光をかかげた人たち 3
Luminaries: Stories of Great People to Nurture The Heart #3
作:西本 鶏介(にしもと けいすけ, Nishimoto Keisuke)
絵:狩野 富貴子(かりの ふきこ, Karino Fukiko)
Level 5 本, 199 pages, 16,300 words (est.)
I was proud to finish this book, as it’s the longest one I’ve read so far. It contains 29 stories from the lives of inventors, politicians, authors and so on (both Japanese people and people from other countries), along with some basic biographical information about each of them. Its weakness was that it was slightly on the preachy side; even though most of the stories were interesting in and of themselves there was something about the presentation that became tedious, and it took me longer to get through it than it should have because I wasn’t motivated to finish. As far as its good points went, there were 29 short stories in all, I thought that the writing style was clear and easy to follow (important for such a long book) and they did a good job defining words that the reader might not know.
This is an incomplete list of all the Level 4 books available from Nikkei Bunko, a Japanese-language library operated by the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington; it’ll be updated as I keep reading them.
From Extensive Reading in Japanese, the definition of a Level 4 book:
Level 4: Full texts with kanji and kana. Most kanji have furigana. The content is much richer and the length of a story could go over several volumes, but ample pictures help the readers. Most film comics are at this level. Japanese native readers would be eight to twelve years old.
I’ve added Amazon links for the benefit of having title images and just in case anyone wants to subsidize my reading, but if you’re interested in ordering any of these, I’d also recommend you look them up on Kinokuniya’s website or YesAsia.com and compare prices and shipping costs. They may also be available at a library near you or be available through inter-library loan; you can look them up at WorldCat.org. Also, all title translations are my own unless otherwise indicated, names are family name first, then given name, and 作 and 絵 mean “author” and “illustrator,” respectively.
とらねこにゃんのラブレター
The Tiger Cat’s Love Letter
作:上崎 美恵子(こうざき みえこ, Kōzaki Mieko)
絵:村井 香葉(むらい かよ, Murai Kayo)
Level 4 本, 95 pages, 4,000 words (est.)
To Miharu’s great surprise, one day a stray cat asks her to write a love letter for him. It seems that people in this world aren’t impressed by talking cats; for example, the letter is inevitably found and Miharu’s classmates think she wrote it to someone, and I just kept thinking “Hey, produce the talking cat as evidence and that should shut everyone up” but no dice, apparently. Instead, things just kept getting worse…
絵で見る日本の歴史
An Illustrated History of Japan
作/絵:西村繁男(にしむらしげお, Nishimura Shigeo)
Level 4 絵本, 80 pages, 900 words
Currently writing a longer review of this book; will link to it when I’m done.
中国の歴史1 戦国の兵法家
Chinese History #1: The Tacticians of the Warring States Period
シナリオ:武上 純希(たけがみ じゅんき, Takegami Junki)
作画:西村 緋祿司(にしむら ひろし, Nishimura Hiroshi)
Level 4 漫画, 128 pages, 2,500 words (est.)
This first book in a series of educational manga about Chinese history illustrates the life of Sun Bin; it uses a lot of hard kanji and direct quotes from his writings, but balances out the difficulty by including footnotes and a cat and mouse duo who provide commentary and ask questions.
はれときどきぶた
Fair, Then Partly Piggy (official title)
作/絵:矢玉 四郎(やだま しろう, Yadama Shirō)
Level 4 本, 79 pages, 3,000 words (est.)
Encouraged by his third-grade teacher, Noriyasu starts to keep a diary: she tells him he doesn’t have to show it to anyone, so he can write about his life openly, but when he does so, he’s shocked to discover his mom reading it. He determines to surprise his mom without writing untrue things by making up events for “Tomorrow’s Diary,” but every night he writes something, it comes true the next day… This was recommended to me by someone on lang-8, and I really enjoyed it for Noriyasu’s thought processes and the peek into his family’s life.
ピピッとひらめくとんち話
Tales of Sparkling Wit
作:木暮 正夫(こぐれ まさお, Kogure Masao)
絵:原 ゆたか(はら ゆたか, Hara Yutaka)
Level 4 本, 95 pages, 4,000 words (est.)
I’m writing a longer review of this one, so I’ll link to it when it’s done.
This is an incomplete list of all the Level 3 books available from Nikkei Bunko, a Japanese-language library operated by the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington; it’ll be updated as I keep reading them.
From Extensive Reading in Japanese, the definition of a Level 3 book:
Level 3: Kana and kanji are mixed, but the book is mainly written in hiragana. Furigana is provided for any kanji in the text. The content is not only fiction, but may also contain facts or accounts of some natural phenomena. Pictures are the main feature of the book. Japanese native readers would be six to ten years old.
I’ve added Amazon links for the benefit of having title images and just in case anyone wants to subsidize my reading, but if you’re interested in ordering any of these, I’d also recommend you look them up on Kinokuniya’s website or YesAsia.com and compare prices and shipping costs. They may also be available at a library near you or be available through inter-library loan; you can look them up at WorldCat.org. Also, all title translations are my own unless otherwise indicated, names are family name first, then given name, and 作 and 絵 mean “author” and “illustrator,” respectively.
ピザパイくんたすけてよ
Help Us, Mr. Pizza!
作:角野栄子(かどのえいこ, Kadono Eiko)
絵:佐々木洋子(ささきようこ, Sasaki Yōko)
Level 3 本, 77 pages, 1,400 words (est.)
The ghost Acchi lives in a restaurant; at first he’s content just to sample the food, but after a while he learns to cook. Once word gets out that the restaurant is haunted, however, no one comes to it anymore. Acchi feels responsible… how can he turn things around and make people want to visit?
エビフライをおいかけろ
Chase the Fried Shrimp!
作:角野栄子(かどのえいこ, Kadono Eiko)
絵:佐々木洋子(ささきようこ, Sasaki Yōko)
Level 3 本, 78 pages, 1,400 words (est.)
So it seems there is a whole series about this cooking ghost Acchi, and Nikkei Bunko has a lot of them. In this installment, Acchi is aiming to pass a prestigious test, but he and his friends have to solve some riddles to even know what it is he’ll be required to cook.
忍たま乱太郎 ありったけ・これったけの段
Rantarō the Ninja Boy: The Arittake Mushroom and the Korettake Mushroom
原作:尼子騒兵衛(あまこそうべえ, Amako Sōbē)
文:田波靖男(たなみやすお, Tanami Yasuo)
絵:亜細亜堂(あじあどう, Ajiadō)
Level 3 本, 78 pages, 1,500 words (est.)
Hey, if you’re sick of happy bunnies and kindergarteners, maybe some ninja children might be up your alley? It seems that this is a book adaptation of an anime that was based off of a manga. Maybe that makes it more legit to the book purchasers of the world? 有りっ丈 apparently means “everything one has” (as in to give it all you’ve got”) and 茸 (たけ)is “mushroom,” so I guess the title is something of a play on that.
おひめさまがっこうへいく
The Princess Goes To School
作:まだらめ 三保(まだらめ みほ, Madarame Miho)
絵:国井 節(くにい せつ, Kunii Setsu)
Level 3 本, 78 pages, 1,500 words (est.)
I read one of this series early on — it was, I think, the very first Level 3 book I read without a single peek at a dictionary, and in order to keep from the temptation of looking words up I had to draw a bath and stay in it until the book was quite over and the water was quite cold. Revisiting the series with this book and the next one on the list was a pleasure, since books like these have become significantly easier since then. In any case, I find this princess charming, and I’ll explain why in the next entry. But yes, in this installment the princess attends school, and what a school it is.
おひめさま ケーキをつくる
The Princess Makes A Cake
作:まだらめ 三保(まだらめ みほ, Madarame Miho)
絵:国井 節(くにい せつ, Kunii Setsu)
Level 3 本, 85 pages, 1,500 words (est.)
When I wrote the mini-review of the first book in this series I read, I wrote that it might be a good series to explore if you have a high tolerance for princesses. Well, I do indeed have a high tolerance for princesses, as you might have noticed if you’ve seen my paperdoll blog, so I picked up the two that were at Nikkei Bunko. This series has a twisted, childish logic that makes it more fun to read than many other books at this level, which run the risk of becoming slightly earnest. These books aren’t earnest, just goal-oriented: the Princess has a problem, so she solves it and hey presto, no more problem! (At least for the time being.) There’s no second-guessing herself, self-reflection or common sense to get in the way: she just does what she wants to do, and what she wants to do is generally pretty loony. She’s rather an admirable little character in that regard.
きいろいばけつ
The Yellow Bucket
作:森山 京(もりやま みやこ, Moriyama Miyako)
絵:土田 義晴(つちだ よしはる, Tsuchida Yoshiharu)
Level 3 本, 75 pages, 1,000 words (est.)
A young fox comes across a bucket, seemingly abandoned. He’d like it for himself, but doesn’t want to just take it, so he and his friends decide that if no one comes for it in a week, it would be all right to claim it.
いたずらまじょ子の王女さまになりたいな
The Impish Little Witch: If Only I Could Be A Princess
作:藤真知子(ふじまちこ, Fuji Machiko)
絵:ゆーちみえこ(Yūchi Mieko)
Level 3 本, 102 pages, 2,200 words (est.)
A decidedly cute little book about a girl named Arisa, a witch (the Majoko of the title) and their interactions with royalty. It’s divided into three stories, and the first and last stories are nice enough, but it was the second story I liked best, where the two girls meet all sorts of, shall we say, defective princesses. If you have problems remembering the kanji or word 胃 (stomach), it would probably be etched in your memory by the episode with the princess who loved food so much she had had surgery to install a second stomach and tried to steal the stomachs of the two girls for future use.
世界の童話29:日本の絵話
Fairy Tales from Around the World #29: Japanese Illustrated Stories
Level 3 絵本, 103 pages, 3,600 words (est.)
A collection of Japanese stories written and illustrated by different authors and artists; some of the illustrations are gorgeous (such as the ones for the first story, The Girl With A Bowl On Her Head) and it’s a shame you can’t even see the front cover on Amazon. Also, all of the stories are memorable. I don’t know how widespread they are, but I had only read one of them before, “The Split-Tongue Sparrow.”
へんしん!スグナクマン
Insta-Tears Man, Transform!
作:川北 亮司(かわきた りょうじ, Kawakita Ryōji)
絵:藤本 四郎(ふじもと しろう, Fujimoto Shirō)
Level 3 本, 85 pages, 2,500 words (est.)
Yoshio is a first grader who’s getting bullied every day; the other kids call him “Insta-Tears Man” because he cries three times a day. His parents don’t have much in the way of advice for him besides “You’ve got to buck up!” and even his friend from preschool considers him babyish. But he does solve the problem in, let’s say, a way that probably wouldn’t be used if this was a textbook for respectable adults. It’s interesting to me that there’s a subtle class element in this book: Yoshio’s mom works at a pachinko place and his dad is a taxi driver, and the first one of these jobs is something he specifically gets teased for.
おおかみなんてだーいすき
I Love You, Big Bad Wolf!
作/絵:木村裕一(きむらゆういち, Kimura Yūichi)
Level 3 本, 77 pages, 1,200 words (est.)
A bunny moves into a lovely little house on a hilltop; this makes her a target for the neighborhood wolf. But somehow he can’t find an opportunity to eat her, as she keeps him busy with helping her with housework, eating her cooking and even comforting her when she’s down.
きつねのスーパーマーケット
The Fox’s Supermarket
作:小沢正(おざわただし, Ozawa Tadashi)
絵:西川おさむ(にしかわおさむ, Nishikawa Osamu)
Level 3 本, 72 pages, 1,600 words (est.)
While waiting for her mom to finish shopping, Michiko notices a fox pushing a cart full of boxes; following him, she finds her way to the Fox’s Supermarket and gets a personal tour of all the wonderful gadgets there. This is the kind of level 3 book I like best: it’s got a fun story (well, there’s not all that much to the actual story, but it’s great to follow along with the tour of the store because the stuff on sale is so fantastic) and it’s also has a lot of great examples of polite salesman speech.
スパゲッティがたべたいよう
I Want Spaghetti!
作:角野栄子(かどのえいこ, Kadono Eiko)
絵:佐々木洋子(ささきようこ, Sasaki Yōko)
Level 3 本, 78 pages, 1,400 words (est.)
I’m reading all these books about Acchi the cooking ghost, but I’m reading them quite out of order, apparently; I would guess this is the first in the series, back from his days as a fearsome monster.
フルーツポンチはいできあがり
Your Fruit Salad Is Done!
作:角野栄子(かどのえいこ, Kadono Eiko)
絵:佐々木洋子(ささきようこ, Sasaki Yōko)
Level 3 本, 78 pages, 1,400 words (est.)
Acchi helps the mouse Chi make fruit salad for his twin brother Ki, who’s sick; the touching scene makes. Acchi wish that he had a little brother, too. If you read the Japanese title you might think I’m quite mistaken in translating it as “fruit salad” — but what he makes really is more like an American fruit salad than our fruit punch.
カレーライスはこわいぞ
Curry Rice is Pretty Darn Scary!
作:角野栄子(かどのえいこ, Kadono Eiko)
絵:佐々木洋子(ささきようこ, Sasaki Yōko)
Level 3 本, 78 pages, 1,400 words (est.)
Acchi the ghost is so thoroughly domesticated by now that a pair of mischevious mice have started sneaking into his room while he sleeps, tickling him and treating his tummy like a taiko drum. His friends come to the conclusion that it’s because he doesn’t look scary due to his habit of only eating sweets. So it’s time for a diet of super-spicy curry rice to regain some of that scariness…
ぼくのおなかがしろいわけ
The Reason My Belly Is White
作/絵:熊田 勇(くまだ いさむ, Kumada Isamu)
Level 3 本, 78 pages, 1,000 words (est.)
Tam oversleeps and breaks a promise to his friends; in the process of trying to make it up to them, he gets stuck up a tree. Very basic for a level 3 book, but cute.
おばけのコッチ ピ ピ ピ
Kocchi the Ghost: *whistle* *whistle* *whistle*
作:角野栄子(かどのえいこ, Kadono Eiko)
絵:佐々木洋子(ささきようこ, Sasaki Yōko)
Level 3 本, 77 pages, 1,400 words (est.)
Apparently there are even more of these ghosts! Socchi will show up soon, so now’s as good a time as any to point out that あっち, そっち and こっち mean “way over there,” “over there” and “over here” respectively. I imagine that Acchi picked up his name from people saying things like “Look over there, a ghost!” or “Go away, ghost!” But the rest of them, maybe it’s just a cute name by now? In any case, in this installment we meet Kocchi, a ghost who works in a barbershop. A ghost in a barbershop is all kinds of useful – for example, he can make himself invisible and hold down squalling children while they get their hair cut.
おばけのアッチ ねんねんねんね
Nighty-Night, Acchi the Ghost
作:角野栄子(かどのえいこ, Kadono Eiko)
絵:佐々木洋子(ささきようこ, Sasaki Yōko)
Level 3 本, 77 pages, 1,400 words (est.)
This year, too, Acchi has to spend Christmas all alone, as all of his friends are going to be with their families, and rather uncharacteristically none of them get the hint that he’s going to be lonely. So he decides to party with Santa instead, and he designs a bunch of foods intended to force Santa to eat long enough to stay with him, such as spaghetti made from a single strand that’s long enough to wrap around the earth.
おばけのアッチ スーパーマーケットのまき
Acchi the Ghost and the Supermarket
作:角野栄子(かどのえいこ, Kadono Eiko)
絵:佐々木洋子(ささきようこ, Sasaki Yōko)
Level 3 本, 86 pages, 2,100 words (est.)
Acchi and his friends want to play hide and seek, but Bon, the stray cat, insists on going to the new supermarket. However, a greedy ghost and two mice can’t help but cause trouble in a place filled with so many great things…
こまったさんのシチュー
Miss Oh-No’s Stew
作:寺村輝夫(てらむらてるお)
絵:岡本颯子(おかもとさつこ)
Level 3 本, 73 pages, 1,500 words (est.)
Komatta-san runs a flower shop, and one day, an order for tulips leads her on a whimsical journey with a young boy from Nigeria, who cooks her Nigerian stews. The only part I really enjoyed was the afterword about the author’s travels, which adds about 450 words, and also the fact that okra, which I would have guessed would be written in katakana, was in hiragana: おくら.
こまったさんのカレーライス
Miss Oh-No’s Curry Rice
作:寺村輝夫(てらむらてるお, Teramura Teruo)
絵:岡本颯子(おかもと さつこ, Okamoto Satsuko)
Level 3 本, 73 pages, 1,500 words (est.)
Another quirky, silly book about Miss Oh-no and her culinary hallucinations. Once again the best part is the author’s note (which adds about 450 words), where he talks about curry he’s eaten in various locales. If he wrote a kid’s book about eating curry in Africa I’d totally read it but the actual story, although cute, is pretty weak sauce — although good practice for cooking-related words and fantastic imagery.
わかったさんのアイスクリーム
Miss Got-It’s Ice Cream
作:寺村輝夫(てらむらてるお, Teramura Teruo)
絵:永井郁子(ながいいくこ, Nagai Ikuko)
Level 3 本, 79 pages, 2,300 words (est.)
Miss Got-it suffers a whimsical hallucination about gathering ingredients and making ice cream. I generally prefer less fantastic books, but it can be nice to test your faith in your own ability to comprehend strange language using this sort of nonsense material.
しんこころにのこる 1ねんせいのよみもの
New Stories for First Graders That Remain In Your Heart
監修:長崎 源之助(ながさき げんのすけ, Nagasaki Gennosuke)
Level 3 本, 119 pages, 5,300 words (est.)
I’m intending to write a longer post about this book, and I’ll link to it when it’s done.
おばけのアッチ こどもプールのまき
Acchi the Ghost: The Kid’s Pool
作:角野 栄子(かどの えいこ, Kadono Eiko)
絵:佐々木 洋子(ささき ようこ, Sasaki Yōko)
Level 3 本, 78 pages, 1,400 words (est.)
Faced with the reality of a crowded public pool, Acchi the ghost and his stray cat friend Bon fantasize about an awesome water park for kids.
おばけのソッチ ぞびぞびぞー
Socchi the Ghost: *screech* *screech*
作:角野 栄子(かどの えいこ, Kadono Eiko)
絵:佐々木 洋子(ささき ようこ, Sasaki Yōko)
Level 3 本, 78 pages, 1,400 words (est.)
Socchi loves to sing but needs, shall we say, some practice to win an upcoming singing contest, so she infiltrates a first grade music class for pointers.
バスにのってはじめてのおつかい
My First Time Taking The Bus On An Errand
作:としま かをり(Toshima Kaori)
絵:岡本 美子(おかもと よしこ, Okamoto Yoshiko)
Level 3 本, 94 pages, 1,600 words (est.)
This book’s title is deceptively bland — it’s actually a moving, mildly supernatural tale about a second-grader named Yui who takes the bus to her grandmother’s house all by herself for the first time, to bring her grandmother some of her favorite kinako mochi. (I went a good four-fifths of the book thinking that was kinoko mochi, and thinking that was a very specific sort of favorite food to have.) On the way there, she meets a strangely-dressed girl with bobbed hair, who’s carrying a treasure of her own… It’s one of the better level 3 books I’ve read.
おばけのコッチ あかちゃんのまき
Kocchi the Ghost: The Baby Book
作:角野 栄子(かどの えいこ, Kadono Eiko)
絵:佐々木 洋子(ささき ようこ, Sasaki Yōko)
Level 3 本, 78 pages, 1400 words (est.)
Kocchi, who lives at a barbershop, is enlisted to babysit one of his clients from the previous day. But acting like a mother is harder than he thinks…
おばけのソッチ 1年生のまき
Socchi the Ghost: First Grade
作:角野 栄子(かどの えいこ, Kadono Eiko)
絵:佐々木 洋子(ささき ようこ, Sasaki Yōko)
Level 3 本, 78 pages, 1400 words (est.)
Socchi, after her adventures with the first grade music class, longs to be able to attend school herself; unsurprisingly, there are a number of obstacles in the way.
This is an incomplete list of all the Level 2 books available from Nikkei Bunko, a Japanese-language library operated by the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington; it’ll be updated as I keep reading them.
From Extensive Reading in Japanese, the definition of a Level 2 book:
Level 2: Mainly hiragana and katakana text. If there are kanji, furigana is given for each kanji. The text is longer but still contains a lot of pictures to aid student comprehension. Japanese native readers would be five to eight years old.
I’ve added Amazon links for the benefit of having title images and just in case anyone wants to subsidize my reading, but if you’re interested in ordering any of these, I’d also recommend you look them up on Kinokuniya’s website or YesAsia.com and compare prices and shipping costs. They may also be available at a library near you or be available through inter-library loan; you can look them up at WorldCat.org. Also, all title translations are my own unless otherwise indicated, names are family name first, then given name, and 作 and 絵 mean “author” and “illustrator,” respectively.
100万回生きたねこ
The Cat with a Million Lives
作/絵:佐野 洋子(さの ようこ, Sano Yōko)
Level 2 絵本, 31 pages, 750 words (est.) ★★★★★ Hardcover
This book was recommended to me by a couple of people on lang-8, and quite a few people using 読書メーター (Reading Meter) have read it, so you could consider it one of those thoughtful, classic picture books that appeals to adults, and would therefore be a good book for an extensive reading collection. The cat of the title has lived a million lives, and been mourned by a million owners; he’s never cried once.
いっすんぼうし
The One-Inch Boy
作:長谷川 彰(はせがわ あきら, Hasegawa Akira)
絵:金山 通弘(かなやま みちひろ, Kanayama Michihiro)
Level 2 絵本, 48 pages, 600 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
I don’t know why I felt the need to revisit this story — I guess I’m just a sucker for fairy tales. So-so pictures for this one, but more details compared to the version I read before.
This is an incomplete list of all the Level 1 books available from Nikkei Bunko, a Japanese-language library operated by the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington; it’ll be updated as I keep reading them.
From Extensive Reading in Japanese, the definition of a Level 1 book:
Level 1: Hiragana and katakana only. The text is very short, and has one-word sentences, phrases, and some complete sentences. There are plenty of visual aids to help convey meaning. Japanese native readers would be three to six years old.
I’ve added Amazon links for the benefit of having title images and just in case anyone wants to subsidize my reading, but if you’re interested in ordering any of these, I’d also recommend you look them up on Kinokuniya’s website or YesAsia.com and compare prices and shipping costs. They may also be available at a library near you or be available through inter-library loan; you can look them up at WorldCat.org. Also, all title translations are my own unless otherwise indicated, names are family name first, then given name, and 作 and 絵 mean “author” and “illustrator,” respectively.
あいうえおえほん
A – I – U – E – O Picture Book
絵:冬野 いちこ(ふゆの いちこ, Fuyuno Ichiko)
監修:今井和子(いまい かずお, Imai Kazuo)
Level 1 絵本, 40 pages, 500 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
I’m tutoring a friend of mine in Japanese, and since extensive reading is kind of my thing, there will probably be a lot of level 1 books listed in the next few months, as I scope out beginner reading material. It is more difficult to find suitable books than you might expect – I suspect I’ll have a lot to say about this in the future! This one has simple, colorful pictures, a couple of words that start with each hiragana and some related words.
- Extensive reading is known as 多読, or tadoku in Japanese. To try it, start with very easy books (ones with no more than two or three unknown words per page), and follow these principles:
1. Don’t look up words in the dictionary while reading.
2. Skip over parts you don’t understand.
3. If you aren’t enjoying one book, toss it aside and get another.
Find something to read!
Hundreds of free books and stories online
Local bookstores and libraries
Buying new and used books online
For more information, read "What Is Extensive Reading?" and "Classification System."
To learn more about Kunihide Sakai, who developed the three principles of tadoku and has worked to popularize it in Japan for years, read this interview with him.
Finally, for more than you ever wanted to know about why I believe extensive reading is worth your time, read my tadoku manifesto. Currently reading:
Superfluous Stats
Books read: 303
Word count (since starting the blog): 380,500Categories
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