Level 4 Japanese Books Available From The Tacoma Public Library
This is an incomplete list of all the Level 4 books available from the Tacoma Public Library; 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 and compare shipping costs. 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.
鉄のキリンの海わたり
The Iron Giraffe’s Sea Crossing
作:あさば みゆき
絵:石崎 正次(いしさき しょうじ)
Level 4 絵本, 32 pages, 1,100 words (est.)
This story of a crane (the “iron giraffe” of the title) who rescues a little boy from kidnappers and sacrifices himself to bring him back home is a bit of a tearjerker, but I guess everyone’s happy in the end. Becoming a living coral reef is probably less exciting than working in a port, but it is probably just as interesting a way to live — I like to think, at any rate, otherwise I may have trouble sleeping. This one apparently won a children’s book award sponsored by Nissan.
メル友からのメッセージ
Messages from My E-Mail Friend
作:増原 亜紀子(ますはら あきこ, Masuhara Akiko)
絵:内藤 あけみ(ないとう あけみ, Naitō Akemi)
Level 4 本, 62 pages, 2,900 words (est.)
A fourth grader, recently transferred to a new school, has trouble making friends and withdraws to an online bulletin board, where she lies about how great her life is. But when she reads a post by another transfer student who’s only recently been able to make friends, she drops the act and asks for help. They become e-mail friends, and realize they live close enough to each other to meet, but as it turns out, they had a previous connection… Part of it is told in first-person prose, but much of it is told through e-mails between the two girls. It’s the 11th winner of the Firefly Award (ホタル賞), a prize for books with an anti-bullying theme.
It’s hard to say what level this one is; I wouldn’t call the pictures “ample,” but it’s not extremely long or complex. There’s small illustrations every couple of pages that take up maybe a third of the page; it’s nothing like a manga. One caveat: it does have a maddening cliffhanger for an ending.
ぼくはにんじゃのあやし丸
I’m Ayashi-maru, the Ninja
作:広瀬寿子(ひろせ ひさこ, Hirose Hisako)
絵:梶山俊夫(かじやま としお, Kajiyama Toshio)
Level 4 本, 83 pages, 2,800 words (est.)
Kai’s grandpa has an important secret to pass on to him: although Kai’s lost his memories of the past, they’re both ninjas who arrived in the present day through a mysterious cave while trying to save a princess from a burning, beseiged castle. (“Grandpa can’t really tell the difference between reality and those novels he used to write anymore,” Kai’s aunt mentions. “Has he said anything strange to you?” “No,” Kai responds; after all, he thinks, there’s nothing strange about ninjas.)
It started out simply, but around the middle, when Grandpa is talking about the old days, there’s a lot of vocabulary that both Kai and I were having trouble with. Kai asked for definitions, but somewhere along the line his grandpa started getting grumpy at having to explain words like 不甲斐ない, 寸前 and 疲労困憊 and just started glaring until Kai was quiet again — ninjas are not very patient when asked to serve as living dictionaries, apparently. I went back and looked them all up after finishing the book the first time, and that part made much more sense.
Level 3 Japanese Books Available From The Tacoma Public Library
This is an incomplete list of all the Level 3 books available from the Tacoma Public Library; 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 and compare shipping costs. 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.
しまうまのしごとさがし
The Zebra’s Job Hunt
作/絵 トビイ ルツ(Tobii Rutsu)
Level 3 絵本, 95 pages, 1,200 words (est.)
I was really charmed by this book, which tells the story of a young zebra wondering what he should be when he grows up. Initially he wants to be a black panther spy, but his friends point out that his stripes would make that a little difficult, so he sets out to the big city and interviews bakers, interior designers, a scholar of animal behavior (the Lion, who spent his time as the king of beasts observing the lives of other creatures) and a striped traffic crossing. This is a prequel to a previous book, どうぶつびょういん (Animal Hospital); the library doesn’t have it, but it appears that our zebra eventually became a doctor. (I was glad to figure this out, because I was wondering if he ever found a job he liked, then I saw the other book on the dust jacket and wondered about the connection. I couldn’t really tell if this zebra was the son of the doctor zebra in the other book or if the zebra became the doctor until I looked up the other book online.)
わにのニニくんのゆめ
The Dream of Nini-kun the Crocodile
作:角野 栄子 (かどの えいこ, Kadono Eiko)
絵:にしかわ おさむ(Nishikawa Osamu)
Level 3 本, 64 pages, 1,200 words (est.)
And just what is Nini-kun’s dream? Perhaps you can guess from the cover. This business of having a crocodile walking around the zoo dressed in human clothing causes a few problems for the beleaguered zookeeper… (Not in terms of children eaten – no, the other animals get jealous.)
子ザルのいちねん
A Year in the Life of a Baby Monkey
作/写真:福田 幸広(ふくだ ゆきひろ, Fukuda Yukihiro)
Level 3 絵本, 56 pages, 500 words (est.)
I’ll spare you the suspense: as it happens, a year in the life of a baby monkey is extraordinarily cute. Playing with their buddies, chilling in onsens… it all looks pretty sweet! There are also a couple of pages at the end with more detailed information on monkeys, as well as how not to act when you go see them. (They’re not included in the word count; I estimate those couple of pages tack on another 750 words, and they’re about level 4 difficulty.)
かいけつゾロリ やせるぜ!ダイエット大さくせん
Incredible Zorori: I’m Going To Slim Down! The Great Diet Strategy
作/絵:原 ゆたか(はら ゆたか, Hara Yutaka)
Level 3 本, 103 pages, 3,000 words (rough estimate)
Since this is part of a larger series that I thought would be particularly useful to extensive readers, I gave it its own review. To sum it up in a sentence, it’s a playful adventure story about Zorori and his followers Ishishi and Noshishi, following their efforts first to lose weight, then to deliver a set of diet gadgets to a birthday party. I really enjoyed it, and haven’t ruled out that 44-book series yet…
おひめさまパンダになる?
Will You Become A Panda, Princess?
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, 88 pages, 1,000 words (est.)
I originally classified this one (and some others) as level 2 books because there’s pictures on every page, almost no kanji, large text and spaced words but was uneasy with that because of the length, so I switched it to level 3. If you wanted to buy some fairly easy level 3 books that would stand up to re-reading (assuming you have a high tolerance for princesses) it might be worth investigating this series; there’s eleven other books about the same character listed in the back flap. In this one, the princess springs her panda friend from the zoo and takes him to Panda Country, running into pirates on the way. The art reminds me of those scary black and white 1930s cartoons.
くんくまくんとおやすみなさい
Goodnight, Kunkuma-kun
作:今村 葦子(いまむら あしこ, Imamura Ashiko)
絵:菊池 恭子(きくち きょうこ, Kikuchi Kyōko)
Level 3 本, 63 pages, 1,600 words (est.)
This is another one that has a lot in common with level 2 books, but is long enough to make it into level 3; it even has three separate stories about Kunkuma-kun and his family, the text isn’t huge and it’s part of a larger series. The content was cute, but didn’t make a huge impression on my mind — I guess I am not all that much on teddy bears, somehow.
こまじょちゃんとあなぼっこ
The Little Witch and Bokko the Digger
作:越水 利江子(こしみず りえこ, Koshimizu Rieko)
絵:山田 花菜(やまだ かな, Yamada Kana)
Level 3 本, 79 pages, 1,600 words (est.)
This one was another “level 2.5”: that is, a book that has a lot in common with picture books, but is much longer and denser. It’s one of my favorites that I’ve read so far, because it’s got some pretty, figurative language and a silly, engaging story with magic and cats. I might need the other three at some point.
Level 2 Japanese Books Available From The Tacoma Public Library
This is an incomplete list of all the Level 2 books available from the Tacoma Public Library; 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 and compare shipping costs. 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.
はしれ!たくはいびん
Hurry, Express Home Delivery Company!
作:竹下 文子(たけした ふみこ, Takeshita Fumiko)
絵:鈴木 まもる(すずき まもる, Suzuki Mamoru)
Level 2 絵本, 32 pages, 200 words (est.) ★★★★★ Hardcover
Really cute picture book about how a home delivery company gets a box of apples from point A to point B. I really liked the illustrations and lingered on them for some time– there were lots of cats hanging around 宅配便 vehicles for some reason. I’ve got a textbook for business Japanese I keep meaning to spend more time with, and for some reason 営業 just wouldn’t stick in my head before, but now I’ll always associate it with this book because the delivery trucks arrive at an 営業所.
とびだせ!ガチャピン〜ムックはかせのはつめいひん
Fly Into Action, Gachapin! ~ Dr. Mukku’s Invention
作:ガチャピン・ムック (Gachapin and Mukku)
絵:まめこ (Mameko)
Level 2 絵本, 32 pages, 450 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
I guess this Gachapin critter is kind of a thing? It’s not something I had heard of, but now it makes a little more sense, as the book seemed to presuppose a little knowledge about Gachapin’s world, but I didn’t see any mention of any other books in the series. Whatever the case, this is a tremendously fun and colorful little book, and if there’s anything cuter in the whole world of picture books than a happy reformed garbage spirit with a kerchief and a snail-shaped vacuum cleaner, I have yet to see it.
みんなだいすき!チョコレート
Everyone Loves Chocolate!
監修: 古谷野 哲夫(ひらの てつお, Hirano Tetsuo)
Level 2 絵本, 30 pages, 1,000 words (est.) ★★★★☆ Hardcover
It has certainly been a while since I would have read a book like this in English, so I only had a passing familiarity with the process of chocolate making; this book lays it all out in a really cute way. It’s good about explaining the specialized vocabulary, as well; one page explains that the chocolate is ねる – in this context, mixed over and over – and a factory worker explains to the little chocolate bar avatar that it’s not ねる as in sleeping, but a different ねる.
ねこのシッポ
The Cat’s Tail (or Shippo the Cat)
作/絵:星野 絵里子(ほしの えりこ, Hoshino Eriko)
Level 2 絵本, 30 pages, 150 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
Another charming level 2 book, this is about a cat named Shippo (which means tail) who happens to have a tail so long it can be tied into a bow, used to rescue other cats from trees and so on. This one won the Tully’s Picture Book Award in 2004, and it does have remarkably cute cat illustrations.
まよなかさん
Mr. Midnight
作/絵:早川 純子(はやかわ じゅんこ, Hayakawa Junko)
Level 2 絵本, 32 pages, 300 words (est.) ★★★★☆ Hardcover
Mayonaka-san runs a midnight coffee shop, and one night he has to deliver a large order of coffee to a group observing the night sky. Really trippy illustrations, but they’re cute, not trippy in a bad way (and there have been at least two books I haven’t yet been able to bring myself to finish because the pictures were trippy in a bad way, so I know what I’m talking about).
CO2のりものずかん
Vehicle CO2 Illustrated Guide
作/絵:三浦 太郎(みうら たろう, Miura Tarō)
Level 2 絵本, 32 pages, 225 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
An illustrated comparison of how much CO2 various vehicles (and humans) produce. Not much in the way of content, and the vocabulary is accordingly basic, but the illustrations are pretty snappy. I rather like these 図鑑… what can I say, I’m easily attracted by pictures.
くりの木のこと
The Chestnut Tree
作:島本 一男(しまもと かずお, Shimamoto Kazuo)
絵:ひろかわ さえこ(Hirokawa Saeko)
Level 2 絵本, 32 pages, 400 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
A rather sweet story about a chestnut tree at a nursery school that had to be cut down, upsetting the kids; everyone coped by planting new trees, bringing in a Shinto priest to help conduct a ceremony for everyone to say goodbye to the tree, and singing a song about the tree.
チョコレート だいすき
I Love Chocolate!
作:大西 寿(おおにし ひさし, Ōnishi Hisashi)
Level 2 絵本, 28 pages, 750 words (est.) ★★★★☆ Hardcover
Not to be confused with みんなだいすき!チョコレート, this book, which is also about the processing of cocoa beans into chocolate, is actually a step or two easier, so if I had seen it first I would have read it first. Where the other book focuses on how chocolate factories work, this takes a bit of a hands-on approach, and they really compliment each other. For example, this one actually shows how you can process the cocoa beans by hand: steps 4, 5, 7, 9 and 11 all basically read “Then grind them some more,” making すりつぶす a very easy word to remember.
花のかみかざり
Flower Comb (official translation)
作:いもとようこ(Imoto Yōko)
Level 2 絵本, 32 pages, 350 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
For a cute kids’ book done up in watercolor with bunnies, this is a deeply strange book. A bunny who just became a nurse is too freaked out by one of her wolf patients to fulfill her dying wish, and apparently ends up regretting it for what must have been years afterward. The lesson? Just as Metafilter reminds us, everyone needs a hug.
くまこちゃんのみずたまはんかち
Kumako-chan’s Polka-Dot Handkerchief
作/絵:なかや みわ(Nakaya Miwa)
Level 2 絵本, ? pages, 150 words (guess) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
All the polka dots escape from Kumako-chan’s handkerchief after she washes it. At a certain point the cuter level 2 books blur into each other, so there’s not much to remark on here. But it was tremendously sweet! I couldn’t find it when I went back to the library, so I will look for it later, and for now the 150 words is just a guess.
おれさまのもり
My Forest
作/絵:キクタ ミネコ(Kikuta Mineko)
Level 2 絵本, 35 pages, 400 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
It’s a very cute little book about finding family and friends, but it will forever be marred for me by my husband’s telling of it. He was wondering why Japanese kids don’t get confused by some books reading front to back and others reading back to front, and he picked this one off the top of my stack and told the story backwards, pretending he didn’t know where it was supposed to start. He doesn’t know Japanese, so it was just based on the pictures, and it involved the main character stress-eating, getting kidnapped by a creepy old guy and dying and going to heaven. It comes off as a little sweeter if one reads it the right way, I assure you.
ゆきの ひの おきゃくさま
The Snowy Day Visitor
作/絵:木村 泰子(きむら やすこ, Kimura Yasuko)
Level 2 絵本, 30 pages, 300 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
This is another basic book that doesn’t lend itself to a lot of discussion, but the artwork is adorable. (Shame Amazon doesn’t have the cover online…) One interesting point is the illustration of the clock that guides the progression of the seasons: the numbers are mostly accompanied by Japanese seasonal symbols, with a little Christmas tree for the 12:00 / December slot.
バーバちゃんのおみまい
Baba-chan’s Hospital Visit
作:神沢 利子(かんざわ としこ, Kanzawa Toshiko)
絵:山脇 百合子(やまわき ゆりこ, Yamawaki Yuriko)
Level 2 絵本, 30 pages, 300 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
For a little level 2 picture book, it had a surprising amount of words I didn’t know, mostly related to the pie that Baba-chan makes for her friend (and then eats herself). Weighing out flour, marinating cherries, having just one slice left over and so on takes a lot of specialized vocabulary. And then by the time the said hospital visit actually happens, the pie doesn’t even exist anymore, so there you go.
ほしのこルンダ — くろいほしのナニイ
Star Child Lunda ~ Nanii of the Black Star
作/絵 やなせ たかし(Yanase Takashi)
Level 2 絵本, 63 pages, 750 words (est.) ★★☆☆☆ Hardcover
I guess this Lunda kid has a modest series to his name, but to tell the truth I was tremendously bored by his adventure and read through it just to say I did. To be fair, I would likely have enjoyed it more if I was a five-year old boy. It reminded me of the bit in Even A Monkey Can Draw Manga about what kids like.
うしさん おっぱい しぼりましょ
Let’s Milk Mrs. Cow!
作:穂高 順也(ほたか じゅんや, Hotaka Jun’ya)
絵:竹内 通雅(たけうち つーが, Takeuchi Tsūka)
Level 2 絵本, 32 pages, 400 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
You know how I’ve been known to call picture book art “trippy in a bad way?” Well, here’s what I mean. As a punishment for tickling me, I made Brian look through this book.
“That’s some questionable art,” he said.”
“Questionable, yes.”
“Actually, questionable isn’t quite the right word. I know the question. It’s a very simple question. WHY GOD WHY”
The text is equally trippy: a cow’s milk takes on the flavor of anything you feed it, which is all well and good when it’s a handful of strawberries, but not so adorable when it’s forcefeeding the cow a vat full of potatoes, onions and carrots so that she can produce stew for fifty ungrateful children. This taxes her so much she withers away to almost nothing, but it’s OK because she swallows a band of traveling musicians to regain her strength. I’d like to think, at least, that this makes cow-related vocabulary very easy for tiny children to remember. “Pasture? To wither? To milk a cow? To play an instrument inside a cow? Those words are a snap. I learned them when I read this book about a demon cow from Hell.”
プンクトとことりたち
Punkuto and the Baby Birds
作/絵:池内 梢(いけうち こずえ, Ikeuchi Kozue)
Level 2 絵本, 30 pages, 350 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
Very cute and cheerful little picture book about a bunch of baby birds and their flightless mentor; won the 2004 Tully’s Picture Book Award. I like the flat, colorful art style, but however it looked, it’d be a real joy after the crazy cow book. *shudder* *shiver* Did I mention the illustration with the cow producing ice cream? You’re going to have to find that one on your own.
ほっきょくがとけちゃう!
The North Pole is Sinking! (official title)
作/絵:イーサン・キム・マツダ、マイケル・マツダ(Ethan Kheim Matsuda and Michael Matsuda)
Level 2 本, 39 pages, 1,400 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
When Santa’s factory starts tipping to the side on account of the melting ice, it’ll take more than tying it to balloons and rubber duckies to keep it upright; Santa and his reindeer have to brave the smog to learn about global warming and alternative energy sources.
いっすんぼうし
The One-Inch Boy
作:こわせ たまみ(Kowase Tamami)
絵:高見 八重子(たかみ やえこ, Takami Yaeko)
Level 2 絵本, 26 pages, 250 words (est.) ★★★★☆ Hardcover
A classic Japanese fairytale about an old couple who wish for a child and get one so tiny he uses a bowl for a boat and a needle for a sword. He wants to become a warrior, and finds a job in the capital as a noble girl’s playmate. (The illustration in this version of the two of them playing cat’s cradle together is adorable.) Eventually, he defeats a demon, who drops a magic mallet; the power of this mallet makes him grow to normal size. So if you remember your Secret of Mana properly, you should be thinking of the Midge Mallet, which can be used to turn your characters back to normal size if they’ve been shrunken. This reference pops up in some other games, too, but that’s the one I remember best.
トコとグーグーとキキ
Toko, Googoo and Kiki
作:村山 亜土(むらやま あど, Murayama Ado)
絵:柚木 沙弥郎(ゆのき さみろう, Yunoki Samirō)
Level 2 絵本, 32 pages, 450 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
The peaceful lives of Toko the toucan and Googoo the sloth are disrupted when Kiki the chameleon falls out of the Animal Circus airplane into their jungle.
たまちゃんとボウルさん
Little Tama and the Bowl Family
作/絵:山田 詩子(やまだ うたこ, Yamada Utako)
Level 2 絵本, 32 pages, 250 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
Tama-chan’s parents are going away for a week, but they’ve enlisted the family of bowls next door to bring her food every day: salad one day, strawberries the next, and who knows what the day after that. Charming, very girly and relatively simple level 2 book.
クマさんのトラック
The Bear’s Track
作:篠塚 かをり(しなづかかをり, Shinazuka Kaori)
絵:いしい じゅね(Ishi June)
Level 2 絵本, 32 pages, 200 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
A monkey finds a piece of string and uses it to pretend he’s a bus; if you’ve ever had problems remembering 降りる and 乗る this book can help set you straight, as the monkey picks up and drops off lots of passengers. I liked the playful, cheery art for this book.
お月さまにげた
The Moon Ran Away
作/絵:谷川 晃一(たにがわ こういち, Tanigawa Kōichi)
Level 2 絵本, 36 pages, 250 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
One stormy night, the moon walks into a bar — it’s so cloudy out that he can afford to take a day off, and he drinks the bartender’s best wine and gets good and drunk. (Yes, it’s stated that obviously; there’s one big difference between Japanese kids’ books and American ones.) The bartender sees a way to turn this to his advantage… Because of the content and word count I’m still counting this one as level 2, but it has more kanji (with furigana) than most level 2 books.
花のこども
Children of Flowers (official title)
作:小原 稚子(おはら わかこ, Ohara Wakako)
絵:黒田 征太郎(くろだ せいたろう, Kuroda Seitarō)
Level 2 絵本, 28 pages, 250 words (est.) ★★☆☆☆ Hardcover
A bilingual, poetic book about flowers, stars, love and so on that is, to me, slightly harder than level 2 books that are straight up stories. I’m not a big fan of bilingual books because I feel like a crucial part of extended reading is that deep-down feeling of either knowing you understood it or you didn’t; if you don’t understand something, it’s better to puzzle it over a bit without the temptation of a translation right there.
ゆめにでてあげたい
My Dreams, Your Dreams (official title)
作:田中 章義(たなか あきよし, Tanaka Akiyoshi)
絵:とりごえ まり(Torigoe Mari)
Level 2 絵本, 32 pages, 400 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
Another bilingual book, this one is about Tibetan refugee children, and it’s affecting and poetic. The afterword adds about 100 words or so, plus a little context.
のら犬ウィリー
The Stray Dog (official title)
作:マーク・シーモント(Marc Simont)
訳:三原 泉(みはら いずみ, Mihara Izumi)
Level 2 絵本, 32 pages, 200 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
A family finds a dog in a park and plays with him, but when the day is over and the kids want to take him home, the parents tell them it’s time for the dog to go back to his owner. “But what if he doesn’t have an owner?” they wonder…
いすがにげた
The Chair Ran Away
作:森山 京(もりやま みやこ, Moriyama Miyako)
絵:スズキ コージ(すずき こうじ, Suzuki Kōji)
Level 2 絵本, 40 pages, 500 words (est.) ★★☆☆☆ Hardcover
I learned to read when I was very, very young — long before I learned to deal with things that disturbed me. The consequence was that some books frightened me so much that my mom had to tape them up and hide them. Apparently the life skill of “dealing with disturbing things” is still not one I’ve mastered, because I tried to read this book three times before I finally finished it. Who knew chairs and bunnies could look so wrong? Seriously, this bunny is nightmare fuel.
ぼくのしっぽは?
But What About My Tail?
作/絵:下田 智美(しもだ ともみ, Shimoda Tomomi)
Level 2 絵本, 28 pages, 675 words (est.) ★★★★★ Hardcover
A young boy wonders why he doesn’t have a tail, and goes out to borrow various tails from other animals so he can test them out. (The sound of a tail being removed and replaced is カッチ, by the way.) This is a level 2 book that has a lot of extra information (that I didn’t count in the word count — maybe another 500 words?) such as how to make different kinds of tails, a summary of what various animals use their tails for, and a “What Type of Tail Suits You?” quiz. (Answer questions like “Do you get more excited about New Year’s than Christmas?” and “Do your farts make a “プゥー” sound, or a “スー” sound?” and get your animal type.)
金貨をくれるへび
The Coin-Giving Snake
作:尾上 尚子(おのえ たかこ, Onoe Takako)
絵:寺岡 正道(てらおか まさみち, Teraoka Masamichi)
Level 2 絵本, 24 pages, 400 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
A story from the Panchatantra, an Indian collection of fables, that’s very similar to The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg.
トゲトゲぼうや
The Prickly Boy
作:今村 葦子(いまむら あしこ, Imamura Ashiko)
絵:西村 繁男(にしむら しげお, Nishimura Shigeo)
Level 2 絵本, 32 pages, 700 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
A hedgehog wants to make friends more than anything; his parents warn him that others will probably be turned off by all his needles, but he says “Didn’t you tell me that it’s what’s inside that’s important?” But with his needles, he can’t join in on games of “Oshikura Manjyū” and leapfrog. However, it turns out his needles do come in handy sometimes…
月夜の誕生日
The Moonlight Night Birthday
作:岩瀬 成子(いわせ じょうこ, Iwase Jōko)
絵:味戸 ケイコ(あじと けいこ, Ajito Keiko)
Level 2 絵本, 32 pages, 900 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
Mari loves her birthday presents, a new dress and a star pin, so much that she goes to sleep wearing them; on that night, she joins a series of animals to watch the lunar eclipse and gives a present to each one of them. A dreamy little book, with adorable pictures.
あなたが生まれた夜に
On The Night You Were Born (official title)
作/絵:ナンシー・ティルマン(Nancy Tillman)
訳:内田恭子(うちだきょうこ, Uchida Kyōko)
Level 2 絵本, 32 pages, 250 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
This is the kind of picture book that’s more for the parents than for the kid, and it’s less of a straightforward story than most level 2 books; this kind of picture book can be good for exploring more poetic language.
さみしがりやのサンタさん
Lonely Santa
作:内田麟太郎(うちだりんたろう, Uchida Rintarō)
絵:沢田としき(さわだとしき, Sawada Toshiki)
Level 2 絵本, 32 pages, 250 words (est.) ★★★☆☆ Hardcover
It turns out that sometimes even Santa feels a little down after all of the pre-Christmas excitement, and he can’t even play himself a song on his harmonica because it’s broken. But a surprise guest manages to cheer him up…
- 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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Extensive Reading
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