#japanese children's book

[dokushoclub]

Tumblr community for langblrs that like to read in Japanese

✨My tumblr community for reading in Japanese got approved ✨

I would like to use this community for the following:

Sharing recommendations: When you finish an interesting article, manga, novel, children's book, or blog post in Japanese, share it with the community and tell us if there's furigana, complex grammar or keigo to watch out for!

Asking for recommendations: Would you like to read more in Japanese but don't know where to start or which genre to try next? Ask the community for their recommendations for your specific level of Japanese and reading experience!

I'm looking forward to more recommendations and discussions of Japanese books form the perspectives of other learners! If you have any input for this community please let me know.

Let's read some books together! 📚🇯🇵

[sekaiichi-happy]

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, 82 yen stamps

[thefugitivesaint]

Mizuaki Imoto, ''Sword of Acrist'' trans. by Takamaro Ito, 1940, Source

[memoryaqua]

"The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen

Illustrations by Tadasu Izawa & Shigemi Hijikata

Published by Golden Press, 1966

These images come from various second-hand sites like eBay and Amazon.

Image sources:

https://www.amazon.com/little-mermaid-H-C-Andersen/dp/B0007ERMZ0#immersive-view_1728273174680

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-little-mermaid-golden-press-1837029809

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/3d-hologram-golden-puppet-little-129415367

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/little-mermaid-hans-christian-1818130808

[dokushoclub]

When looking for material to improve Japanese reading skills, I would lean towards graded readers rather than children's books.That being said, exploring all the beautiful picture books and well thought out children's literature in Japanese has been a delight! Here are some of my favorite free resources for Japanese picture books:

Ehon Hiroba – free picture books created by users

e-Dōwa – collection of free fairy tale picture books

I particularly enjoyed the beautifully illustrated 親指姫（おやゆびひめ）, a picture book based on the fairy tale Thumbelina by Hans Christian Andersen. It can be read for free here.

My favourite Japanese book series written for elementary school children is without a doubt the ふしぎ駄菓子屋（だがしや）銭天堂（ぜにてんどう）series about a magical candy shop that seems to pop up whenever a little magic is needed in the lives of its future customers.

I've written more about my thoughts on the first book of the series here.

Just keep in mind when reading children's books in Japanese that there will be many challenges for learners: E.g. even young children usually have a much broader vocabulary than beginners and particulary onomatope which features prominently in children's literature is usually introduced only much later to learners of Japanese. If you haven't read much in Japanese, yet, outside of textbooks, I would recommend graded readers (e.g. these here) instead of picture books to start with!

best part about learning a language is when you reach the point where you're able to read children's books in said language

[lot665]

The Phantom of the Opera: A Terrifying Melody Echoes Underground ( オペラ座の怪人: 地下にひびく、恐怖のメロディー )

New acquisition for my Phantom shelf! I'm basing the title from what Google Lens told me, you can find it listed as "Resounds in Underground". It was adapted by Sadafumi Muranatsu and illustrated by Hida Kanami.

I randomly came across this while browsing Ebay. I've never seen any reference to it, and I thought the cover was cute, so yay irresponsible spending habits!

It's in Japanese with shoujo manga-style illustrations. I figured out that it was a juvenile adaptation because it doesn't start with "The Opera Ghost really did exist," and it has hirigana next to its kanji. Younger readers don't know many of the more complex kanji characters, so they include phonetic hirigana to help.

The illustrations are really pretty, and judging by them a close adaptation.

[samireads]

Japanese lit 🇯🇵 ✌🏻

[lepetitdragonvert]

Anthology of Japanese Tales for Children

(The Fairy Tale Writers Association)

1926

[dokushoclub]

I think this struggle could be a simple misunderstanding:

Learning a language through immersion requires comprehensible input.

What this means is that ideally you should understand more than 85-90% of the words in your text without looking anything up. If you can't recognize 80% of the kanji, the text you're reading simply is not fit for an immersion approach.

I see a lot of emphasis on native material in learning communities, but for beginners the only truly comprehensible input suitable for immersion (or extensive reading) are graded readers, which are specifically written to match their abilities. (I personally also enjoy children's books but they come with their own challenges and I haven't come across any that I can recommend to beginners without reservations.)

Even if your text is not comprehensible enough for the immersion approach, you can still read through it looking up words and grammar as you go. Just keep at it :)

I am a supporter of learning a language through immersion, but I have to question how helpful reading manga in japanese and using japanese subtitles only is when you're a beginner who can't recognize 80% of the kanji, and you can't exactly look up the meaning unless there's furigana, which there almost never is. I really want to start reading in japanese as soon as possible, I'm using Anki to increase my vocabulary AND my basic knowledge of kanji, but it is a fucking uphill climb. At this point, I have more comprehension of spoken dialogue than the written language, and I don't know if that's normal because it was certainly the other way around when I was learning english.

[emayuku]

Eren and the Warlock-Man

Eren and the Warlock-Man

https://www.scribd.com/document/785177586/Eren-and-the-Warlock-Man

This is a deviously scary story about Professor Jaeger's young nephew, Eren who outsmarts an old warlock man before he can have him and his two friends for dinner.

@pied-piper-pluto

@erenjaeger112

@godeyeslove

@nobluesea

@roredwarrior3

@oatmealmika

@zebekah

@thena0315

@zestygraph1te

@attack-on-titan-confessionss

@ferociousroll

@nraevn

@eren-jaeger-on-the-dancefloor

@eren-jaeger-the-avenger

@erentothejeager-blog

@pied-piper-pluto

@lapin-l

@cyberrlivv

@acetier

@animesavior

[dokushoclub]

Currently reading: それでも人のつもりかな

I'm currently reading the Japanese children's book それでも人のつもりかな by 有島希音（ありしま きおん）about an isolated middle schooler named Hoshi Arisa. The target audience are children in the upper years of elementary school and first year of middle school, so 11-13 year-olds.

This book has been on my shelf for a while. What got me interested was that the main character is multiethnic Japanese and I was interested how this would be depicted for that age group. I've read the first two chapters now and so far the book talks mostly about the severe bullying and Arisa's estranged relationship to her mother. Her homeroom teacher is trying to reach out to her, though, and I'm curious to see how this unfolds.

The titel is based on an haiku, btw:

ハンノキの それでも花の つもりかな

(by Kobayashi Issa)

[foxcassius]

i think it is silly when people act like studio ghibli is the end all be all of animated filmmaking and writing when in fact every film will have a different combo of writers and directors and when marnie was there is a movie that cannot execute the basic tenets of "show dont tell"

[goliadkine]

Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel, the Joan of Arc series, I-VI, 1906-1910, (Washington DC National Gallery of Art, usa.)

[savefrog]

also one last Gegege no Kitarou thing because I'm kind of diving into the Kitarou rabbithole to avoid work and I have to stop procrastinating but was using this literal book for babies to practice reading a while back and I just fucking loved the juxtaposition between something like "Kitarou's house is in the woods :) They have fun and relax there!!!!" "If you put a letter in his mailbox he'll show up (?) :D "

and then just (and I mean this literally)

KITAROU CAN ALSO GO TO HELL

[thefugitivesaint]

Toshio Suzuki (1904-1975), ''The Two Suns'' by Kusuro Makimoto, 1948 Source

[pleuvoire]

i am reading temple alley summer by sachiko kashiwaba. it is a kids’/middle grade book about a kid who sees a ghost at night and the next day she is a student at his school and everyone seems to remember her but him. and as it goes on he has to try to protect her against adults who believe that it’s unfair for dead people to get a second chance at life. i’m enjoying it a lot so far, the atmosphere is nice and the suspense has me hooked and the emotionality of a girl who died young getting to be alive again and having a chance to grow up is really getting to me. i’m so nervous that someone might exorcise her at the end, i really want her to survive and get to grow up. this is a really good book. i love middle grade fiction so much