大豆

私は大ずをきょうみがあるので本はちょっとつまらないです。かんじやたん語はかんたんです。
While I personally found this book a little boring I would recommend it to someone that was interested in cooking or Japanese dishes. The book’s visuals made it easy to follow along.
Would recommend to first years.

ゆかた、よかったら

この本はおもしろいと思います。エミさんとニナさんゆかたを買 ってお ぼんおどりに行きました。かんじとたん語がかんたんです。I really loved the art style, its simple and cute. There were a couple of words that I could not recognize but its still understandable through context. There were also some unfamiliar kanji but they were accompanied by the hiragana.  Overall, I highly recommend to level 0 readers.

木村家の毎日「ただいま」

私わこの本が大好きです!面白いですから。I really like this book, because it is interesting. The warm story is about this small family celebrating the mother’s birthday. The other members in the family prepared a surprise for the mother.

I recommend it to other 1st year Japanese students. There were vocabularies I didn’t recognize, but it was not difficult to guess the meaning of them based on the context and the pictures. It did help me to learn some new words and gave me a sense of how conversation is presented in Japanese written text.

おじいさんの旅

「おじいさんの旅」というのは作者のおじいさんの人生について本です。作者のおじいさんは若者の時、アメリカで旅行しに行きました。その時は、アメリアの人々やとても美しい景色に惚れて、カリフォルニアに住むことにしました。

話は結構短いですが、絵が素晴らしくて、感動しました。主に、移住人は場所を二つ「home」と呼ぶことについて話です。

This story is about the author’s grandfather’s life as an immigrant in America. The illustrations are quite beautiful and, although the story was short, it moved me. Overall, it’s about how immigrants have two places to call home, and how they are always missing a place.

I definitely recommend it!

 

ジョンさん日本へ

ジョンさんは日本に行きました。飛行機の中で、きれいな女の子に合いました。同じい漫画を持ってきました。そして、ラフラフのはなしを始めました。このはなしは簡単で、面白いと思います。読んでくださいね。どころで、辞書を見ないほうがいいですよ。とてもとても簡単ですから。

Unlike the other explanatory books I have read so far, this story has some interesting plot lines. Although the story could easily happened in any other context, I enjoyed this book. I would recommend reading it just for a change, but for those of you who want to target books specifically link to Japanese culture or classic tales, maybe you can skip this.

風と太陽

 

このものがたりはとても有名ですね。子供の時母から聞きました。簡単ですが、面白いと思います。

This short story is about how wind and sun were having a little competition. The content is very easy but it is quite interesting. It is a very quick read I don’t think anyone would encounter any problems with it. However I would suggest people to read something more closely related to Japanese tradition since this tale is globally known.

木村家の毎日『ただいま』

 

この本は楽しかったと思います。話しが面白かったと思います。私は早く読んで、わらいました。でも、文はとてもみじかくて、かんたんで、私は難しい文がほしいでした。

I would recommend this book. The kanji were very simple, and all of them had furigana, so there shouldn’t be any problems on that front. The story itself was light and funny. Give it a whirl!

西町交番のりょうさん「助けて!」

この本は面白いです。りょうさんは警察官です。りょうさんは、西町でたくさん人を見て、助けます。でも。。。その時は、小さい男の子の猫は高い木の上ですから、りょうさんは木に登ります。怖いですよ!だから、りょうさんが「助けて!」と言った人になりました。

If you are a novice at reading Japanese, then this is the book for you! The sentences are extremely short, and simple grammar can be identified/ understood (e.g. short form, te-form, 〜よ, quotations, casual “no” in speech, etc…) There is a plethora of images to baby-step the reader through the story and it is engaging till the end with light humor.