Beginner picture books.

[ChiChiKiKi]

Hi there. I still remember the very first books I read- things like "See Spot Run" and "Dick and Dora". These very simple books helped me learn to read in my language, are there any such in Japanese? I have tried looking around but if they are there I guess they are on Japanese websites where I can't read well enough to browse yet.

A lot of the focus here seems to be on speaking Japanese, but I feel an approach that encourages more reading would be great. Having series of books to read with the simple words we start off with would, for me, be awesome. Even if it's just "This is a dog." "This is a giraffe." "Look at the sunrise." I can read hiragana easily enough now but my vocabulary is small and trying to memorise longer phrases when I'm not actually using them each day is not really working for me. I've got time to spend on this but I can only absorb so much new stuff each day so having simple things to read would help me learn new stuff at a steadier pace I feel because I can always read but I can't actually practice having conversations to make those teachings stick.

So my request is to provide simple Reader type books to practice what we're learning as we go.

[community.japanese]

Hi fonty2001,

Thanks for the comment. From the point of view as a mother who raised children in EN-JA bilingual environment, I share these books with you. Along with "See Spot Run," I read these books to my children and they all can read/write in Japanese and English now. I liked this author, Kimika Warabe and had several of her books. Famous Japanese fairly tales in simple, easy to read hiragana.

https://www.amazon.com/Momotaro%CC%84-Kimika-Warabe/dp/4893250213/ref=sr_1_35?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1533831169&sr=1-35&refinements=p_27%3AKimika+Warabe

https://www.amazon.com/%E3%81%AF%E3%81%98%E3%82%81%E3%81%A6%E3%82%81%E3%81%84%E3%81%95%E3%81%8F-%E3%81%95%E3%82%8B%E3%81%8B%E3%81%AB-%E3%81%AF%E3%81%98%E3%82%81%E3%81%A6%E3%82%81%E3%81%84%E3%81%95%E3%81%8F%E3%82%B7%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA-Kimika-Warabe/dp/4893250256/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1533831502&sr=1-5&refinements=p_27%3AKimika+Warabe

These prices on Amazon seem expensive. Are there any Japanese bookstores near you? (In US, Kinokuniya has many stores in CA.) You might want to see books in person.

Sincerely,
Miki H
Team JapanesePod101.com

[ChiChiKiKi]

Thankyou for the response Miki. I had already found these and a few other examples online but there aren't very many and not really in 'reader' format so the words are random and I'm still not understanding most of them.

I think what I really need to do is start my own 'books' since this doesn't seem to be a feature on here or anywhere else I've seen. All Japanese learning seems to be focussed on speaking it and jumps straight to learning full phrases and sentences straight away. This is great for initial satisfaction but long term what I really need is stuff I can practice each day without having to cold contact random people I don't know. (I'm not very sociable so trying to do that would just add stress to my learning.)

So I will just start writing my own journal/journey in Japanese, just starting with "what I learned today in Japanese'' or something like that and just keep building on it and making it more expansive and interesting as I learn new words and how to put them together. Something I can read back on for practice of the words each day instead of just reading them off posters I make to practice writing and help me remember.