On another thread, a couple of people commented favorably on graded readers, specifically:

http://www.thejapanshop.com/home.php?cat=344

I've completed RTK1 and have SRS'd Tae Kim's site and most of the sentences form Japanese for Everyone released by leosmith. I plan to move on to KO soon. I find the idea of using graded readers as a supplement to resources like KO interesting. It would be nice to have something I could read without using a dictionary too much (just inferring meaning from context) and without feeling the need to SRS everything. Are the readers any good though? In the past I've been dissuaded from children's materials mainly because of the long strings of incomprehensible kana (yuck!). How do these readers compare with kid's material? Has anyone seen the highest level reader, and how close is it to adult reading material?

They use kanji where appropriate, and have furigana readings by them.

I only have two sets of the level 2 readers and one of the level 3 readers. Despite having studied Japanese for a few years in the classroom, I still find the level two readers quite challenging (each story takes me about 1-2 hours to read the first time though). I would assume (and we all know what happens when you assume :p) that the highest level readers are very close to "real" Japanese. I think I saw a chart somewhere (though I cant find it now) saying that the level 4 readers are good practice for JLPT1.

What about the Japanese in Mangaland series or Mangajin? I don't think they're exactly what you're looking for, but they're the only ones I can think of.

Zarxrax,
I started off with the level 4's coming off of a ego boost from RTK, and they are actually not that difficult. In fact, I later bought the level 3's and the difficulty was about the same, but used less kanji and the stories were shorter. I think they were a great set that really cemented Japanese grammar for me, but there are definitely levels of Japanese above level 4 that the readers do not cover. EDIT: I should also say that the chart says that the level 4 covers grammar up to JLPT 2, it is in the back page of each booklet.

jreaves,
Like alyks said, the Mangajin stuff would probably be a good supplement to those readers in general, because the readers don't cover colloquial stuff. Also, there are some other "Readers" out there that I think are higher level than the ones you linked to, but I can't remember the name right now and I don't own them, but I saw them at a bookstore.

Ah, you're right, it says JLPT2.

I also like the "read real japanese" series, which uses real japanese, not simplified stuff.
Here's something else I found: http://www.whiterabbitpress.com/catalog/...16602.html It's stories written for Japanese schoolchildren who are in 6th grade (they have them for grades 1-6).

Aside from that, I would recommend picking up some manga and reading it. They make manga for everyone from young children to adults, so you should be able to find something appropriate for your level. The pictures can really help you to understand words through context, without having to resort to a dictionary.

the graded readers are quite good for two reasons: (1) the stories are entertaining, so you're not going to be bored with them; (2) all of the stories are quite famous, so you can reference them and people will understand what you're trying to say.

i read the level 3 series a while ago and found them quite good. the CDs were a good bonus... but after level 3, there wasn't much of a jump to level 4.

instead, i started reading books from the children's section of the libarary and the japanese bookstore. anything for children in 5th-6th grade (elementary school) is quite good. there are enough kanji to keep you from swimming in kana, and they always have furigana for the more difficult words.

right now i'm reading harry potter and i can't recommend it enough. the copy i have is quite common in japan. it's got furigana for 90% of the kanji, but once that kanji is introduced you don't see the furigana over it for the rest of the chapter.

my advice is this: if you're comfortable with the graded readers, start reading books ASAP. not only are they fun, but they're huge confidence boosters.

the harry potter series is well done. there's a really nice chronicles of narnia series. edward gorey has quite a few published works, and ronald dahl is becoming easier and easier to find.

basically i'm using my japanese studies as an excuse to read all the books i missed out on as a kid.

You can buy them from Amazon Japan too, and I saw bought some at Shinjuku Kinokuniya if you're in Tokyo and you want to check them out. I like them, they're great.

TGWeaver Wrote:instead, i started reading books from the children's section of the libarary and the japanese bookstore. anything for children in 5th-6th grade (elementary school) is quite good. there are enough kanji to keep you from swimming in kana, and they always have furigana for the more difficult words.

........
the harry potter series is well done. there's a really nice chronicles of narnia series. edward gorey has quite a few published works, and ronald dahl is becoming easier and easier to find.

basically i'm using my japanese studies as an excuse to read all the books i missed out on as a kid.

I'll second that.... 　Check out the 文庫 section of your nearest bookstore or library. They have lots of books for upper elementary/JHS that are fun to read... and you'll probably find translations of some of your favorites there... Narnia (as mentioned), Treasure Island, Swiss Family Robinson.... I'm working through the Little House books at the moment. And you'll have the added benefit of probably already knowing the story, which will help you when you're starting...

I just wanted to give a thumbs up to the graded readers at the Japan Shop. I just finished "Hachi's Story" and, other than trying not to ball like a little school girl, I had no difficulty in reading the story. The books are very nicely illustrated and come with a CD (which I have yet to bust out.) Sure, the books are pretty "Dick and Jane" level stuff, but at least I was able to read something.

I recently placed an order for a bunch of these, all the level 1 and 2 books. Hopefully I won't find them too easy, because it would be a bit of waste then wouldn't it. But I figured for more advanced reading I can just stick to my Japanese Akira and Berserk manga or something.

Yes, I'm going through them, about one a day, I've finished the first levels, all fifteen, and they were really easy for me, with one year study, and having finished RTK. Level 2 is also easy so far, sometimes I know every word in the book, unless it's about some jargon loaded subject like the sushi book. I learned a lot from that sushi book.

I think graded readers are really useful but the trouble is finding them, and finding ones that really increase gradually, without some huge jump. I'm going to continue them and then try some more kids books. Actually I found a lot of cheap manga type kids books at book off for a buck each. They're great too.

Another thing, isn't furigana a bit annoying when you are trying to learn to read the kanji? It's like having a cheat sheet built in, and it's a bit hard to cover up.

Just use a piece of cardboard.

When I looked at the graded readers, they looked pretty expensive for what you got. So rather than blowing a lot of money on them, I'd be more interested to see what sorts of books people are reading that are geared to lower levels. My previous experiences have been that paperbacks are pretty cheap in comparison, but the difficulty level can be too high to comfortably read or learn anything if you're not careful.

So I was thinking about ordering a few books aimed at the upper elementary/lower middle school level, but I don't really know where to start. If anyone has any suggestions for titles, I'd be interested to hear them.

Shirow66 Wrote:Another thing, isn't furigana a bit annoying when you are trying to learn to read the kanji? It's like having a cheat sheet built in, and it's a bit hard to cover up.

Is this really a problem? I find I have to focus on one or the other, or I don't read it at all... At this point, that generally means I don't read the kanji and only read the furigana, and have to make a conscious point of looking at the kanji to go with it.

But the few I know how to pronounce, if I'm reading them, I find I don't even see the furigana unless I specifically look.

I'm seriously considering these graded readers now. I've been trying to read easy manga/etc, but I'm not really at that level. $33 is a little more than I want to spend on a few stories, but I'm thinking it might just be well worth it.

As for the furigana, I do find myself just reading those instead of the kanji a lot of the time. If you put the sentences into your srs though, you can properly learn the kanji.

And as for the price, yea, they are DEFINITELY a bit pricey for what you get, but personally I think it has been worth it. It's like $6-7 per story. But if you consider that you can read the story multiple times, and you have an audio version that you can listen to, perhaps it's not such a bad deal. I actually find the listening portion very challenging, because while reading, I can take my sweet time thinking about it, but you can't do that while listening.

I'm really interested in the "10-pun de Yomeru Ohanashi" series offered by white rabbit press that I linked farther up this thread. They are cheaper, but it doesn't have any info about how long each one is. Those might be a better choice, but it would be nice to hear from someone who has tried them.

Not really a graded reader, but Breaking into Japanese Literature: Seven Modern Classics in Parallel Text by Giles Murray is simply brilliant.

It contains four parts of 夢十夜 by 夏目漱石 plus three short stories by 芥川龍之介 (藪の中,鼻 and 羅生門). All stories are presented in parallel text, with the original japanese version on the left, and an english translation on the right. The bottom half of all pages contains enough vocabulary to read the current page.

The stories are presented in order of difficulty. The first stories use simpler language, and the translation provided is natural. As the book progresses, Murray delves into more complex works, and starts providing more literal translations, leaving the reader to work out a more natural version.

Ah, you can also download mp3 files for the stories from the author's homepage.

It's simply one of the best books on Japanese I've read, definitely recommended.

Ok I have finally found some info on these other readers!
10分で読めるお話 (stories you can read in 10 minutes)

According to Amazon.jp, the 1st grade level book is right at 150 pages, while the 6th grade level book is about 200 pages. So each book contains more pages than you get in the "graded reader" sets. They are also much cheaper, so as for reading material, it seems like a great deal. Only downside is it doesn't have an audio cd...

On this site it shows the inside of the 1st grade book: http://www.kodomonohon.jp/goods/series/n...00erw4.php
So it seems they have plenty of illustrations to help out with your understanding of the story. I'll probably be picking up some of these in a couple months once I run out of other material to read.

I used this and have to recommend them. The vocab and grammar build on each other as the series progresses, the stories use context and pictures very well to help you build vocab organically.