You don’t have to be a kid to enjoy children’s books!
This is a book club focusing on children’s novels around L18-26, perfect for those who want to move on from textbooks and graded readers to native content, but aren’t quite ready for material aimed at adults.
Set thread to ‘watching’ to be notified of future updates!
Nominations can be submitted when the thread title includes [NOMINATIONS OPEN]
Use the nomination template below to nominate your desired book.
You can nominate as many books as you like, but must wait 1 week between each nomination.
The current nominations will be displayed in a nomination list.
Only the first volume of a series is eligible for nomination, unless the series can be read as standalone books (such as anthology series), in which case, any volume can be submitted.
Ensure your nomination isn’t on the list of Temporarily Excluded Titles (only comes into effect when all 20 nomination slots were filled in the previous voting cycle).
A maximum of 20 nominations will be accepted.
Nomination Template
Copy and paste the text below into a reply, and fill out the information for your nomination.
Cover image (optional)
**Title**: Put the Natively link here.
**Available formats**: physical / ebook / audiobook / partial furigana / full furigana (delete as appropriate)
[details="Summary - Japanese"]
Copy and paste the Japanese summary from whichever source you prefer.
[/details]
[details="Summary - English"]
Check Anilist or similar sites to see if they have an English summary. If not, use a machine translator like DeepL or Google Translate.
[/details]
[details="Content Warnings"]
If you know whether the book contains potentially triggering topics, include the information here.
[/details]
**Reason(s) for nominating:** Share the reason you are nominating this book - it might persuade others to vote for it!
Voting Phase
A poll will be held to vote on the nominations.
Each person will be allotted 5 votes.
The poll will be open for 9 days, from Saturday to Sunday of the following week.
In case of a tie for first place, a runoff vote will be held to decide the winner.
The lowest-voted 3 nominations (as well as any ties) will be temporarily excluded from the following selection cycle to make room for fresh titles (only comes into effect when all 20 nomination slots are filled).
Preparation Phase
A dedicated home thread for the winning book will be posted; all further information and discussion regarding the book will continue there.
A poll to decide the start date will be opened, allowing time for people to obtain the book before the club begins reading.
A poll to decide on the reading pace will be included, based on how many pages or chapters people want to read every week.
Reading Phase
A weekly thread will be posted for discussion on the scheduled reading, usually on Sunday or Monday.
Discussion Guidelines
Spoilers should always be hidden using spoiler blur.
When discussing a specific section, please mention where you are in the book, ideally by chapter so people reading different versions have a clear point of reference.
Feel free to read ahead if it’s exciting, but please refrain from spoiling ahead of the appropriate week.
If you have a question about grammar, vocab, cultural things, etc - ask! That’s a welcome part of the discussion too, and other readers will be happy to help.
General Information
The book club guidelines are decided by the community based on polls.
The book club selection process may be referred to by other names (nomination cycle, voting round), all of which refer to the same series of stages, beginning with the nomination phase and ending with the reading phase.
The winning book may be referred to as the book club’s “read”, “pick”, “choice”, etc.
The next cycle begins after the reading phase has started; there is usually an overlap between the reading phase and the next nomination phase.
If the book is part of a series, only the first volume will be read (but may continue via an offshoot book club).
I’ve borrowed the basic guidelines (edited a little) from the 👨❤️👨 BL Book Club | Reading: 今日からマ王! to make things easier. We can change anything that doesn’t fit this club later.
In order to get the ball rolling, you can submit up to 3 nominations (without any waiting periods) in this first round.
It seems to be the style of the border for books that fall into this category - not a color but this kind of spiral doodle around the cover pic. If you click on the Amazon link for that publisher, you can see some examples.
Where did the tree house come from?
Before Jack and Annie can find out, the mysterious tree house whisks them to the prehistoric past. Now they have to figure out how to get home. Can they do it before dark…or will they become a dinosaur’s dinner?
Story 2: Castle of Mystery
Eight-year-old Jack and his little sister, Annie, are playing in the woods during their summer holiday, when they find a mysterious tree house full of books. But these are no ordinary books . . . And this is no ordinary tree house . . .
Jack and Annie find themselves on another adventure - this time they’re in medieval England. It’s exactly the same as the story book - there’s a castle and a banquet and knights on horseback. But when they find themselves locked in a dungeon, Jack starts to wonder if they’ll ever get home again . . .
Reason(s) for nominating: This is a series that will be familiar to a lot of people, and I’ve been wanting to read it for a while (see Magic Tree House Book Club? 🏡, which will be the home thread if it’s picked ).
At L19, it’s one of the easiest children’s novels on Natively, and there’s also an audiobook available. There are 50 books available in Japanese, each containing 2 stories, so there’s a lot of material if you find it a good level for your current language skills.
There’s also some resources that have been shared in the thread which look useful:
(DeepL) Seishiro Yumemizu is a great detective. It says so on his nameplate and business card. However, he is a master at forgetting things, and even forgets whether or not he has eaten his dinner. In addition, he is lazy and slow-paced. When such a famous (and lost) detective takes on the case of the “Count,” a monster who makes children disappear one after another, the mystery will not be solved … immediately. A mystery filled with laughter.
Content Warnings
None I’m aware of.
Reason(s) for nominating: My Japanese friend told me she enjoyed reading the 名探偵夢水清志郎事件ノート series growing up, and I have a soft spot for kid’s mystery fiction since that was what got me into reading as well. And reading a kid’s mystery book might be good practice for reading adult mystery books!
(DeepL) Chiaki Wato is, by her own admission, a shy, reserved girl. She had hoped to make her debut in junior high school, but a cold forced her to take the first day off, and she became a rookie in the club she went home with. She is not much of a reader, but by chance, a handsome classmate, Soroku Honda, who looks like he has 100 friends, invites her to join the reading club and become an assistant detective…? Why am I an assistant detective just because Soroku Honda is the Japanese name of Sherlock Holmes, Holmes’ assistant is Watson, and my name is “Watoto”? With zero friends, Watoto’s life as a junior high school student is about to begin!
Content Warnings
None I’m aware of.
Reason(s) for nominating: The combination 読書 (reading) and 探偵 (detective) themes sounds fun, and the Sherlock Holmes play on words in the description cracked me up This series also shares an author with ふしぎ古書店1 福の神はじめました | L23, which I found very fun and engaging for a children’s book.
There was a candy shop. The shop seems to be hidden from the shopping street, as if it is clinging to the wall of an alleyway. However, a colourful array of sweets can be seen in front of the shop. Mayumi tilted her head. Was there ever a candy shop there? I’ve been down this road hundreds of times, but I’ve never seen a shop like that… That candy shop was the dividing line between happiness and unhappiness. (DeepL)
Reason(s) for nominating: This is the first volume of a popular series containing short stories, which sounds like it should be a relatively easy read, especially as the stories follow a similar formula. It was read over on WK a few years ago, so there’s already a vocabulary list and the weekly threads for reference. An audiobook being available is another plus!
5 short fairy tales for children written by 新美 南吉 (Niimi Nankichi):
手袋を買いに (Buying Mittens): When a cold winter comes to the forest, a little fox awakens one morning to the magic of a first snow-fall. His romp in the snow is cut short, however, when his cold, wet paws turn peony colored. What he needs, his mother decides, are some woolen mittens the size of his little paws. And so begins an overnight journey into the village where humans live…
ごん狐 (Gon, the Little Fox): Gon, a mischievous little fox, loves to cause trouble… but one day realizes that one of his pranks had gone a bit too far.
花のき村と盗人たち (Hananoki Village and the Thieves)
決闘 (Duel)
でんでんむしのかなしみ (The Sorrow of the Snail)
Content Warnings
Death
Reason(s) for nominating: A while ago I stumbled upon ごん狐, which turned out to be the first story that I read in Japanese that I liked so much that I gave it 5/5 stars on Natively. Despite being a fairy tale for children, neither the writing style nor the content felt childish to me at all.
Since then I’ve been wanting to read other stories by 新美 南吉. And because I’m also a sucker for cute art, this book that collects ごん狐 and four other of his short stories seems like a perfect choice for me!
Kyon, your typical high school student, has long given up his belief in the supernatural. However, upon meeting Haruhi Suzumiya, he quickly finds out that it is the supernatural that she is interested in; aliens, time travelers and espers among other things. When Haruhi laments about the lack of intriguing clubs around school, Kyon inspires Haruhi to form her own club. As a result, the SOS Brigade is formed, a club which specializes in all that is the supernatural.
Content Warnings
Might contain hard words although the words have been changed in the Tsubasa Bunko edition for making it easier to read
Reason(s) for nominating: I always wanted to read the original material, but it feels a bit daunting at my level, so I think this would be a nice way to test the waters and an entry point.
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Nominations List 
This series also shares an author with 
