🥳 Children's Book Club 📚 Next: 魔女の宅急便 1

I’ll open the poll at the end of the week (Fri/Sat), so if there are any books you want to nominate, get them in quick! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Title:

Available formats: physical / ebook / full furigana

Summary - Japanese

あれ? キミ、ふしぎアイテム博物館に用があるの?

悩みがある子の前に、博物館につながる扉はあらわれる。 扉の向こうは、心ときめく魅惑の空間! とっておきのアイテムがたくさん展示されてて、 謎めいた美しい館長・宝野ヤカタと、 元気いっぱいな助手のメイが出迎えてくれる。

どんなに難しい計算でも、答えをすぐ教えてくれる「計算鬼」、 過去をうつす「過去カメラ」、好きな人との縁を繋ぐ「縁ジェルちゃん」――。

どれも、すごく便利そうだけど、使う時には気をつけて。 良いことばかりが起こるとはかぎらないからね――。

Summary - English (DeepL)

What’s that? You want to go to the Museum of Mysterious Items?

The door leading to the museum appears in front of a child with a problem. Beyond the door is an enchanting and fascinating space! Many special items are on display, The mysterious and beautiful curator, Yakata Takarano, and her energetic assistant, Mei, are on hand to help, Yakata Hono, the enigmatic and beautiful curator, and her energetic assistant, Mei, welcome you.

The “Calculation Demon” will tell you the answer to even the most difficult calculations, The “Past Camera,” which captures the past, and “En-Geru-chan,” which connects you to the person you love.

They all sound very useful, but be careful when using them. Not all good things can happen to you.

Content Warnings

Not aware of any. Supposedly “scary” and the publisher recommends reading during morning for children so they don’t get nightmares, but that’s about it. Still aimed for 小学校中学年から

Reason(s) for nominating: Recently released, I usually like these Tsubasa Bunko that have the こわい話 tag

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BTW @bibliothecary, 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 (角川つばさ文庫) 「涼宮ハルヒ」シリーズ(角川つばさ文庫) | L36?? now has a natively link. Previusly the Tsubasa Bunko edition didn’t have one, and it redirected to the normal version.

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Great! I’ll update it. :grin:

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And also I’ll edit the nomination post, seems like the tsubasa bunko is in stock in Amazon for those who rather have physical

It has the wrong cover though, so take with a grain of salt, maybe is the wrong book.

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pretty sure it’s not actually the つばさ version. The ISBN is wrong. Should be: 4046310286

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Yeah just cross-referenced with my physical I bought in 2021, still the title is wrong, but the ISBN is a strong indication it might just be a title error, as Amazon uses ISBNs as ASIN for physical books.

Title:

Available formats: physical / ebook / full furigana

Summary - Japanese

第1巻の内容紹介: 昭和58年初夏。寒村・雛見沢村で、都会から引越してきた前原圭一は楽しい仲間に囲まれ充実の日々を送っていた。ところが……「嫌な事件だったね。…腕が一本、まだ見つかってないんだろ?」――かけがえのない日々に、惨劇の足音が忍び寄る。一時代を築いた傑作ホラーの金字塔がジュニア文庫に登場。さぁ、惨劇に挑め。 ※小・中学生に読みやすいよう総ルビ&イラスト満載のジュニア文庫として再編集したものです。 ※本書は、2000年発表の同人ゲーム『ひぐらしのなく頃に 鬼隠し編』のシナリオをもとに、著者である竜騎士07氏自らが全面改稿し、2007年に講談社BOX、2011年に星海社文庫より、小説として刊行されたものを、加筆修正のうえ双葉社ジュニア文庫化したものです。(2020年11月現在)

Summary - English (DeepL)

Introduction to Volume 1: Early summer of 1983. In the cold village of Hinamizawa, Keiichi Maehara, who had moved here from the city, was living a full life surrounded by happy friends. However, … “It was an unpleasant incident, wasn’t it? …You still haven’t found one of his arms, have you?” --The footsteps of tragedy creep up on these irreplaceable days. The golden age of horror masterpieces is now available in the Junior Bunko collection. Now, challenge the tragedy. This book has been re-edited as a junior bunko with full-illustrations and full-illustrations to make it easy to read for elementary and junior high school students. This book is based on the scenario of the doujin game “Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Onikakuroni-hen” published in 2000, which was completely revised by the author Ryuunishi 07 himself and published as a novel by Kodansha BOX in 2007 and Seikaisha Bunko in 2011. (As of November 2020)

Content Warnings

For what I have read around, is toned down version, but still possibly contains torture and murder.

Reason(s) for nominating: Found this on my last trip to Japan on a book-off. Didn’t know there was a Junior version of the light novels. There’s currently on-going in the VN club, so it might overlap for some, although there aren’t that many participants over the VN Club, for most it won’t be an issue.

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Title: 魔女の宅急便 1 | L25
Available formats: physical / ebook / audiobook

Summary - Japanese

ひとり立ちするために初めての街にやってきた13歳の魔女キキが、新しい街で始めた商売宅急便屋さん。相棒の黒猫ジジと喜び哀しみをともにしながら街の人たちに受け入れられるようになるまでの1年を描く。

Summary - English (DeepL)

Kiki, a 13-year-old witch who has come to her first town to be on her own, starts a business, a courier service, in her new town. The film depicts a year in which she and her black cat Gigi, her partner, share joys and sorrows as they become accepted by the people of the town.

Content Warnings

None known

Reason(s) for nominating: Often held up as the first Japanese book you should read (terrible advice, but I digress), I’ve had this on my shelf forever and started it a few times before. I love the movie and would like to actually get through the book.

5 Likes

I’ve noticed that the Korean version is on Storytel. So, about the level, do you think it would still be L25 without accounting for the lack of kanji that I saw a lot of people mentionning, or if it’s relatively simple and that’s the thing that bumps its level up? I’m wondering if I should try to listen to this audiobook, but that’s just not gonna go well if it’s actually L25 and I can’t use the text as a reference, as my listening comprehension is still behind my reading comprehension level.

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I remember having the most trouble with long sentences and a little bit of vocabulary around herbs or potion making or something like that. Gut feeling I’d say it’s about the level of また、同じ夢を見ていた | L25, so yeah, it’s probably a 24-25.

I just flipped through my book and mine has kanji… unless you mean furigana which I did notice it didn’t have.

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Yep, that’s what I meant. Definitely above my listening level for audiobooks then. Thanks!

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children's nomination

神獣たちのふしぎな力 紫禁城の秘密のともだち: 神獣たちのふしぎな力 紫禁城の秘密のともだち | L20??
Available formats: physical / full furigana

Summary - Japanese

北京の広大な城、紫禁城を舞台にくりひろげられる、伝説の神獣たちと小学4年生の女の子、小雨(シャオユウ)の物語。
お母さんが紫禁城で働いている関係で、放課後は毎日のように紫禁城ですごす小雨。紫禁城にいる動物たちとは大の仲良し。
ある日、きれいな石のイヤリングをひろってから、小雨の耳に、いつも餌をやっていた野良猫の梨花(リーファー)の言葉が聞こえるようになって……。

中国に伝わる龍や鳳凰、ふしぎな神獣たちもたくさん登場して、それぞれと冒険がはじまります。紫禁城の宝物や建物の不思議

Summary - English

The story of a fourth-grade girl, Xiaoyu, and the legendary gods and beasts of the Forbidden City, a vast castle in Beijing.
Because her mother works in the Forbidden City, Xiaoyu spends every day after school in the Forbidden City. She is good friends with the animals in the Forbidden City.
One day, after she finds a pair of beautiful stone earrings, she begins to hear the words of Lihua, a stray cat that she has always fed. …

Many Chinese dragons, phoenixes, and mysterious gods and beasts also make appearances, and the adventure begins with each of them. Treasures and building wonders of the Forbidden City

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Content Warnings

unknown

Reason(s) for nominating: I bought this book on a shopping spree at Tsutaya Books last year, then read the first chapter or two on the plane on the way home! I really enjoyed it, and would love to finish reading it. It’s translated from Chinese, so probably great practice for anyone interested in reading China-inspired settings. (Such as 薬屋のひとりごと.) Also it has very fun illustrations.

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What a cute cover! :smiling_face:

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It’s time to vote!

Have a look at the nominations, and vote for up to 5 books below. The poll will be open for just over a week. :slightly_smiling_face:

Which book would you like to read?
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  • 0c275e52e57ca076156048f8e3f0f064b6fea04a 手ぶくろを買いに/ごんぎつね 10歳までに読みたい日本名作
  • 7 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱
  • image 二分間の冒険
  • image 金の国 水の国
  • 0b764656-605a-4b9a-8911-b4a01943a26c 四つ子ぐらし 1 ひみつの姉妹生活、スタート!
  • 9 ふしぎな声のする町で: ものだま探偵団
  • image 星の王子さま
  • 815ef4fe-d683-44f8-96d4-fa18cb8a303e ふしぎアイテム博物館 変身手紙・過去カメラ ほか
  • a8be506e-0d33-4c11-92e4-24984889adb8 ひぐらしのなく頃に 第一話 鬼隠し編 上
  • 13 魔女の宅急便 1
  • children's nomination 神獣たちのふしぎな力 紫禁城の秘密のともだち
0 voters
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There are more that I would really love to read(!), but I’m restricting myself to voting for books that I already own for the moment. Sorry for being boring. :joy:

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Likewise there are several I’m interested in but I’ve got to get my reading and 積ん読piles under control before joining another club! I’m gonna sit this one out but I’m watching :eyes:

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We have our winner! :partying_face:

download

The home thread will be up shortly where we can decide the reading schedule and pace. :slightly_smiling_face:

ETA:

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Request: could you put a link to the most recent nomination list in the OP?

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Done! :smile:

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