What about
it is for kids, but it has cats and a book club on WK (and people seemed to enjoy it anyway)
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I’ve got this and the second one にゃんにゃん探偵団 2. I could re-read them since there was bits I was unsure of the first time round 
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And indeed the main edition is on my list, but it’s L33 compared to the easier edition’s L20, which firmly out of my reach for at least another year or three. Unless one of those ratings is massively wrong, I assume there’s a fair amount of language and story simplification going on. (And I like furigana and cute pictures.)
It’s L23: ごんぎつね (おはなし名作絵本 1) | L23.
There’s also a book containing both of these stories and more by the same author: 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 | L22. I haven’t read it yet, but I’m looking forward to it!
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Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. I do own most of the series as ebooks. I didn’t know if they had made a “stories for children” spin-off or if it was just a re-publishing thing. Thanks!
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I think I tried to read this one but couldn’t so I’ve got it saved for later in a note taking app.
This looks quite good, unfortunately I don’t seem to be able to get it from amazon UK atm or my other sources but I’ll add it to the list, thanks
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That sounds a bit too high for 赤川次郎, but I haven’t read that series, so I’m not sure. Cute pictures are nice anyway.
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It has 89 gradings by 7 users, so I’d assume it’s accurate enough at least: 三毛猫ホームズの推理 | L33 - and obviously a far cry from the the children’s edition and from @CatDQ’s requirements. But yeah, I’m looking forward to reading it one day 
And maybe I’ll even get the children’s edition first at some point, once I can comfortably read L20 books without digital assistence (i.e. lookups on mouse hover).
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I don’t think they’re on Natively but some of the easiest novels I know of (on par with Magic Treehouse) are the 怪談レストラン series and some of them are actually available - though REALLY expensive - on Amazon.co.uk.
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They are quite fun, but not worth full price, imo. However, they can be picked up really cheaply (ie. 100 Yen per book) in pretty much any bookoff or via yahoo auctions, etc.
If you know someone in Japan or use a forwarding service, I’d recommend going that route. (I’d recommend skipping the second volume, though 怪談レストラン 2 化け猫レストラン | L22 . Lots of animal cruelty and death for no reason. 
)
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I’ve only read one of the calico cat series but it really was harder than his usual books. The first book in the series is his first book published and you could tell he was figuring out his style. Lots of trying out new words and turns of phrase, a lot of flourish not present in his other works.
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I took a look at the first book and within like the first page he uses kanji for イライラ that’s イライラing me. 
It does come with furigana, though… also 鍵 got furigana’d which is odd… but probably it wasn’t a 常用漢字 at that time? 
Edit: Indeed. 鍵 was only added in the 2010 revision. 
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I don’t think there’s rhyme or reason to why words get furigana or not sometimes 
But yeah, it’s also an older book when some kanji usage was still fading out. It’s not as intense as something like 天使の傷痕 | L33 (1960s - I put all the fun kanji in my review 
) but it’s definitely got some more unusual ones that wouldn’t have been unusual back then (late 70s).
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ngl, while it makes reading easier, I am also kinda grieving the change in the language. Even just between my uni days and today. 
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ふたごの魔法つかい (series) | L22?? is the series that got me going with reading. They’re chapter books, each with a different story about a child’s encounter with the two witches, generally involving travel to some other world where they have an (often trippy) adventure.
This publishing imprint has a lot of stuff at a similar level, though this is the only series I found on it that I thought was actually fun to read as an adult.
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Thanks, I found a few on amazon uk so ordered them. I think they’re out of order though as some of them were very expensive. I don’t think that should matter though if it’s individual stories about their adventures.
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My general entry recc;
めしぬま is a funny one I recommend
Every chapter is 10 pages max and the language is really simple, some chapters have barely any text so it’s really idealwhen you want to read but don’t feel like putting too much effort or when you’re busy and it’s an in-between reading
Personally I also felt it helping me with my reading ability because the amount of new words I’m getting exposed to suddenly is very small and more repetitive so I can suddenly recall them better and read them quicker
For the dragon entry; ルリドラゴン
Though some vocab is on the more urban one so not necessarily by the book it’s easy grammar and the rest of the vocab is pretty light, there’s also furigana for everything.
For the cat entry; 猫田のことが気になって仕方ない。
This is a Shoujo manga that is super adorable, simple and fun to read.
It’s not exactly a cat but a guy with a cat head so that’s a funny plus.
You talked yotsuba and as a fellow who like you, didn’t really connect with it (even in it’s English form when I read it once upon a time) I would like to recommend my personal japanese reading starter (which includes cats as a theme!) 東京ミュウミュウ (it’s a famous enough series so I will leave it at that )
Bonus recc;
ニャイト・オフ・ザ・リビングキャット
Adding this as a bonus since it’s a lot more difficult then the other recs (at least for me)
The reason I’m recommending this anyway is because if you’re a cat lover it’s a must read and helped me get “back into it” several times because it’s so much fun to read
If you’re into zombie stories this will be even funnier but simply being a cat lover with the cat fun facts that cat lovers have will be enough for you to laugh like hell at some of these panels
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My brain skipped the “no manga” part I apologize
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Yeah, reading order doesn’t matter - each book has completely different protagonists. On Amazon Japan they go for 1 yen each, so if you feel the urge to read more it’s probably better to jump through the remailer hoops than to spend a lot of money.
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Idk any novels at that level, but of the manga I’ve read, I think these are great:
- はなにあらし - a really wholesome high school yuri series. Characters have a healthy relationship, and avoid cliches
- ルリドラゴン - a girl wakes up one day to suddenly discover she grew dragon horns overnight. Really funny and also has a voice comic playlist
- 今日から始める幼なじみ 1 - cute, silly romance about middle school kids playing out 幼馴染 tropes. The romance part is slow
- ふらいんぐうぃっち - iyashikei about a witch who’s gone off to live at her relatives’ for a year. Pacing is very easy going, so idk how motivating it will be. Also has a good anime adaptation
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If you want to suggest manga, feel free. It’s just that I prefer novels and some manga aren’t always safe for work, or I get weird looks from my co-workers. I’m also not really up for reading manga atm but if you have suggestions, I can always add them to my ever growing list/ collection
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