Japanese Tadoku Books by Students
Smith College Tadoku Project
この本はとても面白いと思います！ちょっと長くて、難しじゃないです。ジョンさんは女の人に飛行機で会ったから、とてもロマンチックですよ。歌舞伎座のストーリーも楽しかったです。
This is a fun story about John and his new female friend who met him in airplane. They became friends because of a coincidence, and they went to a Kabuki theatre but encountered another accident. It’s very funny. I recommend this book.
この本は楽しかったと思います。話しが面白かったと思います。私は早く読んで、わらいました。でも、文はとてもみじかくて、かんたんで、私は難しい文がほしいでした。
I would recommend this book. The kanji were very simple, and all of them had furigana, so there shouldn’t be any problems on that front. The story itself was light and funny. Give it a whirl!
この本はとてもおもしろいです。着物のれきしがすきです。着物を着る方法はすごく有用です。絵はとてもきれいですよ。
I would recommend this book. It has some really interesting history about kimonos, instructions for wearing a kimono, and talks about several occasions on which kimonos are most often worn in modern Japanese culture. If you are interested in Japanese culture or clothing, you might like this book. It was very easy to read and contained many of the vocabulary words from the textbook, though the names of the eras tripped me up at first. Definitely good for a beginner.
-シエラ
もともと、舌切り雀のお話を読んだことありますが、これとちょっと違います。太宰治の本「お伽草紙」で「舌切雀」を読みました。でも、このバーションは優しいです。「舌切り雀」は日本のとても有名な物語です、ぜひ読みましょう。
This book is a famous folktale in Japan about a old man and a sparrow. Originally, I read another version of this story in a book called お伽草紙 by Dazai Osamu. I don’t know which one is the correct version, but this one is less cruel. I recommend this book if you want to know more about traditional Japanese folktales.
’バスの中でジヨンさん’の本ははやいとやさしいでした。プロト(plot)はありませんでした。でも、ストリはつまらなくなかったです。
This book contains two stories of Jon-san’s misadventures on the bus. They are not particularity interesting but also not to hard to translate, so a good book for a quick read.
スーラ デミア
この本はとてもよかったです。長くなくておもしろいでした。ほんは四さつがあります。一さつは星をとるです、二さつはだれがはい？です、三さつお金がありませんです、四さつは店は大変？です。しょうせつの中で店は大変？がいちばん好きでした。読んでください。
I really liked this book. I found myself having to look up a good number of words, but it also had a lot of vocab we’ve learned, which was nice. I like that it was broken up into four separate stories because it allowed me to take breaks from the reading without having to worry about forgetting something. I would definitely recommend it to other Japanese students!
この本はちょっとつまらないと思います。鈴木正雄さんもつまらなってですが、鈴木正雄さんのおばあさんはおもしろいです。びっくりするのがエンディングがあります。I think that this book is a little boring. Suzuki-san, the main character, is also boring, but his grandmother is interesting. This book has a surprising ending.
Overall, this book wasn’t that interesting to me. A large part of it simply focuses on all the stops and who gets on, but there are definitely some interesting parts. The ending itself is a big surprise, but I wouldn’t say it makes up for the monotony of the rest of the book.
その本は面白いとかなしいと思います。主人公は犬の名前はハチです。ハチのものがたりは真のものがたりだから、本の後ろで、ハチのしゃしんがあります！すごくかわいいです。This book is interesting but sad. It is the true story of a dog named Hachi, and there’s even a photo of the real Hachi (and his owner) in the back!
I would definitely recommend this book to classmates. The illustrations are beautiful, and the story and kanji are fairly easy to understand. Also, it’s based on a real story! If you love dogs, you will especially like this book.
いい本ですよ。読んでください！日本のおまつりを勉強します。たとえば、短冊でおねがいを書きて、ささをおきました。あとで花火をみたり、かき氷を食べたりします。このものがたりはとてもたのしくて、かっこいいいろがあります。
This is a great book. Please read if you can! It teaches about Japanese festivals and traditions. Such as writing a wish on card and hanging it on a bamboo leaf. In the book they also saw fireworks, and ate shaved ice. This story is very fun, and it has cool colors.
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Japanese festival and traditions. Also represents family setting, also what host families are like. A lot of the words in this book are words we mostly know, the kanji is also very easy to read. 
この本をみって、寿司をたべたいです。寿司の食べ方や作り方があります。寿司の歴史もあります。色々絵画と魚の写真もあります。とても面白いと思います。
I really like this book because it introduced Sushi in every dimension. Sushi’s history, how to make sushi and different kinds of sushi are all demonstrated here. There are a lot of pretty illustrations and drawings of sushi. I highly recommend reading this book with a full stomach otherwise you would become really hungry by craving all kinds of sushi.