This site reviews the Japanese children’s books that my bilingual kids read, from the perspective of a native English speaker dad.
If you are bringing up your children in a bilingual environment, or you are learning Japanese, or your children are learning Japanese, and you want some ideas for Japanese children’s level books, this site might be for you.
At the time of starting this site, my two boys are aged 6 and 3. While they’ve always lived in Australia, we’ve raised them bilingually from birth. Basically we’re a “One-parent-one-language” household, but I still sometimes read to them them in Japanese – at least while my Japanese is still better than theirs! That situation will no doubt reverse soon.
One of the joys I’ve discovered raising my kids bilingually as a native English speaker is Japanese picture books. From my time living in Japan, I knew that Japanese people can be voracious readers, but I wasn’t ready for the great richness of content of the Japanese children’s books that we’ve collected as part of our bilingual project. I’ve enjoyed their books as much as the kids.
Maybe my enjoyment has came from never having previously learned children’s level Japanese. I learned more grown-up language, and grammar, and sentence structure. I dealt with business communications, which is very different to the way kids speak and are taught. I once had a skiing lesson in Japan, and as a complete beginner, found myself as the only adult in a class of three or four other primary school kids. That was funny enough, but I couldn’t understand some of what the instructor was saying, because he was using the level of language for the kids to understand. I’m still not sure what he made of me. If he’d written it down in a polite business email, I’d probably be a much better skier.
Anyway, now my kids are getting bigger, they are growing out of their earlier books. It’s time to write up my thoughts and memories on some of these books for posterity. You’ll see that my boys love transport (乗り物) and the books are going to reflect this! I can only but review the books that are on the bookshelf.
I suspect it’s a very niche demographic – English speakers who read Japanese language books to their children – but if that’s you, or if you are a student of Japanese language, and you want some book recommendations, then maybe this site is also for you.
Oh, and I might also add in some posts on adult books about Japan that I read from time to time.
Why Ōkii Magoi 大きい真鯉?
One of the first Japanese traditional songs your kids will learn, particularly for Children’s Day (子供の日 Kodomo no Hi) on 5th May, is Koinobori, a song about the carp streamers seen fluttering all over Japan at that time of year.
屋根より高い鯉のぼりYane yori takai koi nobori
大きい真鯉はお父さん Ōkii magoi wa otō-san
小さい緋鯉は子供たち Chiisai higoi wa kodomo-tachi
面白そうに泳いでる Omoshiro-sō ni oyoideru
In the second line of the song, the big black fish, the “ōkii magoi“, is the dad. That’s me – the father of two Japanese-Australian bilingual boys. And therefore, the name of this site.
In the third line, the children are the “chiisai higoi” or small red carp. And, higher than the roof (first line), they all swim along happily in the sky (last line).
About the rating system
I’ve used a rating system of 1 to 5 koi-nobori () for each book, based on how much the kids and I enjoyed it. The rating is entirely subjective and not based on any quantitative criteria. It’s also based on the level of enjoyment the book gave when it was age-appropriate. Of course my 6 year old isn’t gong to enjoy baby books any more, and my 3 year old isn’t going to enjoy books that are still too advanced for him.
About the domain name
The purists among you will quickly note that the domain name for this site might more accurately be represented in Romaji as “ookiimagoi” (おおきいまごい). If you’re interested in this site, I assume you are likely to know at least a little bit of Japanese, so representing it that way might not be so controversial for you. But I also anticipate that non-Japanese speaking readers might come through here from time to time, and if they see “ookiimagoi”, you just know that the pronunciation is going to be butchered, right? A domain name containing a macron over the O (like this: ō) to show an elongated vowel sound is maybe technically possible (?), but nobody is going to type that. Better to compromise, I thought.