I have a complaint – Japanese Children’s book

ふまんがあります!

My up and down journey to learn Japanese continues. Reading remains one of the most difficult aspects of me learning Japanese, so I try to find material to read as often as I can. The problem is that I struggle to remain interested in what I am reading if it’s not interesting, but I think I have found a series of books from a Japanese author named Yoshitake Shinsuke that will keep me reading at my level for a long time.

I have a complaint - Japanese Children's book review

about ふまんがあります

The 1st I read form him was ふまんがあります or “I have a complaint“. It’s about a little girl who constantly confronts her dad with problems or questions and the father then has to respond. The kicker is that the father’s responses are always over the top but her young impressionable mind doesn’t allow her to see through his outlandish responses so she tries again with a new ふまんがあります statement or question.

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Why I like it

I really like the book (and hopefully more from this author) because:

  • it is written in Hiragana and Katakana
  • uses everyday words and phrases to help expand the reader’s vocabulary
  • simply grammar and short sentences
  • beautifully illustrated
  • hilarious story and drawings

The book is definitely targeted at children but adults can definitely enjoy the humour. These books also fit into my Japanese learning philosophy of learning the language as Japanese people do over time. The Unko Kanji books are also quite helpful and I will make a followup post on those soon.

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More please!

It seems Yoshitake Shinsuke is a rising star in the world of children’s books and he has a whole series of books that I hope to enjoy one by one (many translated into multiple languages). I’m already unto my second book from him titled りんごかもしれない (“This might be an Apple”). Learning Japanese like me? check out his books – fortunately, my town library seems to have quite a few so I will be reading and sharing them for a while so for now ふまんがありません!

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An example of the hilarious writing and excellent illustrations
An example of the hilarious writing and excellent illustrations