Japanese Reader Collection Volume 2: Momotaro, the Peach Boy

Learn Japanese with Stories #2

by Clay Boutwell, Yumi Boutwell, C.J. Martin (Illustrator)

Read Real Japanese with Free MP3s ** Recommended for Beginners of Japanese ** Read the most famous Japanese fairy tale in real Japanese! Every line and every word is explained and defined. BONUS! We are also including the entire Usagi to Kame story (The Tortoise and the Hare) also with every word explained and defined. MP3s Included at no extra charge are two MP3s of both stories. One is read at the normal speed and the other at a slow, easy to follow speed. You will find the link to download the MP3s on the last page. THE STORY Momotaro is a boy born from a peach (momo) who grows up to be a strong, brave man. Oni (ogres) are attacking the village. The villagers beg their hero, Momotaro, to purge their lands of the evil Oni. He sets off with aid from three unusual allies. Usagi to Kame (The Tortoise and the Hare) is about... well, you know. ABOUT THIS BOOK This book contains several versions of both stories. First, we have the story broken down line by line with every vocabulary word defined and explained. Next, we go through major grammatical patterns found in the story. After that, read the story with no English and in natural Japanese (kanji with furigana included). Lastly, we are including a simple English translation, which should be avoided until you are sure you understand the story or find it too difficult to figure out on your own. You may want to try to read the story either in natural Japanese first. Or if you are a beginner, it may be better to go through the vocabulary first. Any way you do it, this ebook offers several ways to read, listen, and learn. FOR BEGINNERS Momotaro is designed for those new to Japanese. We recommend learning hiragana first, but we are also including romaji so you can be sure you are reading with the correct pronunciation.

Genres: Japanese Literature, Fiction, Language, Ebooks

93 pages, Paperback

First published July 12, 2012

Reviews

[Ritsumei · Rating 3 out of 5]

The actual folk tales in this book are nice. I enjoyed reading about Momotaro, and the retelling of the Tortise and the Hare was nice, though I was a little bummed that they hadn't included another Japanese folk tale. But it was still good reading practice. However, they made a couple changes to their format that are unfortunate. First, they increased the amount of romaji. In addition to including it in the running gloss like they did in the first volume (which didn't bother me), they also put romaji right at the top of each page, where you can't help but see it; its difficult to ignore. This is unfortunate because romaji is a crutch for new learners: it has no place in natural Japanese, and should be discarded as quickly as possible. But it's right there, nearly unavoidable, and this will slow down the process of gaining fluency. The second thing is that the authors took away the furigana, skipping directly from hiragana with spaces to natural Japanese without the intermediate step. For a language learner trying to learn new words in the process of reading these books -which is who these are marketed to- this is a big jump, and skipping the intermediate step makes things unnecessarily difficult. There is a new grammar section, which is a nice addition: in addition to the running gloss, there's grammar notes at the end, before the hiragana and natural Japanese versions. This is really nice. Overall, I still think these are good stories, but I'm hoping that some of the changes they walk back in future volumes.

[Oji Kenobi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun way to learn

Well, now I'm on the mailing list for Boutwell et. al. Happy to have stumbled on a method I used for learning other languages: start by reading children's stories then listen to a native read. If I read stories that children hear, I get a peek at the culture at the same time I build vocabulary. AND, when I read along with repeated plays of the mp3s, I slowly, (or maybe even どんどん), acquire some speaking skills. Not ready yet for 雪国, but with help from Momotaro and friends, I'll get there!

[Jacklynn Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it quite a bit, it's a simple and short story but if your studying Japanese it's really a good study tool! I found it a great way to put into practice the Hiragana I've learned and entertaining as well.

[Stuart Piper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Technically the first book I’ve ever read in Japanese. Not quite: there’s audio to follow along and step by step translation. But the first move towards my ultimate goal of reading Murakami and other contemporary Japanese literature in its original language 🇯🇵. I’m next moving on to Breaking into Japanese Literature by Giles Murray and Read Real Japanese edited by Michael Emmerich, while trying to decipher a page each day of Murakami’s brand new novel with the help of Kindle’s translation dictionary.

(🇯🇵I’m getting grammar from NativShark, Japanese from Zero and Genki, Kanji from WaniKani and immersion by LanguageReactor for Netflix/YouTube, SRS from Anki & Memrise, and I’m loving the various bilingual podcasts now available too.)

Currently with reading I’m super slow. But this book was a great start, I highly recommend.

[Alfredo Olguin · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a returning (a quite long break) Japanese student I found this book great. The book's material allows you to follow two stories and at the same time you are learning basic Japanese vocabulary.

[Ánder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really nice book for those who are just beginning in the study of Japanese.

PROS: As long as you are able to read Hiragana and Katakana, this book has everything you need to understand the text. From grammatical notes per sentence, to full Kanji text, it covers different levels of beginners in Japanese language. Furthermore, the book is written in a progressive form, so that difficulty increases as you advance through it. Lastly, it also includes the story of the tortoise and the hare, I do not know why is not advertised since it takes about half of the book’s length.

CONS: There is a significant number of format errors (mainly lack of spaces between words). Though this does not radically affect comprehension, it does disappoint; hopefully there will be an update with better edition.

CONCLUSION: If you are just starting in Japanese language and would like to have a story to read at your level, this is a good option. You can also get several stories with similar format from the same publishers.