[Welcome to the EL Book Introductions series. These posts are all short (<180 words) introductions/reviews of books in the EL library. They focus on telling you what we think will be interesting for you, a college student and English learner, so use them to help you find the right book for you. You can also use the tags to find books about topics you might be interested in.]
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“Momotaro,” “the Crane Gives Back,” “Kachi Kachi Mountain”…these are the first three stories in Long-ago Stories of Japan. Each of these folktales is very short, just 15-20 pages including pictures. Long-ago Stories of Japan is an excellent book for your Extensive Reading (多読) practice. Extensive Reading means reading a lot of easy English…but “easy” can be many different things. In this case, the sentences are not too long and the vocabulary is not too difficult. However, I think the story content is more important: Long-ago Stories of Japan is easy to read because you probably already know the stories in Japanese. Therefore, even though the Yomiyasusa Level (3.0-3.6) sounds difficult, I think this book is easier to read than that.
There are many other books in the “Ladder Series” in the English Lounge about Japan, so find something interesting to read. The letters are big and easy to read, and each story starts with a list of characters and important vocabulary words.
My two cents: While the stories are fun and easy to read, there are some very strange translations from Japanese to English. In English, it is confusing to read a monkey say “key, key” or for a bird to say “whirr.” However, if you can ignore those small things, I can easily recommend this book.
