Author's posts

EL本棚紹介(105) Magic Treehouse #13: Vacation Under the Volcano

[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.] _______ The English Lounge has the whole Magic Treehouse series, and you may have even read some of these books in Japanese when you were in elementary school. In each book, two children named Jack and Annie go on an adventure through …

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EL本棚紹介(104) Long-ago Stories of Japan, vol. 1, by Carla Valentine

[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.] _______ “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 …

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EL本棚紹介(103) Say WhAt? The Weird and Mysterious Journey of the English Language, by Gena K. Gorrell

[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.] _______ This book has a very boring cover, but we have a saying in English: “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Say WhAt is a very easy to approach book about the history of the English language. It contains many pictures, …

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EL本棚紹介(102) Scholastic Children’s Thesaurus

[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.] _______ I do not like recommending “children’s books” on this blog, because most of you are in college. However, Scholastic’s Children’s Thesaurus is a really useful book for learning difficult vocabulary. A thesaurus (類語辞典) contains words like a dictionary; however, it organizes …

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EL本棚紹介(101) The Nocturnals: The Mysterious Abductions, by Tracey Hecht

[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.] _______ When you think of stories about animals, what do you think of? Dogs and cats? Maybe birds, or even tanuki? Well, The Nocturnals is a very different book. The main characters are all animals, but interesting animals you may not have …

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EL Game Series (09): “Visual Eyes”

[Welcome to the EL game series. These posts are all short introductions to games you can play in the EL. Because learning to play games in English can take a long time, some posts will explain how to play simple versions of games. Other posts tell you why you should use games to practice English. You can also use the tags to find other posts you might be interested in.] (ELゲーム連載へようこそ。このコラムはELで遊べるボードゲームやカードゲームを紹介します。本来のやり方通りにやってしまうと、遊ぶまでの時間が大変かかるかもしれないので、ある投稿では簡単な遊びの工夫が紹介されます。ほかの投稿ではなぜゲームで英語を勉強するのがよいかが説明されます。投稿のタグを使ってほかに興味ありそうなポストを見つけられます。) _______ This game is all about being creative with English. The box is full of dice with strange pictures on each side. It’s your job to use the pictures to make words. The basics: Roll all of the dice …

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EL本棚紹介(100) Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney

[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.] _______ Were you a wimpy kid in middle school? Wimpy kids are not the strongest, smartest, or most popular…they are just “normal.” That is what makes Diary of a Wimpy Kid (グレッグのダメ日記) so interesting. Greg, the main character, is not a hero; …

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EL Game Series (08): “Password”

[Welcome to the EL game series. These posts are all short introductions to games you can play in the EL. Because learning to play games in English can take a long time, some posts will explain how to play simple versions of games. Other posts tell you why you should use games to practice English. You can also use the tags to find other posts you might be interested in.] (ELゲーム連載へようこそ。このコラムはELで遊べるボードゲームやカードゲームを紹介します。本来のやり方通りにやってしまうと、遊ぶまでの時間が大変かかるかもしれないので、ある投稿では簡単な遊びの工夫が紹介されます。ほかの投稿ではなぜゲームで英語を勉強するのがよいかが説明されます。投稿のタグを使ってほかに興味ありそうなポストを見つけられます。) _______ This is about as simple as a word game can get: I’m thinking of a word, and you have to guess it. That’s really almost all there is to it. The basics: One person takes a word card …

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EL本棚紹介(99) The Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green

[Welcome to the EL Book Introductions series. These posts are all short (

Opening Week, April 2025

We will have orientation sessions every day from Monday April 14 to Friday April 18. Please stop by to learn about the English Lounge!