Sharon Domier's blog

How are picture books “leveled” in Japan? I believe there are 2 main considerations (1) interest and (2) kanji used. This image shows the intended reading level for one of the books in the Kaidan ehon series. As you can see, the publisher deemed it appropriate for all reading levels.

It is possible to do an advanced search in many publishing websites (much easier than doing it with the online bookstores) and limit to ?? AND ?? in order to locate picture books that would be of possible interests to adults as well as young children. One excellent source for finding these materials would be using ehonnavi. Since the entire website is focussed on picture books, it is is a simple matter to click on ?? to get recommended picture books for adults.

If you check the back of the book or the age-appropriate reading guidelines on publisher websites, you will see a phrase like: ???????????????????????????. If you read to a child, 3 years and older, if they read to themselves, beginning of elementary school.

Generally, picture books are leveled like other books for children with the addition of the very young.
??????????? – baby. Often board books. Bright colors. very simple and repetitive. Vocabulary. Feelings.
?? (???) – very young. Gomi Taro ?? ?? ????????????The ???????series. One sentence per page in general.
?????????? – grades 1-2 In the case of picture books is a lot of overlap between ?? and ????, because it takes into account adults reading to children and children reading by themselves. The text is all or almost all hiragana, but the books might be longer. The Japanese translation of Frog and Toad is an example, as is Peter Rabbit. This level is the beginning of the transition from ?? to???? and might be counted in both groups.
?????????? – grades 3-4 picture books at this level have a lot more kanji, accompanied by furigana. There are a number of beautiful picture books that are picture book renditions of famous stories/tales that are tagged as appropriate for ???? and up. There are also a lot of informative picture books that are labeled this way.
?????????? – grades 5-6. At this level, there is less furigana, a lot more text included, and totally appropriate for adult Japanese L2 learners. Most of the picture books that I have seen are ???? and above, not ???? and above. I have to think some more about this.