As we’ve been studying Japan, I discovered that I really couldn’t find a good list of children’s books about Japan. So I wanted to share with you this list that I’ve created… it’s compiled mostly via reviews and recommendations on Amazon, but also from our own experience. I also wanted to include books that showed more of the culture of the country, via story, rather than non-fiction books.
Children’s books:
Hachiko: The True Story of a Loyal Dog
Peach Boy and other Japanese Children’s Favorite Stories
The Funny Little Woman (or link to the audio version) – my favorite!
Chapter books for older children
Haiku poetry
Grass Sandals: The Travels of Basho
Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku
Guyku: A year of Haiku for Boys – this isn’t a traditional Japanese haiku book, but it does an AMAZING job of using haiku in a way that appeals to boys!
American/Japanese children connections 
(Americans that have Japanese family, moving to US from Japan, moving to Japan from US)
Finally, here’s some great books that teach more about Japanese culture in a hands-on way!
Haiku (Asian Arts and Crafts for Kids)
Tea Ceremony (Asian Arts and Crafts for Kids)
Origami Activities (Asian Arts and Crafts for Kids)
Do you have a favorite book that can be used to study Japan? Share it with us!
… also, don’t forget to check out yesterday’s post on our Japanese dish, or this great linky via Glittering Muffins that includes a lot of resources and ideas for Japan.
(Note: books are linked to my Amazon affiliate account. The minutely small amount of money off of these links go to help our family purchase curriculum for the upcoming year. Thanks for supporting us on our journey!)
If this is your first time visiting Montessori Tidbits, don’t miss the great activities and ideas that are shared on our Facebook page and G+ profile!
12 comments:
I love this!!!! Thank you so much for sharing!:) I love to teach kids about culture through quality children's literature. I'll bring this list to the library next this week and see how many I can find. If you'd ever like to write a guest post on our site our collaborate somehow in a project, I love finding like-minded educators and parents who hope to teach kids about the world and its cultures:).
Great collection of books, thanks for sharing :)
Yes - Japanese Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins and it's free on the internet.
http://highhillhomeschool.blogspot.com/2012/02/twins-books-lucy-fitch-perkins.html
Great suggestion, Jmommymom!
Thanks for sharing this list Leann!
You've got to add Wabi Sabi! It's a great book about the Japanese culture and Haiku. It was nominated for the CA Young Readers Medal - Picture Books for Older Readers this year. A fellow teacher who lived in Japan for years fell in love with this book when I read it to his 6th graders. He bought a copy for each of his nieces and nephews!
I hope you find some of these books, Becky! The ones we've read are adorable! Please share back what you think, after you've read a few!
Library Girl, it looks delightful! I'll definitely see if I can find it. Thanks for the recommendation!
Thank you so much for putting this together! My daughter and I really enjoy learning about other places through stories and non fiction books. Can't wait to check these all out!
I am impressed with such a collection of stories! It is wonderful for children in other lands to have glimpses of life far away from themselves. Teaches them to be more tolerant of differences in other kids. Thanks for linking in to the Kid Lit Blog Hop!
Thanks for this great list, Leann! We're studying Ancient Japan this week in Classical Conversations, and I've not had much luck AT ALL finding related books. :) This list looks AMAZING!!!!!!!
Thanks for this list, Leann! We're studying Ancient Japan this week at Classical Conversations, and I've not had much luck AT ALL finding good resources for kids books. :) Can't wait to read some of these!
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