My First Book of Japanese Words: An ABC Rhyming Book Hardcover – Picture Book, December 31, 2013

I bought this book for my North American bosses whose Japanese wives recently had their first children. It caught my eye for the ABC aspect and lovely watercolor illustrations; however, this book turned out to be even more of a gem than I'd originally thought, with its clever rhyming making the cultural and linguistic tidbits even more catchy for readers young and old. Having given birth to our child in Japan, my husband and I plan to buy a copy for his bookcase now in the U.S.

Love this book! Fun for adults, also, who are new to Japanese! The only confusion is the ABC aspect. Japanese doesnt have 26 "letters" used in their "alphabet". So there's a disclaimer, on say the X page, giving the Japanese word for xylophone (which, incidentally, is spelled incorrectly as xyolphone). So X is for Mokkin. My 10 year old granddaughter looked puzzled when I explained this. My 30 year old daughter was in great delight when we read about T is for TANUKI- a raccoon dog that lives in Japan. (Her favorite author, Robbins, has a book that features an imaginary tanuki.) The artwork is excellent, so gentle and quiet, just like I picture nature and homes in Japan.

Nice pics, phonetic pronunciation (not in IPA though), and useful words. This was a gift and they loved it.

Very nice illustrations and "mood" to the book. Each Japanese word is placed in a little rhyme to help recall the new word. Some pages have a little side note, with additional information. The written format is a bit odd, in that the side notes are very small print (possibly because larger print would take up too much space & impact the illustrations). But the side note info is valuable. Overall it is a very charming little book to introduce a child to Japanese language and aspects of Japanese culture.

My First Book of Japanese Words will be a wonderful addition to your child's library. Simple rhymes describe activities familiar to children around the world. The delightful illustrations complement each rhyme with touching scenes of life through the eyes of a child.Michelle Brown has masterfully infused simple cultural notations where needed to enrich the readers insight to the Japanese way of life. Aya Padron has once again captured the sweet innocence of children in her beautiful illustrations of one child's imaginative perspective of the world around him.This book will spark your child's curiosity about the cultural differences of children living in other parts of the world. I highly recommend it!

We love this sweet boom. We learned some things about Japanese culture and this a beautiful intro to some new words. We are a Waldorf family and don’t have a classic education approach and yet this book met our need for Japanese vocabulary, wonder and beauty, for my daughter who has Japanese roots. Thanks!

We bought this for our toddler, and she has all of the Japanese words memorized now. She loves looking at these pictures, and so do I. A really nice combination of language learning and culture learning

This was a gift for my granddaughter who resides in another state. I hope she will like it and find it educational.