Welcome to the Children’s Novel Club!
What’s this?
This is a book club for novels aimed at older children, known as ‘middle-grade’ novels in the English publishing world. We’ll read books together and comment on the story or help each other out with grammar and vocabulary.
This club is inspired by the Children’s Book Club on the Natively forums.
Who can join?
This club is intended as a bridge between the BBC (reads mainly manga) and the IBC (reads books for adults at a slower pace). If you’ve read some manga before, but want to try reading a novel, this is the club for you! Those who are advanced readers and simply enjoy children’s novels are also welcome to read along with us.
Level and Pacing
We will read children’s novels between L19-L26 on Natively, at a pace of 10-20 pages per week. Pacing will be discussed and voted on in more detail in the main thread for each book.
Are Light Novels allowed?
Light Novels might be allowed depending on content and difficulty. This club is intended mainly for books aimed at middle schoolers, but if you think an easy light novel would be a great fit for this club, feel free to suggest it and we can discuss the nomination. If a light novel is too difficult or has more adult themes, it may be requested that the nomination is moved to the IBC.
Furigana?
Many children’s book imprints have full furigana, like the aoitori bunko books. Otherwise, they will have partial furigana, and only include easier kanji (up to, for example, grade 3 or 4 kanji taught to Japanese schoolchildren).
Children’s Book Publishers
| Publishing Imprint | Japanese | Book Colour | Website | Amazon Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kadokawa Tsubasa Bunko | 角川つばさ文庫 | green | 角川つばさ文庫 | Amazon JP |
| Kodansha Aoitori Bunko | 講談社青い鳥文庫 | blue | 講談社青い鳥文 | Amazon JP |
| Shueisha Mirai Bunko | 集英社みらい文庫 | yellow | 集英社みらい文庫 | Amazon JP |
| Poplar Kimi Novel | ポプラキミノベル | blue & yellow | ポプラキミノベル | Amazon JP |
| Wild Strawberry Junior Bunko | 野いちごジュニア文庫 | pink | 野いちごジュニア文庫* | Amazon JP |
| Shogakukan Junior Bunko | 小学館ジュニア文庫 | 小学館ジュニア文庫 | Amazon JP | |
| Four Bunko | フォア文庫 | ⅏ | Amazon JP |
Where to buy
Physical Books
Two good options for purchasing physical books are:
The former has economy shipping options which are likely to be cheaper but slower. You can also check out the Amazon site for your home country, or might be able to find the book on Amazon US.
If you can’t find an online store that will ship to you, you can use a forwarding service like Tenso or White Rabbit Express to forward the package to you for a fee. Alternatively, you may be able to find the book at a local Japanese book store such as Kinokuniya; just google your area.
Book types:
- 単行本 (たんこうぼん): “stand-alone book”. Hardcover or paperback, denoted by ハードカバー or ソフトカバー. Slightly larger than 文庫本.
- 文庫本 (ぶんこぼん): small-format paperbacks, cheap but usually well-bound.
eBooks
There are several places you may be able to purchase eBooks:
-
eBook Japan | no regional restrictions; not Kindle-compatible | see this usage guide
-
Book Walker | accepts paypal
-
Honto | not Kindle-compatible; mobile reader app is region-locked – on Android, get an APK, on iOS, use JP App Store
-
Amazon JP | check out sirvorn’s wonderful guide
Voting Rules
There will be 20 nomination slots. In the case of a tie, the oldest nomination will be chosen first. To begin with, you will have unlimited votes, so vote for whatever you would like to read.
To share a nomination, use the template below:
Nomination Template
Copy and paste the text below into a reply, and fill out the information for your nomination.
Cover image
**Title:**
** Natively Link**
**Available formats**: physical / ebook / audiobook / partial furigana / full furigana (delete as appropriate)
[details="Summary - Japanese"]
Copy and paste the Japanese summary from whichever source you prefer.
[/details]
[details="Summary - English"]
Check Anilist or similar sites to see if they have an English summary. If not, use a machine translator like DeepL or Google Translate.
[/details]
**Reason(s) for nominating:** Share the reason you are nominating this book - it might persuade others to vote for it!
List of nominations
[9/20 slots filled]
| Title | English | Natively Level |
|---|---|---|
| となりのふたごは闇使い | The Dark Magic Twins next door | ?? |
| 紫禁城の秘密のともだち | Friend from the Forbidden City | L22 |
| オレンジ | orange 1 | L23 |
| バック・トゥ・ザ・フューチャー | Back to the Future | ?? |
| 銀色☆フェアリーテイル | Silver Fairytale | L23 |
| 夏目友人帳 | Natsume’s Book of Friends | L26 |
| リメンバー・ミー | Remember Me (Disney’s Coco) | ?? |
| おチビがうちにやってきた! 未来が見える!? | A child came to my house! She can see the future?! | L22?? |
| ルドルフとイッパイアッテナ | Rudolf and Ippai Attena | ?? |
| 恐怖コレクター | Fear Collector | L23 |
| 帰命寺横丁の夏 | Kimyouji Yokochou Summer | L26 |
Previous votes
None yet!
Removed Nominations
None yet!
Don’t you want to see how they solve the mystery? Don’t you wish you had psychic twins next door to solve all your problems and ghost infestations? 
Vote psychic ghost twins for Children’s Book Club 2025! 
オレンジ 1
What if believing it was real could save someone’s life? 
This light novel features simple one-perspective writing and takes place primarily in familiar school settings, yet has a storyline that makes it impossible for me to put down! A sprinkling of science fiction, romance, and mystery in the life of a teenage girl just trying to fit in. The primary caveat is that this book is part 1 of 3 – an interesting read on its own that fits the parameters of the club, but the biggest question of the series is not answered until book 3 
