なぜ?どうして?科学のお話 / Absolute Beginner Bookclub

Welcome to the なぜ?どうして?科学のお話 2年生 Reading Group! We read this book one page per day, from Feb 1st to July 24th 2020. We shared our translations and asked and answered questions about the book on the threads linked below.

We read this as part of the Absolute Beginner Book Club. Click here to visit the Absolute Beginner Home Thread and see what other books we have read, and what we are reading now!

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(I finally got around to creating the official thread, yay!)

This is another book from the なぜ?どうして?series, so if you’re not sure what to expect, have a look at the せかいはふしぎ thread. As both of these books are designed for second-graders, the levels should be fairly similar. You can also check out the preview on Amazon.

The theme of this なぜ?どうして?book is science – human body, living creatures, space and more! :ear: :raised_hand_with_fingers_splayed: :monkey: :parrot: :cactus: :coconut: :ringer_planet: :crescent_moon:

If you’re new to the Absolute Beginner Bookclub, joining the reading group is really simple – just grab a copy of the book (print or digital) and start posting in the thread (respecting the schedule)! Feel free to post any questions, translations or comments regarding the page currently being read, or any of the previous (already-read) pages.

In the wise words of @marcusp: If your Japanese is beginner level, you want to read a real book, and you like learning about the world, this is the place for you!

Reading Schedule

Section Starting page Reading dates Discussion thread
からだのお話 p. 8 (old) / p. 16 (new) Feb 1 – Mar 2 link
生き物のお話1 p. 42 (old) / p. 50 (new) Mar 3 – Apr 5 link
生き物のお話2 p. 78 (old) / p. 86 (new) Apr 6 – May 4 link
食べ物や身近なもののお話 p.108 (old) / p. 116 (new) May 5 – Jun 8 link
地球・うちゅうのお話 p. 144 (old) / p. 152 (new) Jun 9 – Jul 16 link
Additional Spreads (optional) pp. 2-9 (new version only) Jul 17 – Jul 24 link
Wrap up & Final comments Jul 17 link
Weekly progression overview

(Page numbers from new edition. Subtract 8 to get corresponding number in old edition)

Week Start date Pages Section
Week 1 Feb 1 pp. 16-22 からだのお話
Week 2 Feb 8 pp. 23-29 からだのお話
Week 3 Feb 15 pp. 30-37 からだのお話
Week 4 Feb 22 pp. 38-45 からだのお話
Week 5 Feb 29 pp. 46-53 からだのお話/生き物のお話1
Week 6 Mar 7 pp. 54-60 生き物のお話1
Week 7 Mar 14 pp. 61-67 生き物のお話1
Week 8 Mar 21 pp. 68-75 生き物のお話1
Week 9 Mar 28 pp. 76-82 生き物のお話1
Week 10 Apr 4 pp. 83-90 生き物のお話1&2
Week 11 Apr 11 pp. 91-97 生き物のお話2
Week 12 Apr 18 pp. 98-104 生き物のお話2
Week 13 Apr 25 pp. 105-111 生き物のお話2
Week 14 May 2 pp. 112-118 生き物のお話2/食べ物や身近なもののお話
Week 15 May 9 pp.119-125 食べ物や身近なもののお話
Week 16 May 16 pp.126-132 食べ物や身近なもののお話
Week 17 May 23 pp.133-139 食べ物や身近なもののお話
Week 18 May 30 pp.140-147 食べ物や身近なもののお話/
Week 19 Jun 6 pp.148-154 食べ物や身近なもののお話/地球・うちゅうのお話
Week 20 Jun 13 pp.155-161 地球・うちゅうのお話
Week 21 Jun 20 pp.162-168 地球・うちゅうのお話
Week 22 Jun 27 pp.169-175 地球・うちゅうのお話
Week 23 Jul 4 pp.176-181 地球・うちゅうのお話
Week 24 Jul 11 pp.182-188 地球・うちゅうのお話

Where to get the book?

CD Japan: new / old
Amazon.jp new / old
eBookJapan: new
Bookwalker: new
Honto: new
iTunes / Apple Books

Note on different editions

As was pointed out by @Mokumokuren, there are at least two editions out there, and I personally have the old one. Having looked at the screenshots of the new version on Amazon, it looks like the new version has 8 additional spreads at the beginning – all other pages are broken down in the same way, only the numbers are offset by 8. I think we should be fine even with members having different editions; we’ll agree which page numbers to follow once we know what number of people have which of the two editions.

New 2 / Old 1

Which edition do you have?

  • New edition
  • Old edition
  • Ebook

0 voters

Members

So, who’s interested? :slight_smile:

  • I will start reading in February :partying_face::confetti_ball:
  • I might jump in later on :tada:
  • I will not join :balloon:

0 voters

32 Likes

Ah, I’m pretty sure I saw this in Kinokuniya, except I’d thought a different book was being proposed, so I didn’t buy it. Bah…

We should probably finish the 10-minute stories book, though. :stuck_out_tongue:

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February seems to be so far away. But I’m really looking forward to reading it with everyone. Maybe I’ll brush up my general knowledge, too. It’s a win-win situation for me :wink:.

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@Belthazar Still plenty of time to get it by February :wink:

@Himilika Great to have you with us! I’m thinking we could have an early discussion of those additional spreads in the new version before Feb 1st… Let’s wait for more people to get a hold of the book and we can think about it :slight_smile:

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:sob: :frowning:

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Oooh! I have this book on my bookshelf (the last? printing of the old edition, I’m guessing from the dates).
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mine looks like this

As Belthazar knows, I’ve just pleaded for an extension on the reading time for にゃんにゃん2 which will take us into the first week of February, so I might be a bit late in starting if I join.

Will you be looking at daily or weekly progress (the first なぜ? book I joined in with expected daily progress which I found hard to keep up with)? And how many pages/week do you intend to do?

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This is amazing! What a brilliant choice of book! Thank you for setting up this club!

Sadly I can’t join you (as I’m going to be busy reading a Gundam manga for the first half of 2020) but I wish I could! I’ve just ordered the book though, just in case I can find some time to pop in and read along now and then. If it is like the other なぜ?どして?book, then it is ideal for people who can dip in and out.

Thank you again for a great choice and wonderful club!

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I have the same version - it matches my edition of せかいはふしぎ :relaxed: New people might not be able to get this one, but it shouldn’t be much of a problem (see my notes on book versions in the original post).

I liked the daily progression from the first なぜ? book, so I’d like to keep it here for the discussion part, although privately I usually read one “story” at a time. Then I posted comments according to the schedule.
I think you should feel free to comment on any pages read up to the deadline - just not go beyond it.

I might draw up a pages/week table for ease of jumping it, if that would help :slight_smile:

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It’s available as ebook on booklive, so I’m in!

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I would find that very helpful, thank you! :smile:

It fizzled a bit, didn’t it? I stopped reading when at some point it felt like I was the only one lol. It’s not much of a book ‘club’ when there’s no one to discuss the book with.

This sounds like a good compromise to me. Allows people who like to read on a weekly schedule to do so, but also spaces it out a bit for people who prefer to do a little bit every day.

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same here…I’m still reading on my own though. Typing and posting all that was not a good use of my time. It was my first book club. Are they all like that? How would this one be different?

I stopped posting my translations, but I do still make them. It helps me check I truly understand it completely, rather than just ‘getting the gist of it’. And then later when I reread and don’t understand something, I’ve got my translation and notes to help me.

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Yes! I am so excited, this will be my first bookclub. I ordered しろくまカフェ a few days ago, and I was planning on reading the book while following the posts from last year, but this is even better!

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I’m still trying to read it. It’s just that I’m trying to let someone else jump in to translate a page or two, and noone does, so I forget about it for a week or two…

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I think the format of posting translations inhibits discussion :thinking: It probably makes people feel “well I’ve got nothing to add”, so they don’t post.

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I’m pretty new to WaniKani, and haven’t yet done a bookclub. I’m jumping in to this one! Ordered! Thanks for the guidance, zuzu!

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Since this starts in February. I’ll join. It’ll give me enough time to get the book. This will be my first book club. I’ve been wanting to join others but I could never get/afford the book on time to read with others in the beginning so I’m excited for this

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Thanks so much for adding the weekly breakdown to the OP - that looks eminently doable, so I’m in! Cheers! :star_struck: (and welcome to kitty detectives!)

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Ordered (kindle) !
This time I want to really follow the club (third tentative… :wink:

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