I’ve got a nomination as well.
にゃんにゃん探偵団おひるね―赤いとびらの家事件の巻
Summary
A series of three mystery stories with a children’s bookstore owner named Hanae who decided to become a detective. Based on the first book, all the cases involve cats in someway, though they’re not mostly about the cats. The mysteries are all pretty simple (it’s meant for elementary schoolers, after all) and not too serious.
The description from Bookwalker, for anyone interested:
子どもの本の店をしているはなえさんは、へんな事件が大好き。今回もかわいげのない猫カポネと難事件にいどみます。完ぺきなアリバイにいどむ「赤いとびらの家」、ケーキどろぼうの疑いは晴らせるのか「犯人はカポネ？」、そして怪盗ミミッチーマウスが再びあらわれる「にゃんにゃん大行進」。三つの事件は、それぞれ事件編と解決編に分かれています。解決編をみる前に、事件の謎を考えてみましょう。好評の「にゃんにゃん探偵団」シリーズ第２弾。
Availability
amazon.co.jp
amazon.com - bonus hilariously terrible, obviously machine-assisted translation of the title
cdjapan
Bookwalker ebook
Personal Opinion
The first book was great. I haven’t read this book yet, but presumably it’s of similar quality. Hanae is cute as heck and all the mysteries were nice. It’s a really good difficulty for the Absolute Beginner club and is a book (with pictures) rather than a manga.
Pros and Cons for the Book Club
Pros
- As mentioned, a book rather than a manga, so it has a good amount of writing that’s not just dialogue. We’ll also have had a couple of manga in a row, so changing it up would be nice.
- The characters are all humans, rather than animals. Cats are involved, but are not the main focus of any stories. (This is probably more up to taste, but it is a change from the last couple of books, so I thought that might make it a pro.)
- Of course, all the language is pretty simple (it’s intended for 3rd-4th graders, from what I’ve seen.)
- I’ve seen people ask about doing a follow up for the first book club several times, so there’s definitely interest in the book already.
- Hanae is cute as heck (her cat… maybe not so much?)
Cons
- It’s a sequel, so some people might be put off by that. However, the stories in the first volume were all pretty independent, and the book has a page with introductions for all the characters, included those returning from the last book.
- It’s a bit longer than the first book–135 pages vs 155, based on the Bookwalker listing. I don’t really think the extra 20 pages will be a big deal, but I figured I’d mention it.
- The stories are fairly long–the first and third are around 60 pages each, while the second is around 20, based on the table of contents. So it’s a bit harder to break up into different weeks (can’t just do “one chapter per week” or something like that.) The group for the first book did around 15 pages a week, by the look of it, though it’s hard for me to figure out exactly.
Pictures
The Bookwalker ebook preview - can also get to it from the Bookwalker link above
First Three Pages of Chapter One
Difficulty Poll
How much effort would you need to read this book?
- No effort at all
- Minimal effort
- Just right
- Challenging
- Impossible, even with everyone’s help
- I don’t know (please click this if you’re not voting seriously)
0 voters