こぐまのクーク物語 春と夏

Easy to read

I found the story quite charming (for a children’s book) and it was easy to read (I’m at a JLPT N4 level ?). There are some difficult words such a as plant names or some casual expressions, but I read it on my Kindle and most of them were in the dictionary. I’m putting the second book on my list :)

Sweet and heartwarming stories

This is one of the easier chapter books to get into when learning Japanese, but it can still be a challenge as there are a lot of words that aren't written in kanji. It has the occasional word that can't be found in the dictionary and may take some Googling or turning to native resources (hellotalk/hinative). You will also encounter a lot of names for wildlife (bird names, tree names, etc).

But it's nice for a beginner as each chapter is kind of like it's own little episode featuring Ku-ku and his forest friends, and the stories are heartwarming and wholesome. There are also a lot of cooking moments where Ku-ku and his dad are cooking up some interesting dishes, so it's a fun way to dip your toes into recipes in Japanese.

A bear cub discovering the world

This is a story about Kuku, the bear cub, and his experiences in life, which rank around friendship, loss of friendship, fights with friends, and these things. Just what you‘d expect young children to be educated on through reading this book. The tone is light, and there’s always mum and dad to explain things and to help Kuku along. On top of that, dad likes to cook, and he shares all the recipes with you 😊

Easy read, with a few caveats

こぐまのクーク物語 春と夏 is a bear cub's juvenile adventures through his childhood, one spring and summer.

The main character, クーク, does what we imagine children do in their day-to-day lives. He explores and learns about the world around him: he plays with his friends, and learns about how to handle such relationships, he wonders together with them about the mechanisms of his experiences, he helps his parents with duties, and he enjoys the food that they prepare.

こぐまのクーク物語 春と夏 is unsurprisingly an easy read. The sentences are short, the grammar and (most of) the vocabulary are simple, and the story is surface-level deep, so there is no fear of things going over your head due to abstractness. There is even ample use of commas, dividing the (already short) sentences into smaller chunks, which also happens to be a good way to get a feel for where it is natural to pause mid-sentence in Japanese.

That being said, there is a fair number of deceptively difficult words, exacerbated by the lack of kanji (to be expected in a children's book). One example is こうさぎ. Only after a moment of staring at it, I realised it should be parsed as うさぎ (rabbit) and こ (prefix expressing a young member of the following animal). There are also frequently uncommon words related to things such as cooking and nature, somewhat frequent references to names of plants and animals that you likely haven't heard before, and lots of onomatopoeia.

I don't regret reading this, but if you are looking to solidify the Japanese you already know, and build your reading speed, I would look elsewhere.