Books to progressively develop kanji reading skills
Do you want to read a book that isn't full furigana, but doesn't expect adult-level kanji reading abilities? Some children's and young adult books show kanji up to a certain grade and put furigana just on the upper grades of kanji shown (meaning you have to practice reading the lower graded kanji without help).
This list is a collection of books and series where I have determined the cutoffs for the kana/kanji/furigana rendering strategy to make it easier for browsing from that perspective.
Common breakpoints in editing of furigana based on school level:
- Elementary kanji: breakpoints at 小1-2, 小3-4, and 小5-6 are often clearly identifiable. That includes the first 1026 of the Joyo kanji. These levels are helpful for us learners for early reading!
- Middle school kanji (additional ~925): the 中 1-3 group is often split, with some words getting kanji or kana, or, if they all appear in kanji, some getting furigana or not. It's not obvious how these are chosen but it seems to be based more on the difficulty of the word rather than the kanji.
- The highest level 難 (hard, an additional 185) is normally another clear break point.
Here is an abbreviation this list uses so that you can browse quickly once you get the hang of it:
Read: 小2 (means you need to be able to read through that level as there is no furigana through the second elementary grade)
Kanji: 小4 (means kanji are shown with furigana through fourth elementary grade)
Then there are more specific notes about how furigana for repeated words is handled, etc.
I've put them in rough order of difficulty (first via kanji reading skills required, then breadth of vocab use).