🐾 Meet the Animals in This Level 2 Japanese Reader

Animals (どうぶつ) is a Level 2 Japanese Reader designed to help early beginners build confidence in reading simple Japanese sentences independently.

Learners meet a series of animals through engaging photographs and a highly predictable reading pattern.

Each new animal is first introduced with: これは いぬ です。This is a dog.

The following page then changes the sentence: これは いぬ じゃないです。This is not a dog.

before revealing the next animal.

This repeated です／じゃないです pattern gives beginners the security of familiar language while introducing new vocabulary one animal at a time. The footprints provide an extra visual clue, encouraging learners to guess which animal will appear next. The actual book moves through animals including dog, cat, pig, duck, monkey, hippopotamus, and giraffe.

🌱 A Gentle First Step into Katakana

One of the special features of this reader comes near the end.

Most animal names are presented in hiragana, but the final animals introduce ライオン (lion) and ミーアキャット (meerkat) in katakana, with hiragana reading support.

This gives beginners a natural first encounter with the idea that words borrowed from other languages are commonly written in katakana.

Rather than teaching katakana as an isolated writing system, learners meet it inside a book they can already read successfully.

That is a particularly nice strength of Animals.

🎯 Language Features in This Level 2 Japanese Reader

Students will practise:

• Reading simple sentences using これは～です
• Understanding negative sentences with ～じゃないです
• Recognising common animal vocabulary
• Reading mainly in hiragana
• Predicting meaning through repeated sentence patterns
• Using photographs and footprints as comprehension clues
• Recognising their first katakana animal words
• Understanding that some loanwords are written in katakana
• Building fluency through repeated, modeled sentences

📖 Level 2 Japanese Reader Details

Japanese Reader Level:  2
Recommended for: Early Beginners
Language Focus: これは～です／～じゃないです
Vocabulary Theme: Animals
Script: Mainly Hiragana with an introduction to Katakana
Character Count: 193
Pages: 24
Text Type: Information Report
Product Type: Saddle-stitched booklet
ISBN: 978-0-6481178-4-1

✅ Perfect For

• Learners progressing from words to simple Japanese sentences
• Primary school Japanese programs
• Beginning secondary school students
• Adult beginners
• Home learning
• Japanese language classrooms
• Learners developing hiragana reading fluency
• Introducing simple negative sentences
• Beginning katakana awareness through familiar vocabulary
• Building confidence through highly predictable reading patterns

🎧 Teaching & Learning Resources

Every reader includes free access to our Resource Library.

Included with every reader:

•  Audio recordings narrated by Mariko Sensei
•  English translation
•  Quizlet vocabulary activities

🏫 Teaching a Class?

🐾 Bring Animals into Your Japanese Classroom

The predictable です／じゃないです pattern makes Animals especially useful for modeled reading, shared reading and early independent reading.

Teachers can pause at each footprint page and ask students to predict the next animal before revealing the photograph, turning a very simple reader into an interactive classroom activity.

 A Note from Mariko Sensei

One of my earliest childhood memories is visiting Ueno Zoo in Tokyo with my father, mother, and older sister when I was about three years old.

I remember seeing an enormous pig. To my little three-year-old eyes, it looked absolutely gigantic! I was so frightened that I started crying, and my father picked me up and held me until I felt safe again. Even today, I still smile whenever I think about that special family memory.

As I grew older, I came to love visiting zoos and learning about animals from around the world. Watching them closely taught me to appreciate how unique and fascinating every animal is.

I created this reader to help learners enjoy discovering animals while building confidence with simple Japanese sentence patterns. Through repeated です and じゃないです sentences, learners naturally develop reading fluency while expanding their vocabulary.

I also wanted to introduce one of the unique features of Japanese writing. Most animal names in this reader are written in Hiragana, but the final two animals, ライオン and ミーアキャット, introduce Katakana with Hiragana support, helping learners recognize how many words borrowed from other languages are written in Japanese.

I hope this reader encourages you to enjoy both learning Japanese and discovering the wonderful world of animals.

Happy reading!
— Mariko Sensei

📖 Your Next Japanese Reader

Now that you’ve practiced です and じゃないです, continue your Japanese reading journey with these readers:

🐞 Insects (むし) – Level 2 Japanese Reader — Continue with predictable Japanese while introducing あります, は／も and counting insect legs.

🎨 What color Are the Body Parts? (からだはなにいろ？) – Level 2 Japanese Reader — Stay at Level 2 while expanding into body parts, colors, and descriptive Japanese.

🐱 Chibi the Cat (ねこのちび) – Level 2 Japanese Reader — A natural next step from predictable factual sentences into a simple story using everyday Japanese.