Stories in basic Japanese (JLPT 4/3)

Does anyone know of any stories or books out there that use vocab and kanji from JLPT 4 or 3? I'm at a point now where I know enough grammar that I can read sentences in kanji so, textbooks aside, does anyone know of any books or magazines or websites that have stories or basic articles written at the JLPT 4/3 level? I thought maybe comic books targeted at 6 year olds (lol) but that type of stuff would probably also have words that only 6 year olds use (like stories about teddy bears and dolls and cubby houses etc. )

For you advanced Japanese readers out there, when you got to the 3/4 level what did you use for practice?

Difficult to find such books you are looking for

I's (virtually) impossible to find a Japanese book (apart from textbooks) or magazine that focuses specifically on level 3 or 4 material.

I did two level 3 practice tests one month ago and passed with >300 points in both . Even so, reading a true Japanese book with that limited amount of kanji/grammar/vocab is :banghead: real hard . I picked up books on Anne Frank, Kiki's Delivery Service (directed at 3rd or 4th graders) & new words appeared at a rate of many per page . My reading pace was also painfully slow (had to look up and digest so many words in the dictionary). The grammar/dialogues also gave me 頭痛 zutsuu.

I also tried books directed at 6 year olds , which turned out to be easier. However, even in such low level books, I still more than occasionally come across unfamiliar words.

My initial attempts at native Japanese books were trying, but the effort is paying off & I'm improving day by day . Someday, I'll reach native proficiency.

Mahoujin Tsukai said:

I's (virtually) impossible to find a japanese book (apart from textbooks) or magazine that focuses specifically on level 3 or 4 material.

Click to expand...

I think there's a decent amount of them in Japan. You might want to try Kinokuniya.

There's this story called "Inch High Samurai", which a friend of mine (a fluent speaker of both Japanese and English) translated. It's just one of those traditional fairy-tale type stories, but it doesn't involve so much of the 6-year-olds' vocab ... at least I don't think so.

It is difficult problem.
難しい問題ですねー。

The book for children is not necessarily easy. It is the truth like the trap.
子供用の本が簡単だとは限らない。それは罠のような真実(^_^;

For instance, Yahoo news is more legible than the picture book for me.
例えば私にとって、ヤフーニュースは絵本より読みやすいです。

I think that the reason why a Japanese sentence is difficult might be KANJI.
わたしは、日本語の文章が難しい理由は漢字だろうと思います。

Therefore, I recommend the news article where ふりがな is put on article.
したがって、私はふりがなのついたニュース記事を推薦します。

MSN-Mainichi INTERACTIVE 毎日小学生新聞


私も、綺麗で読みやすい英語で書かれたサイトやブログが知りたいなあ……。


Inch High Samurai...「一寸法師」？？？

Wow, I had no idea there were websites that had furigana. Thanks!