I think many of us used to read or had our parents reading us storybooks when we were young. Books never get old and at least, for me, the books and cassettes I had when I was young are still my treasure and an important part of my childhood days.

Nowadays, the children's books corner in the libraries has a lot of variety and in Japan, you can find so many interesting illustration books, gamebooks, educational books, storybooks, musical books, and even cosmetic books.

In this article, I will introduce you to some popular books here in Japan, so if you want to buy your child a present, please use it as a reference.

Makeup Nuri-e Book Princess World (Makeup Coloring Book)

 

For the children who love cosmetics and princesses, the Make Up Nuri-e Books are a perfect choice. Nuri-e 塗り絵 means picture book in Japanese. The book has 30 pages and it includes a makeup palette with various pencil colors, also eye shadows in 8 colors, 2 blushes, 3 lip glosses, one lip brush and one cheek brush, two lipsticks, and two eyeshadow brushes.

MakeUp Nuri-e Book Online Shopping

Cosmetics books are very varied and are becoming more and more popular among young girls.  You can also find cosmetics with Disney princesses including Ariel, Rapunzel, Belle, Snow White, Aurora, etc.

Makeup Disney Princesses

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The very hungry caterpillar is a storybook that can also be found in English and many Japanese kindergartens also have it in their bookshelf.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Shop Online

Karuta

Karuta are not books, but cards. The Japanese card game has several types of decks and helps with memory and learning different things. You can find English/Japanese expressions decks, countries’ flags, kanji, words, flowers, folklore tales, Ghibli or other characters’ karuta (with lines from the movies), and even the Hyakunin Isshu (Hundred Poets).

Ghibli Karuta Shop online

Musical Books

There are many musical books for children and one of my recommendations is the Miki House Kapoca Friends Piano version. There are about 15 songs available and your children can change the volume, tempo, and learn how to play the piano and songs according to the music scores while the notes are shining.

Miki House Shop Online

Iya da Iya da no Ehon series (literally translated "I don’t want to I don’t want to" picture book)

This book has a big impact on children and is good for small kids who give parents a hard time before going to bed.

Iyada Iyada Picture Book

I hope these recommendations were useful and before buying the books, it might be useful to prepare a reading corner for your child and a bookshelf so they can organize their small library.