Interest
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Novel Ranks in Top 10 Books Chosen By Elementary School Students
posted on by Kim Morrissy
The Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba novel Kimetsu no Yaiba: Shiawase no Hana (Kimetsu no Yaiba: Flower of Happiness) is ranked 10th in a favorite children's book poll conducted among over 250,000 elementary schoolchildren. The Butt Detective and Seven Days War novels also ranked at 8th and 9th respectively. The poll was conducted by the non-profit organization Children's Book Election Office.
The Kimetsu no Yaiba Shiawase no Hana novel is written by Aya Yajima and based on the original story by Koyoharu Gotouge. According to Oricon, the book sold 210,966 copies in 2019, making it the third best-selling light novel volume of the year. The Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba novelizations were the 10th best-selling light novels by series in that year. The books were first published in 2019 by Shueisha.
A fifth-grader boy commented on the novel as follows: "I was really excited to find out what happens next in the manga. The novel version has a lot of words and not many pictures, so it was hard for me to read, but thanks to this book, I've started to like reading."
Yajima commented: "It made me feel warm and fuzzy inside to hear that this book has made children learn to love reading. I'm so happy. I hope that this book can be the gateway that gets you all a little more interested in novels. I'm going to keep doing my best in the hopes that you'll get to encounter tons more books. Thank you very much."
Gotouge commented: "Thank you to everyone who picked up this book! I'm deeply grateful to Yajima-san, who wrote the novel version. A lot of people are involved in the creation of a single book. Those people are ninjas who hide their forms, but I hope you can feel their presence. They're the people who created and brought this book to your hands. It makes me really happy. There are many beautiful words in this world. Please keep reading lots of books!"
Kadokawa's children book adaptation of Osamu Sōda's 1985 novel Seven Days War was published in 2009 with illustrations by Shin Hashimoto. The mystery story and social satire begins on the day before summer vacation, when every boy in a first-year class of a downtown Tokyo middle school disappears. Was it some accident? A mass kidnapping? Actually, the boys holed themselves up in an abandoned factory on the riverbed. With support from the schoolgirls, the boys start a revolution against the adults from this "liberation zone."
A third-grader boy commented on the book as follows: "I would never have thought that kids in middle school could do something so incredible. If they can do it, then I want to try doing something incredible as well."
The Butt Detective novel Oshiri Tantei: Lucky Cut wa Dare no Te ni! (Butt Detective: Who's Got the Lucky Cut?!) by Troll was published by Poplar in 2019. The first Butt Detective picture book was published in Japan in 2012, and the series now has more than 2 million copies in print. The books have inspired a television anime and a stage musical adaptation.
A first-grader girl commented on the book as follows: "I really liked the part on page 80 where they go 'Uwaaaaaaah!'"
The full list of top 10 books is as follows:
- Omoshiroi! Shinka no Fushigi: Zannen na Ikimono Jiten (Interesting! The Wonders of Evolution: Case Files of Creatures You Can't Help But Feel Sorry For)
- Aru Kashira Shoten (The 'I Wonder if There's a Book About This' Bookstore)
- Ringo Kamoshirenai (It Might Be an Appeal)
- Fushigi Dagashiya: Zenitendō (The Mysterious Sweets Shop: Zenitendo)
- Omoshiroi! Shinka no Fushigi: Zoku Zannen na Ikimono Jiten (Interesting! The Wonders of Evolution: Case Files of Creatures You Can't Help But Feel Sorry For, Continued)
- Omoshiroi! Shinka no Fushigi: Zokuzoku Zannen na Ikimono Jiten (Interesting! The Wonders of Evolution: Case Files of Creatures You Can't Help But Feel Sorry For, Continued Further)
- Omoshiroi! Shinka no Fushigi: Motto Zannen na Ikimono Jiten (Interesting! The Wonders of Evolution: Even More Case Files of Creatures You Can't Help But Feel Sorry For)
- Oshiri Tantei: Lucky Cut wa Dare no Te ni! (Butt Detective: Who's Got the Lucky Cut?!)
- Bokura no Nanokakan Sensō (Seven Days War)
- Kimetsu no Yaiba: Shiawase no Hana (Kimetsu no Yaiba: Flower of Happiness)
