Reading material for extensive reading is not only overseas series. The Ladder Series from IBC Publishing is a series of English readers made for Japanese learners, with each level shown together with TOEIC and Eiken guides. And at the end of each book there is a Japanese word list.

It is designed so that the classic extensive-reading accident — being thrown out of the story every time you open a dictionary app — is unlikely to happen. I am introducing it as another leading candidate, alongside the Oxford Bookworms covered last time.

The Levels Are Decided by "Distance from Junior-High-School English"

The Ladder Series has five stages, from Level 1 to Level 5, and the vocabulary builds up ladder-style. Level 1 is written using only the roughly 1,000 words learned in junior high school, with a guide of TOEIC 300-400 points, around Eiken Grade 4. Level 2 adds about 300 frequent words to that, for 1,300 words (TOEIC 400-500 points, Eiken Grade 3).

Level 3 is 1,600 words (500-600 points, Eiken Grade Pre-2), Level 4 is 2,000 words (600-700 points, Eiken Grade 2). Level 5 has no vocabulary limit, with TOEIC 700 points or above and Eiken Grade Pre-1 as the guide. The pleasure of this series is that you can see from the start how many words the next step up adds.

Judging your starting level can be simple. Open a sample page, and if there are no more than 2-3 unknown words per page and you can follow the flow of the story without a dictionary, that level is right. People who know their junior-high-school English has gaps should start from Level 1.

Even people who hold Eiken Grade 3 or a TOEIC score in the 400s are fine starting their first book at Level 1. Early on in extensive reading, "too easy" is just right, because building the speed to read through comes first. Rather than starting at Level 2 and stalling, flowing through three Level 1 books will grow your total word count more.

The Word List at the End of the Book Is What This Series Is Really About

Each volume has a word list at the end, and in Levels 1 and 2 every word that appears in the main text is listed. From Level 3 up, it covers words other than junior-high-school level. Meanings can be checked in Japanese. Even if a word you do not know appears, you only have to turn to the back of the book, so the flow of reading is not cut off.

This is the biggest difference from Starting English Extensive Reading with Oxford Bookworms, which I introduced earlier. Bookworms also has vocabulary explanations at the end of each book, but the explanations themselves are written in English.

It does become training in guessing meanings in English, but for beginners it is a two-stage burden. The Ladder Series can be said to prioritize "not stopping," putting in Japanese help without holding back.

Let me line up the other points too. For level notation, Ladder puts its conversion to TOEIC and Eiken up front, whereas Bookworms corresponds to CEFR (A1-C1). For the lineup of works, Ladder is thick on subjects familiar to Japanese readers, with English translations of Japanese works such as 『走れメロス』 and 『吾輩は猫である』, rakugo, and even an FAQ series introducing Japan.

Bookworms centers on British and American classics and original works, and has the strength that you can buy it on the same shelf anywhere in the world. How you buy them also differs: Ladder is for building up one book at a time from around 880 yen per book, while Bookworms is oriented toward lowering the unit price with 10-book packs.

For the First Two Books, One Story and One Biography

The first book is 『グリム名作選』 (Level 1). It contains 8 short stories whose plots you already know, such as "ヘンゼルとグレーテル" and "かえるの王子", for a total word count of about 13,550 words. A story you know visibly lowers the burden of the English, so as a first book for extensive reading there is no better condition. Because it is in short-story form, you also get the feeling of finishing one story at a time. 880 yen including tax.

The second book is 『アインシュタイン・ストーリー』 (Level 1). Its total word count is about 9,480 words, and even at the same Level 1 it goes for biography rather than story. The "Story" series of biographies by ジェイク・ロナルドソン stands on the same shelf for Edison and Gandhi as well, so there is the fun of choosing by person.

Because days come when you tire of nothing but stories, making a receptacle for other genres early makes the whole shelf last longer. 990 yen including tax. The two books together, about 23,000 words, become your first reaching point.

How to Work Through One Book. Open the Word List Even Before Reading

Fix the way of reading in three stages. First, skim the word list at the end of the book, and put only the meanings of words you do not know into your head in advance. Next, read the main text to the end without a dictionary, and go back to the end of the book to check only the words where you were about to stall.

And when you finish reading, record on the inside cover or in a notebook the date, title, total word count, and how interesting it was on a 5-point scale. In Levels 1 and 2 all words are in the list, so "going off to look something up and never coming back" does not happen. That reassurance helps quite a lot with continuing in the early stages.

A book you have read through changes how it sticks if you go around it once more with audio. IBC Publishing provides narration audio (downloadable audio and audiobooks) for many volumes, so you can check the sentences you followed with your eyes by ear. For that close listening, Rehear, the listening practice app made by the team behind this magazine, can also be used.

It is easy to do fine-grained listening, such as repeating only the climax of a story with segment repeat. Audio of a book you have read goes into your ears more easily because you know the content, a combination that lets you enjoy extensive reading and listening twice from one book. I will not push it, so please start by moving forward with the reading.

When to Move Up a Level

When you have finished 3-4 Level 1 books and the number of times you return to the word list has visibly decreased, that is the signal to move up to Level 2. At the entrance to Level 2, it is good to place works whose plots you know, such as 『ロミオとジュリエット』 (about 11,070 words in total) and 『星の王子さま』 (about 14,600 words).

More than how often the level goes up, devising how to spread genres prevents dropping out. If you decide in advance an arrangement that alternates fairy tales, biographies, classics, and short stories, the time spent hesitating over "what to read next" disappears.

It suits people who want to break the habit of stalling on a dictionary, people who want to measure where they are now with TOEIC and Eiken numbers, and people who want to enter through Japanese works and English that writes about Japan. Conversely, people who want training in taking meaning from explanations in English, or people who want to manage their shelf by CEFR, are better matched with Bookworms.

The two are not enemies, and a handoff like building "the stamina to read through" with Ladder and then moving to the Bookworms classics shelf is perfectly ordinary. If you buy, start with the two books, Grimm and Einstein. Deciding even how you will work through them before buying is the right way to start this shelf.

You can buy them starting with 『グリム名作選』（ラダーシリーズ レベル1） and 『アインシュタイン・ストーリー』（ラダーシリーズ レベル1）.