Two well-loved novels by veteran Vietnamese children’s writer Nguyen Nhat Anh recently landed in Japanese Ten-Books Publisher’s “105 Currently Most Read Books in the World” list.

Anh’s books, “Kinh van hoa” (Kaleidoscope) and “Cho toi xin mot ve di tuoi tho” (Give me one ticket back to childhood), published in Vietnamese in Japan late last year, made it to the list, which includes 83 authors from around the world.

The list, based on the books’ number of copies, feature only books which have yet to be translated into Japanese.

“I hope the list will spur Japanese publishers on to further popularize foreign literature in Japan,” the 59-year-old writer said.

“Cho toi xin mot ve di tuoi tho”, which blends fond childhood memories with real adulthood ones, has been translated into English, Thai and Korean and published in several countries.

The original book has sold some 200,000 copies in Vietnam and has been on the local bestseller list since debuting in 2008.

In late 2010, the book earned its author the Southeast Asian (SEA) Writer Award, which has been given away since 1979 by the Thai Royal Family to writers from each member state of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Nguyen Nhat Anh is among the country’s most successful and prolific children’s writer, with his books appealing greatly to kids, teenagers as well as adults. He is also a teacher, poet and journalist. Some of his most popular novels, such as the 54-volume-“Kinh Van Hoa” (Kaleidoscope), have been adapted into hit TV dramas.