Product Review

Learn Japanese and enjoy folktales at the same time with this whimsically illustrated multicultural children's book!

This bilingual edition of A Treasury of Japanese Folktales—presented in both English and Japanese—contains 12 of the best Japanese legends and fairy tales, told to generation after generation of Japanese children. Originally written in English by Yuri Yasuda, based on her interpretations of traditional Japanese tales, these charming stories of rich imagination are now accompanied by Japanese text by Yumi Matsunari and Yumi Yamaguchi. The Japanese text includes basic kanji accompanied by furigana to help beginning learners to recognize and learn the characters.

Adventures carry us, on turtle-back, to the splendors of the underwater palace of the dragon princess, to the beautiful hills where Kintaro plays with his animal friends, and to a temple where we discover a "tea kettle" that is really a cunning badger in disguise.

Executed with great skill and imagination, the 98 color illustrations bring to life the charming characters of these heart-warming tales of old Japan, which include:

• Shitakiri Suzume, the Tongue-Cut Sparrow
• Kintaro, the Strong Boy
• Kaguya Hime, the Luminous Princess
• Momotaro, the Peach Boy
• Bunbuku Chagama, the Lucky Cauldron