**Winner of the 2016 Creative Child Magazine Book of the Year Award** **Winner of the 2015 Gelett Burgess Award for Best Multicultural Book** When wily animals, everyday people and magical beings come together in a collection of Japanese fairy tales, wonderful things are bound to happen! Each story is brilliantly illustrated by a different talented Japanese artist. The tales recounted here are among Japan's oldest and most beloved stories. Entertaining and filled with subtle folk wisdom, these retold stories have been shared countless times in Japanese homes and schools for generations. Like good stories from every time and place, they never grow old. Kids (and their parents!) will enjoy hearing these stories read aloud on the accompanying downloadable audio. The fairy tales and classic stories in this collection include: The Wife Who Never Eats--the story of a man who learns the hard way the evils of stinginess. The Mill of the Sea--the story of how a greedy man was responsible for the saltiness of seawater. The Monkey and the Crab--the crabs teach a tricky monkey a lesson in fairness and honesty. The Magical Hood--an act of kindness reaps great rewards. Sleepyhead Taro and the Children--a story about what can be accomplished at the right time, and with the right help and the right spirit. The Fox and the Otter--how a fox pays the price of deceit and selfishness. The Gratitude of the Crane--a story about the rewards of kindness and the danger of curiosity. The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter--a girl who starts life very tiny turns out to be big in many ways.

人気TVシリーズ「まんが日本昔ばなし」から、「桃太郎」、「金太郎」、「かぐや姫」、「浦島太郎」、「一寸法師」などの名作を収録。代表的な日本の童話を英語で話すことができますか。

In 1573, the Tokugawa Shogunate came to power and banished foreigners from Japan. Totally isolated for the next 250 years, Japan became, for Westerners, a lost civilization; a remote island kingdom shrouded in mist and legend evoking whispered images of another time. In 1853, Japan let down the barriers. The world finally could see what it had only imagined. Among the early arrivals were three little known artists: photographer Felice Beato and Baron Raimund von Stillfried, and the novelist Pierre Loti. Their work caused an immediate sensation throughout Europe, giving birth to the Western fascination and obsession with Japan. It is easy to see why. In the photographs of Beato and Stillbried, a legend comes to life. Whether the subjects are fishmongers or princes, grocers, or samurai, everything is strange, mysterious, alluring. The simple, direct photography overlaid with stylized, exquisitely subtle hand coloring imparts an aura of enchantment to everything. Myth and reality become one. Pierre Loti adds a bittersweet poignancy to the photographs. By the time Loti arrived in Japan, the old world was rapidly disappearing . One gets the sense in his writing of someone desperately holding on to a lovely dream as it slowly fades from memory. That dream lives again in this superbly produced book (originally published in France). The vivid images of this strange and wonderful civilization dazzle the eyes and size the imagination. These are photographs from another time. And another world.--From front jacket