Get ready for Halloween with this child-friendly collection of spooky stories from all over the world. Feel your pulse race and your skin tingle as you read about the fearsome witch Baba Yaga, the serpent woman from Spain, the rescue of Tam Lin from the bewitching Queen of the Fairies, how Father Death gets caught in the Enchanted Apple Tree, and the waterdwelling Bunyip from Australia. Make sure you have your candle ready as it’s sure to be a long night… This gorgeous gift book is the perfect anthology for Halloween, or any time you want to be spooked! Features stories from Germany, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Africa, Brazil, Japan, Australia, India, UK, Canada, France, China, Ireland, Syria, Korea, Sweden, Egypt, Iceland, New Zealand, Arabia, Spain, Tibet, Iran, Greece.

A great story can lead a reader on a journey of discovery—especially if it's presented in two languages! Beautifully illustrated in a traditional style, Japanese Stories for Language Learners offers five compelling stories with English and Japanese language versions appearing on facing pages. Taking learners on an exciting cultural and linguistic journey, each story is followed by detailed translator's notes, Japanese vocabulary lists, and grammar points along with a set of discussion questions and exercises. The first two stories are very famous traditional Japanese folktales: Urashima Taro (Tale of a Fisherman) and Yuki Onna (The Snow Woman). These are followed by three short stories by notable 20th century authors: Kumo no Ito (The Spider's Thread) by Akutagawa Ryunosuke (1892-1927) Oborekaketa Kyodai (The Siblings Who Almost Drowned) by Arishima Takeo (1878-1923) Serohiki no Goshu (Gauche the Cellist) by Miyazawa Kenji (1896-1933) Reading these stories in the original Japanese script--and hearing native-speakers read them aloud in the accompanying free audio recording--helps students at every level deepen their comprehension of the beauty and subtlety of the Japanese language. Learn Japanese the fun way—through the country's rich literary history.

Many of the ghost stories of Japan came to the fore during the Edo period with its famous woodblocks of ukiyo-e, the floating world. With a new introduction, this collection of Japanese ghost stories brings together fantastic tales of vengeful spirits, mountain-dwelling phantoms, man-eating oni, haunted trees, and child-rearing ghosts, with stories such as Yuki-Onna, Hoichi the Earless, The Ghost of O-Kiku from The Bancho Sarayashiki, the sorry tale of O-Iwa from the Yotsuya Kaidan, The Peony Lantern and The Ghost Who Bought Candy. Japan has a long and ancient custom of sharing stories of the supernatural, brought to fashionable prominence in the Kaidan literature of the Edo period, now presented here for the modern reader. FLAME TREE 451: From myth to mystery, the supernatural to horror, fantasy and science fiction, Flame Tree 451 offers a healthy diet of werewolves and mechanical men, blood-lusty vampires, dastardly villains, mad scientists, secret worlds, lost civilizations and escapist fantasies. Discover a storehouse of tales gathered specifically for the reader of the fantastic.

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things features several Japanese ghost stories and a brief non-fiction study on insects. Most of these stories were translated from old Japanese texts. The author also states that one of the stories – Yuki-onna – was told to him by a farmer in Musashi Province, and his was apparently the first record of it. Riki-Baka is based on a personal experience of the author._x000D_ Table of Contetns:_x000D_ The Story of Mimi-nashiHōichi_x000D_ Oshidori_x000D_ The Story of O-Tei_x000D_ Ubazakura_x000D_ Diplomacy_x000D_ Of a Mirror and a Bell_x000D_ Jikininki_x000D_ Mujina_x000D_ Rokurokubi_x000D_ A Dead Secret_x000D_ Yuki-Onna_x000D_ The Story of Aoyagi_x000D_ Jiu-Roku-Zakura_x000D_ The Dream of Akinosuke_x000D_ Riki-Baka_x000D_ Hi-Mawari_x000D_ Hōrai_x000D_ In the last half of the book, Hearn lists collected Chinese/Japanese superstitions and his own personal thoughts on various members of the insect world._x000D_ Butterflies: Personification of the human soul._x000D_ Mosquitoes: Karmic reincarnation of jealous or greedy people in the form of Jiki-ketsu-gaki or "blood-drinking pretas"._x000D_ Ants: Mankind's superior in terms of chastity, ethics, social structure, longevity and evolution.