Japanese Children's Favorite Stories: Anniversary Edition (Favorite Children's Stories) Hardcover – February 4, 2014

I love the stories and the darling illustrations in this children's story book.

I bought this for my 7 year old son because I remember my mom reading me these stories when I was young. I wasn’t sure if he’d like it but I'm glad he enjoys it and wants me to read this book for him every night.As many others have said, this is not your typical fake fairy tale Disney love story which I find refreshing. Each story has a moral - mostly not to lie and trick others and to be kind. My son is the sensitive type so I did have to edit or omit some words in some stories but as he gets older, I know I won’t have too and this sturdy hard cover book will surely last for many years.The best part is these are all short stories so it keeps his attention lol After each story, I always ask him “What was the moral of this story?” and because the stories are short but captivating, he’s able to tell me which I think is great!

Absolutely loved these stories growing up. Then delighted students in my classes for decades. These are not all for the younger elementary age though. Some are better kept for the older elementary age.As other reviews have shared, there's not all happily ever after style endings to most of these moralizing tales. Yet they're less creepy than Grimm, and much of the classic English children's literature. Yet compared to modern American literature, this Japanese style, may seem more extreme and harsh in the morals and experiences of the characters. The originality will be an enriching experience for international audiences.This thorough collection has something just right for the different ages. A necessity for school libraries, grandparents' homes, and youth cultural programs.

This book is very special to me as it was a dear part of my childhood growing up in a Japanese American household in the early 1960s. When I was about three years old, one of my "uncles" gave this book to me with a pink hardcover and it has stayed dear to my heart since. I was quite delighted to see it still in print and being offered here on Amazon. What's even more amazing, is that from what I can tell by the image previews for this newest edition, the illustrations are the very same ones as my forty-some-odd year old book. This collection of stories would be similar to a Japanese Grimm's Fairy Tales and were also part of my father's childhood in 1920s Japan. Overall, they are quite simple and to the point and have a cuteness typical of Japanese stories. In recent years, my ex-girlfriend had enjoyed listening to me tell her these stories at bedtime even from my 40 year memory. I'm sure I've mangled some of them and combined them into a hybrid monkey, ogre, old man, cookie tale. I've been meaning to find my original copy, but now I know I can relive my childhood with a fresh new copy.

My family has one of the original books that we all grew up with and it has literally split at the binding and seams. This is for a baby shower gift and will be a great way to share those same childhood stories we had as kids with an entirely new generation.

I bought this for my son. He's only 2.5 so no solo "reading" from this book yet. I had this book when I was a child and enjoyed all these stories when my grandma would read them to me. Hoping to do the same for my son too. Some people might be offended or off put by some of these short stories and think they are too outdated(like Bugs Bunny cartoons, etc) and yes, the stories aren't all rainbows and sunshine but they are like Asop's Fables....with MORALS!I grew up reading this book and it has not scarred me in anyway! It's a great book to have for children(and adults too!).

Good sampling of Japanese folk tales, but:1) some stories have disturbing/weird details that I omitted for my 5-year-old daughter. Old woman cutting off a sparrow’s tongue?.. A bunny rabbit who wants to jump into the caldron to boil itself alive as a present to a guest? A puppy being killed by a neighbor, and a gift tree growing over its corpse? As they say “it’s unclear what they audience is”. Don’t get me wrong: I like spooky and macabre stuff myself, but I was planning to read this to a little kid. Having said that, this happens only in a few stories. Most of the rest are fine.2) the drawings are not really good and not really made in an East Asian style. They are mostly in “7th grader learns to draw” style, which can be endearing in and of itself, but not necessarily in this literary setting.3) some of the names were clearly mistranslated. I don’t know Japanese, but it was obvious that some names which were supposed to be poetic were clunky in translation.Overall, it’s a nice book though. My daughter liked it, when I augmented some of the stories and omitted some of the creepier ones.

This book has several Japanese stories in it. I really love reading them to my daughter. However these stories do not 'flow' like a nursery rhyme or bedtime story. Interesting stories though, shows a lot about the culture! I bought it for my baby, but it's more age appropriate for maybe someone in the 4-6 range.