Asian Children's Favorite Stories: A Treasury of Folktales from China, Japan, Korea, India, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia

by David Conger, Patrick Yee (Illustrator)

For thousands of years, parents around the world have been telling their children stories; at bedtime, over the dinner table, and around the fire. Each country has its own set of fascinating tales, which are especially enjoyable for children to discover. "Asian Children's Favorite Stories" is a marvelous collection of 13 beautifully told folktales from eight major countries in Asia-China, Japan, Korea, India, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Open the pages of this fascinating storybook to introduce your child to the wonders of Asia-and the joy of finding new favorites to read over and over again.

Genres: Asia, Fiction, Childrens, Japanese Literature, Short Stories, Folk Tales, Japan

117 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 15, 2006

Reviews

[Vicky Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Answering Unanswerable Questions
Asian Children's Favorite Stories is a book of more than a dozen beautifully illustrated folktales, or fables, from across Asia that illustrate morals from within a cultural framework. If you are like me, you grew up on the fables of Europe: Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, and even earlier Aesop. Being Danish, German, and Greek respectively; these tales all illustrate European culture. While I still cherish my complete sets of these works, it is refreshing to have a 'bird's eye view' of fables from a different perspective and hemisphere.

The Asian folktales in this book have anthropomorphic animals that talk, and teach morals with fictional stories to answer children's questions that have no answer, like:
Why do cats and dogs fight all the time? (Hint: Its the cat's fault)
How did the sea become so salty?
Why do chickens peck the ground?
In the answers you will find moral lessons like:
How being clever may help you outwit your enemies and keep your friends safe.
Giving so much that it hurts in the short term can leave behind only beautiful memories
How greed is often followed by heartbreak, and even may cause you to lose everything important.
They illustrate positive traits like Gratitude, Friendship, Honesty, Bravery, Helping Others, and Having the courage to follow your dreams.

I ordered this book used online, and was surprised to find it in good condition, all except for one page that was bent and creased twice... the most beautiful photo in the book, and at the end of a beautiful tale. I could only imagine that a child somewhere (possibly now grown) fell asleep with the book open on this page. I know how children often read the same stories over and over until certain pages are worn out. That tale from China asks and answers the question, "Why do we work so hard yet stay so poor?"

Another charming folktale from the Philippines startled me by having the main animal-characters seeing themselves from within each other's skin, while trying to answer the question about "Why the Water Buffalo's skin is snug and the Cow's skin is saggy?" Just like that, they peeled their skins off to go for a swim. Afterward, they accidentally discovered they could wear each other's skin. It provides a chance at an excellent lesson on skin and race.

The tale from Indonesia is about an unusual topic for children's tales; Justice. A water buffalo rescues a crocodile, only to have him try to take a big bite out of the buffalo's neck. When the buffalo says this is unjust, the crocodile begins an argument based on the justice of the jungle. The tiny Mousedeer decides the case with his own brand of frontier justice. The moral leaves a strong sense of justice and why it is important that we give it to get it. There is no mercy without justice.

Malaysia's tale is one that provides an object lesson on dealing with bullies in giving a fabled answer for "Why does the Tapir have no Tail?" Goats flee a farm to save their lives from the dinner cleaver, and have to face up to a leopard in the jungle.

I read this large illustrated book (113 pp.) for Elementary children, as my stop in Malaysia on my Journey Around the World in 2020. It is highly recommendable for children of all ages, even old children like me who no longer have a valid excuse for reading children's books. My next stop on my Journey will have me in Singapore... the port I've only read about in many childhood adventure books. This next book will be the third in a trilogy of novels, which I will break all the rules to read first. I will let you know how that turns out in my next review.

[Rajul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting collection of 7 stories from Korea, Philippines, Indonesia, China, Thailand, India and Japan.

Can't say which one I liked best. The Philippines one was the silliest. And the hunt for folk tales of Philippines continues..

[Trenna Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of takes from 8 Asian countries. We will be using it as a jumping off point to learn and study more about Asian culture.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I liked that it shared stories from all over Asia, like Japan, India and Thailand. I liked all of the stories. I loved the artistry, the artist is amazing.
Carsen age 10

[Christy Tisnawijaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I can be brave. I am brave" (106).

[Rachel Jacobs · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are some really good folktales and it is nice to get something from another part of the world to see how they view stories for children and the moral message that they leave you with.

[Apzmarshl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Illustrated, fun stories from all over Asia. We used it for our rotation on Asia.

[Joy S · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining collection of folktales and short stories that always include animals (talking or otherwise). Cute, oftentimes silly. Can be finished in an hour or two.

[Ervin Hinojales · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light reading, good for killing time, and just chilling. Simple, easy to read and remember childhood stories. Good for parents trying to stock up on bed time stories, or road trips.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great for young students. It is a collection of Folktales, that can get any child interested. With such a wide variety of stories, some with people others with animal characters everyone will be pleased. Although Folktales do not normally have highlighted morals at the end like Fables these stories all have some lesson that can be learned. The illustrations are playful and the stories can keep any child engaged. I would recomend this book so students can related to other countries' culture.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a great selection of stories in this book. I was reading it to my summer class of kindergarten to grade four students. They had a lot of fun selecting which story they wanted to read each time, and I had fun because I recognize a lot of these stories from my youth. This book was a big hit with the whole class. We also really liked the illustrations.

[Jim Sibigtroth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like to use read-aloud stories to teach about cultural differences. This story collection includes stories and folk tales from several Asian cultures. These stories also promote moral messages of honesty, hard work, compassion for others, respect for elders, and selflessness.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked all the stories and illustrations. All had the familiar Confucian themes.