Florence Sakade (1916–1999)

A Beautiful collection of folklore and fairy tales presented in vivid illustrations of Japan's oldest stories. Some stories bring mystical creatures to life and introduce strong characters to teach life lessons steeped in love and persistence while learning a little bit about Japanese Culture. My favorites were "How to fool a Cat," such a fun and clever story, "The Dragon's Tears," about love and acceptance, and "Kintaro's Adventures," about survival, love, and never giving up hope.

Some of the illustrations are beautifully colored and truly enchanting, for example those in “The Princess and the Herdboy,” but there are many instances where it seemed the wrong image was chosen to be illustrated. By this I mean, there were some images conveyed in the text that I would have loved to see over some of the images that were actually chosen. There is also some unbalance when it comes to the stories as well, both in length and writing style. This issue is hard to avoid, show more though, in compilations. I think one or two of the stories could have been cut so the other stories could be elaborated upon or extra images could be added. There is a fair amount of Japanese culture infused into the stories, so it could be used when learning about Japan. My only qualm is that the illustrated characters seem somewhat Americanized, which is odd to me since the illustrator chose to use a classic Japanese watercolor style. All in all, this book overcomes many of these minor issues and is actually quite charming. show less

I received this book as part of a book review giveaway for Multicultural Children's Book Day (https://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/). All thoughts are my own.

I loved the variety of stories presented in this anthology. There are 16 different tales, and all are presented with beautiful illustrations. These classic Japanese tales spin magic, creatures, and family into stories that kids will love to hear over and over again!

Wow! Another amazing book by Tuttle at a price I can afford. As a single mom living under the poverty level, I need to be careful how I spend my money. I want value and need books that will supplement my girls’ education and also useful to me as well. A Guide to Reading and Writing Japanese is modern with “the most recent changes to the kanji lists prescribed by the Japanese Ministry of Education.” Learning each stroke of the 2,136 characters in the “General Use” kanji set and the show more 1,009 “Essential” characters are a breeze. It includes the full range of character readings and their English definitions. There are plenty of examples and “special codes (to) indicate the kanji required for the JLPT and AP exams.” Learning kanji has never been so easy! show less