folklore

Urikohime, a girl born from a melon, battles the monstrous onis, who steal babies to eat their tasty belly buttons.

The king offers his daughter's hand in marriage to the young man who can produce three perfect peaches.

Fourteen brief folktales in which there is a mystery or problem that the reader is invited to solve before the resolution is presented.

A little chicken's mother seeks help for her coughing baby.

A retelling of one of the Indian fables relating to the former births of Buddha in which as a monkey he manages to outwit the crocodile who decides to capture him.

Zomo the Rabbit, an African trickster, sets out to gain wisdom.

Clever Tom Fitzpatrick thinks his fortune is made when he captures a leprechaun and forces him to reveal the hiding place of his gold, but the leprechaun is clever too.

Having missed her chance to see him on the first Christmas, old Befana travels around Italy each year searching for the Christ Child and leaving cookies and Christmas presents for the sleeping children.

A strange little man helps the miller's daughter spin straw into gold for the king on the condition that she will give him her first-born child.

A retelling of a folktale in which a beautiful girl with long golden hair is kept imprisoned in a lonely tower by a sorceress. Includes a note that traces the Italian, French, and German origins of the story, and discusses the author's decision to mimic the style of Italian Renaissance art in his illustrations.