Korean Children's Favorite Folk Tales

Hollym revised one of its most popular books on Korean folk tales: Korean Children s Favorite Folk Tales. This book contains seven tales. It includes not only tales already famous such as The heavenly maiden and the wood cutter and Kongji and Patji, but also lesser known Korean tales such as The three sons and The ant that laughed too much. Excellent colored-pencil illustrations accompany the stories. The stories include various characters like goblins, insects, animals, and human beings impart wisdom to the readers and sometimes laughter, too. How did our ancestors think about the contentious relationship between cats and dogs? The answer is in the story of The Dog and the Cat. To get back their owner s treasure, dog and cat underwent all sorts of troubles causing conflicts of opinion, and never mended their relationship. The Three Sons shows how three sons change useless articles left by their father to real valuable objects. The Vanity of the Rat is the story about parent rats looking for the best man for their daughter. If a child wonders aloud, Why do ants have a very thin waist? parents can give a humorous reason by reading them the story of The Ant That Laughed Too Much. In addition, The Heavenly Maiden and the Woodcutter, The Hare s Liver, and Kongji and Patji are included in this book. Reading folktales gives children fun, wisdom, and sense of tradition and history. Children around the world can explore a wonderful world through the many characters of this book. Reading this book in English with its funny illustrations is a good beginning to understanding Korea, Korean people, and Korean culture.