Korean Children's Favorite Stories

I have fond memories of growing up with these stories in Korea. I now have a son and wanted to try to kindle his love of reading and fuel his appreciation of a good story. He's still an infant but I read these and other non-board books to him and he looks at the pictures and listens to my voice. These stories are charming to my admittedly biased ears filtered through layers of nostalgia. Beyond the substance of the stories, the writing style is fluid although some obscure words are used and the illustrations are stylized almost as if a grade schooler drew them. There was at least 1 inaccuracy where a male character was wearing a female outfit. Strange since the illustrator's name is Korean...Overall, a great addition to our growing library and I hope my son will ask for see stories once he's able to speak up.

I bought this for a friend to read to her daughter. She said the stories were accurate, and even had stories she didn’t know/remember as a child. Good find!

A great collection of Korean Fairy Tales translated from the original Hangul language they were written in. This book helped me to understand more of the great culture of Korea where I'm currently stationed. I like using children's literature as a way of understanding traditional culture (helpful in any country you might be living in temporarily). Illustrations are beautiful as well. A great collection of stories! But, if your child is adopted, you may want to skip the 2 stories in the book that describe adopted kids in less-than-favorable terms (sadly, a cultural reality in Korea, adopted children are considered "undesirable"). Still, this large-formatted, hard-covered book is a treasure trove of stories and fables that describe life in the great country of Korea!

The stories in Korean Children's Favorite Stories are exciting and the artwork is engaging. My sons enjoy my reading stories from this collection at night before they go to bed, and they enjoy reading the book themselves. I am a scholar of early Korea, and I have read lots of collections of Korean folk tales. This is a great book. The stories in the collection are written with panache, humor, and good English sensibility.

I bought this for my 6 year old daughter so she could explore and understand a bit of her culture. She is only half Korean, but is showing an interest in the mainstream pop culture from Korea. I wanted to introduce something more literary to her so I decided to buy this on a whim. So far we both are enjoying and loving this book. Although she can read, this book is a bit advanced for her considering that most of the pages are covered in words and some of the vocabulary is too advanced. I read one story to her every night, and she enjoys it immensely. The stories are only 3-4 pages long, but consider that most of the pages are 80% covered in words, like I mentioned before. The art is just... amazing! I cannot express how much I like every picture; the detail, color contrast, and just the style is beautiful. The book itself has about 100 pages, and we've only been through about half of the book. I am so glad I purchased this book. We both are learning something new together and I like the fact that we can discuss the morals and meanings of what each story is trying to tell after we read one. This was a great purchase, and one that anyone should buy if they're looking for a great introduction in children's literature from Korea.

I wanted my kids to read and connect to their korean heritage so I bought this for them. We enjoyed reading them but like many fairy tales and older stories, many of them reflect very patriarchal values. I grew up with these stories and didn’t think too much about them but my 11-year old raised her eyebrows a few times. It was nice to see my daughter thinking critically and we had good discussions about the different ways our values have changed over time.

Had fun reading with my daughter. Has memorable stories that will pass on for generations.🤗

It is rare to find good Korean fairy tale stories in English. Familiar with many Korean folklores and legends, I found the translation to be accurate and the illustrations very beautiful. With a history of 5,000 years, Korea is one of the oldest civilizations in the world, and this collection of fairy tales is a great way to show Korea's rich folklores and legends to the outside world. I highly recommend this book.