Books published by publisher Walker/Weatherhill

Around the beginning of the common era, Indian Buddhists began to collect fables, or jataka tales, illuminating various human virtues and foibles—from kindness, cooperation, loyalty and self-discipline on the one hand to greed, pride, foolishness, and treachery on the other. Instead of populating these stories with people, they cast the animals of their immediate environment in the leading roles—which may have given the tales a universal appeal that helped them travel around the world, surfacing in the Middle East as Aesop's fables and in various other guises throughout East and Southeast Asia, Africa, Russia, and Europe. Author and painter Mark McGinnis has collected over forty of these hallowed popular tales and retold them in vividly poetic yet accessible language, their original Buddhist messages firmly intact. Each story is accompanied with a beautifully rendered full-color painting, making this an equally attractive book for children and adults, whether Buddhist or not, who love fine stories about their fellow wise (and foolish) creatures.

Folk tales from: Korea--Afghanistan--Indonesia--Thailand-Nepal--Singapore--Sri Lanka This sixth volume--again an independent book in its own right-- presents seven more tales from seven Asian nations designed for the delight of children everywhere. As before, the stories have been selected, retold, and illustrated by writers and artists of the seven nations themselves. The resulting quality of authenticity is noteworthy, giving the real flavor of Asia.

Around the beginning of the common era, Indian Buddhists began to collect fables, or jataka tales, illuminating various human virtues and foibles—from kindness, cooperation, loyalty and self-discipline on the one hand to greed, pride, foolishness, and treachery on the other. Instead of populating these stories with people, they cast the animals of their immediate environment in the leading roles—which may have given the tales a universal appeal that helped them travel around the world, surfacing in the Middle East as Aesop's fables and in various other guises throughout East and Southeast Asia, Africa, Russia, and Europe. Author and painter Mark McGinnis has collected over forty of these hallowed popular tales and retold them in vividly poetic yet accessible language, their original Buddhist messages firmly intact. Each story is accompanied with a beautifully rendered full-color painting, making this an equally attractive book for children and adults, whether Buddhist or not, who love fine stories about their fellow wise (and foolish) creatures.

Here is a book that might well be called "the japanese Mother Goose". It beautifully communicates the essence of Japanese childhood in a form that is immediately and delightfully understandable to children of other lands and cultures. In deft translation of 53 best-loved nursery songs and 55 pages of charmingly original illustrations the book offers an entertaining and instructive look at another country. (copied from dust jacket flaps).