All Ages
Stories selected for reading together across age groups. “All Ages” is a browsing label, not a promise that every child will respond in the same way. Preview the individual story and its guidance, and adapt the pace and discussion to the people reading with you.
Chinese Folk Tales
All Ages
The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea
The Eight Immortals ride across the ocean on a crutch, a fan, a paper mule and more, until a greedy dragon prince steals a musical instrument and starts a war.
Japanese Folk Tales
All Ages
The Star Lovers
The Weaving Lady and the ox-herd love so much they neglect their work, so her father sets the Celestial River between them, letting them meet one night a year.
Hitopadesha
All Ages
The Doves and the Hunter’s Net
Caught together in a hunter’s net, a flock of doves follows their wise king’s plan to fly off with the net and seek help from a friendly mouse.
Korean Folk Tales
All Ages
Topknots and Crockery Hats
To stop the endless street brawls in his new kingdom, the wise counselor Kija invents a hat of baked clay four feet wide that cracks at the first blow.
Korean Folk Tales
All Ages
Tokgabi’s Menagerie
When the magic stone that keeps old Tip Pul’s wine bottle full goes missing, his dog Snap and his cat Mee Yow both set out to find it.
Korean Folk Tales
All Ages
The Story of Chang To-ryong
A ragged beggar who jokes with the servants in Bell Street is treated with fearful respect by the proudest magician in Seoul, and nobody can tell why.
Korean Folk Tales
All Ages
The Sky Bridge of Birds
Once a year every magpie in Korea flies up to the sky, where millions of them join wings to make a bridge across the River of Stars for two parted lovers.
Korean Folk Tales
All Ages
The Great Stone Fire Eater
A hungry Fire Spirit and the South Wind burn down the king’s new palace in Seoul, and the king’s wise men try a dragon, a pond and a stone beast to stop him.
Korean Folk Tales
All Ages
The Fortunes of Yoo
Locked in the palace overnight, a forgotten country scholar climbs a broken wall into a moonlit garden and meets a stranger who asks about the Book of Changes.
Korean Folk Tales
All Ages
Sir One Long Body and Madam Thousand Feet
A millipede and an earthworm are matched by a go-between, but village gossip about shoes for a thousand feet and one-legged trousers sets both of them worrying.
Korean Folk Tales
All Ages
Prince Sandalwood, the Father of Korea
A bear and a tiger try to become human by living on garlic in a dark cave, and the patient one’s new life leads to the birth of Korea’s first king.
Korean Folk Tales
All Ages
A Bridegroom for Miss Mole
A proud father mole offers his daughter to the Sky, the Sun, the Cloud, the Wind and a giant stone statue, and each sends him on to someone greater.