FLOATING CLOUDS, FLOATING DREAMS: Favorite Asian Folktales

Junne has assembled 26 pleasing, if not unusual, stories from eleven different Asian countries. The range in tone, subject and sophistication is wide, including such short amusing anecdotes as ""The Tall Tales"" from Burma and ""Mister Lazybones"" from Laos on the one hand and ""Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Peribanou,"" the long, romantic fairy tale from Persia, on the other. The motifs are familiar to any casual reader of folktales and many of the stories -- such as the Japanese ""Magic Listening Cap"" and ""The Rice Cake That Rolled Away"" are themselves well known and widely retold. Ten of the stories are in fact reprinted from collections by Uchida, Pearl Buck and others (the rest are signed by Tanya Lee) and except for their acknowledgment Junne supplies no source or background notes. However as the selections are consistently entertaining and told with notable fluency the collection should prove a convenient resource for reading individually or aloud.