Translated from Japanese by Marine Pénigaud with the participation of Valérie Rouzeau

A long time ago, in a faraway land, there lived a widow with her two daughters. The eldest was named O-Yuki, Snow, and the youngest O-Hana, Flower...

Thus begins the first of these Ten Short Tales to Read in Company, written in the ^19th century by Iwaya Sazanami. The first Japanese writer to write specifically for young people, immensely popular, he earned the nickname Otogi no ojisan, "the uncle with wonderful tales."

Combining humor with a discreet moral, Sazanami depicts animals, natural elements or playful, sometimes cruel children. He mixes the fantastic and the ordinary in the description of a daily life close to the child's imagination.

This is the first time that Sazanami and his short stories to read in company have been translated into French.