When a cold winter comes to the forest, a little fox awakens one morning to the magic of a first snowfall. His romp in the snow is cut short, however, when his cold, wet paws turn peony colored. What he needs, his mother decides, are some woolen mittens the size of his little paws.

So begins an overnight journey into a village where humans live to buy a pair of mittens and where, along the way, the little fox learns that people are more complicated creatures than he thought.

Buying Mittens is a classic story that has charmed Japanese children for generations. Written by one...