Fables and Fairy Tales Books

This book is adourable!!! You'll get to stroll down memory lane, with clever twists on familiar rhymes with many of the Mother Goose stories coliding into one . The artwork is wonderful and vivid, the text very lyrical, both my 20-month old and I love it!

Beautifully read by singer Usha Uthup.... Mugdha Shah's artwork is the result of a study of traditional and folk designs.... The result is a cultural lesson that entertains and enlightens listeners.... The stories have a familiar ring to them, but a distinct Indian tone that transports listeners to faraway lands.... The traditional style music in the background is well done and not distracting, ...This is a winning series for libraries wishing to offer cultural opportunities to young readers.

Paul Kieve has given those interested in the performance and history of magic a fascinating read. The book, although written for a pre-teen audience, is packed with intimate factual information about the great magicians from magic's golden age, 1890 - 1930. Alexander, Chung Ling Soo, Lafayette, Talma, Ionia, and, of course, Houdini, leap from the pages to tell their stories and reveal a few performing secrets. Those just beginning their journey into the world of magic will learn enough basic magic tricks to create their own show with house-hold items. Those steeped in the knowledge of magic history will delight in the vintage magic posters that come alive to reveal the glory of each performer's show. For those in the know, imagine a lighter mix of the following classics in magic, Milbourne Christopher's Illustrated History of Magic, Charles and Regina Reynolds' One Hundred Years of Magic Posters, and Bruce Elliot's Classic Secrets of Magic. Paul has created a fresh classic at the start of the 21st century. Well done Paul! Hocus Pocus, Chung Ling Soo, The Man of Mystery, Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear, The Illustrated History of Magic

My 5 year old son loves the stories in this book. We borrowed it from the library twice and even brought it on our 2 week holiday recently where he actually took the book out several times to read it amid all the excitement of the holiday! We finally bought one to read over and over again.

It consists of 15 short stories some of which are King-Smith's funny animal versions of familiar fairy tales like "Hogsel & Gruntel", "Little Red Riding Pig", "Goldipig & The Three Bears", etc. Sure winner with young ones, just like the rest of his books. Many of the stories appear in individual books, but this beautiful hard cover collection with colour illustrations is great value for money.

Written by Noble Peace Prize winner and Mayan activist Rigoberta Menchu with the assistance Dante Liano and enhanced with full color artwork by Domi, The Honey Jar is an entertaining collection of short stories and encouraging tales drawn from the author's childhood growing up in a Mayan culture. These are tales and stories her grandparents told during her childhood, collected under one cover and offering a new generation of children a special insights into a Native American culture's captivating and imaginative folklore offering explanations of certain natural phenomena, magical twins, the sky, the sun and the moon, animals, plants, and the gods. Especially suitable for school and community library Folklore/Mythology collections for children, The Honey Jar is a very highly recommended read as a high interest for any young reader for its entertaining, imaginative, and vibrant tales, fables, and mysteries.

There is an entire sub-genre of myth and folklore consisting of stories that explain the distinctive qualities of animals. "How Chipmunk Got His Stripes" is a Native American story told along the East Coast, and in the Author's Notes for this volume we learn that while there are Cherokee, Abenaki and Mohawk versions, the earliest written one to be found is of Iroquois origin. What the father and son team of Joseph Bruchac and James Bruchac provide here is a longer and more detailed than what might be found elsewhere, the story having grown in the telling over the years.

The story begins with Bear out walking and bragging that he is the biggest, strongest, and loudest of the animals. Hearing his boasts, a little Brown Squirrel asks Bear is he can really do anything. Bear insists that he can, and so the little Brown Squirrel asks Bear to tell the sun not to rise tomorrow morning. Bear has never tried this before but is sure he can do it and tells the sun in the western sky not to come up tomorrow. The sun disappears behind the hills and Bear is sure that the sun if running away from him because it is afraid.

That night the Bear turned towards the east and instead of sleeping spent the night saying "The sun will not come up, hummph" over and over again. But as the night went on the little brown squirrel began to say "The sun is going to rise, oooh." This goes on and on all night long, and while the Bear and little Brown Squirrel keeping saying the same thing over and over again, the other animals gather around them to see who would be right. Now, whether you are a young reader or an older one, you might be able to figure out what is going to happen next and how that might end up with the chipmunk getting his stripes. Think about how you ancient storytellers could begin with the distinctive stripes of the chipmunk, come up with a perfectly logical reason for the look, and then have to invent a story that provides the motivation.

This charming story has colorful pictures by Jose Arugeo and Arianne Dewey ("Mushroom in the Rain," "We Hide You Seek") done with pen-and-ink and watercolor that was then scanner-separated and reproduced as red, blue, yellow and black halftones. I especially like their use of orange in the artwork, especially when it serves as a background to their pictures of Bear. As for the Bruchacs, they have also collaborated on "Native American Games" and a collection of Native American monster stories, "When the Chenoo Howls."

After hearing and watching Gayle Ross tell stories during a Native Children's Authors Festival in Northern California, I came across her audio tapes and absoultely love these stories. My daughter liked listening to them on the way to school and during long road trips, and would re-listen to them every few months without tiring of the stories. She even referenced them when telling her own stories! She was around 7 years old at the time we begin listening to them, and she is now almost 11 and just the other day asked me if we still had these stories before we left on a road trip. My only complaint is I wish they were available on CD. Highy recommend and a great intro. to audio books as an alternative to radio and gameboys on car trips, something the whole family can listen to over and over again.

I'm glad I was able to find this one for my son for Christmas, as others in the series are out of print now.

How Raven Stole The Sun is the latest addition to the Abbeville "Tales of the People" series of books for young readers, published in partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. Felix Vigil's artwork is perfectly suited to Maria Williams retelling of a Tlingit tale she first heard from her father. Its the story of how the Raven transformed himself to bring light to what had been an earth shrouded in darkness. How Raven Stole The Sun is further enriched for young readers with a glossary of Tlingit Words, a brief description of the Tlingit People; and photographs of artifacts drawn from the Smithsonian collection, as well as period photos of the Tlingit people. Other highly recommended titles in this outstanding series include The Butterfly Dance (0789201615, ...); Brave Wolf And The Thunderbird (0789201607, ...); and Coyote In Love With A Star (0789201623, ...).

This story has a great moral to it as well as being very entertaining and interesting to both children and adults. The plus side of the cassette is that Jack Nicholson tells it in such a way that everyone will enjoy listening to it over and over again. The illustrations are perfect to fit the story and are great at intriguing the children. We have had this story through both of our sons and they both STILL enjoy this book. Hopefully will pass it on to the grandchildren. Tell your friends and family about this one.