Fables and Fairy Tales Books

Used this book as a part of our cultural curriculum. My students really enjoyed the story and illustrations.

It's a shame this book is out of print. I love the way the stories are written, as if the author is speaking directly to us... holds my four year old's attention no problem. Not to mention the illustrations are enchanting.

This book has it all--bare bones stories that provide plenty of scope for imagination, helpful hints for telling each one, and great sections on medieval Europe and the medieval tradition of storytelling. Children will like this book because Czarnota has made the characters inviting and the stories exciting; parents will like this book because their children will be learning something; and teachers will love this book because it provides fodder for an entire teaching unit--there are suggested activites, dress up ideas, the whole nine yards. It's also a good resource for children and adults who are beginning to tell stories, whether professionally or just for fun. Czarnota gives all the background information necessary for anyone to make up their own stories from the skeleton she provides. All in all, a wonderful addition to almost any collection: library, classroom, storyteller's, or kid's.

My 3.5 year old found this book in a bookstore and was so fascinated with the beautiful illustrations that we had to read the entire book there and then. After we brought it home it would become a must read each night for weeks to come. The story has just the right amount of suspense to keep young children engaged, but not too much as to overwhelm them. It was a great book to show children aspects of virtue and vice. My 3.5 year old is picking up from it the goodness of bravery and loyalty. My almost 5 year old also concluded that "if you don't use your power to do good things, you will lose it." It is a rare find as a combination of beautiful illustrations, captivating story, and important lessons to learn from. The text is long and it takes more than 10 minutes to go through the entire book, even longer with explanations. But the children are engaged and will sit through multiple iterations at a time. Some words are not part of ordinary vocabulary for young children but they can be easily explained. This book could easily become a favorite for older children as well.

Every now and then some well-meaning person decapitates the statue of the little mermaid in Denmark. There is no need for them to bother.

What worries people about Hans Anderson's story of the little mermaid is the image of a woman who is so desperate for love that she'll give up the use of her voice and will walk on feet that hurt as if knives were going through them. Having found the man she loves, she'll step aside and evaporate rather than harm her beloved. Its' an image of self-sacrifice that many women find repugnant.

However I don't think the story is really about women being self-sacrificing at all. Instead it's about how much Hans Anderson himself wanted to be loved.

Anderson was ugly - comically ugly and clumsy. This, combined with his poverty, meant that for much of his early life, he was an outsider who, rather like another of his creations, the little matchgirl, was always looking in at the happy, comfortable scenes of the lives of others but feeling only the cold winds of his own solitude.

Convinced that he was meant to do something great - he even considered being a ballet dancer! - he hung around famous people trying to find encouragement, direction and patronage. They amused themselves at his expense but failed to notice that he was almost starving and had clothes that were too small and in rags. Possibly the image of the knives in the feet of the mermaid arose from his experience of wearing ill-fitting shoes during the frozen Danish winters.

Eventually, after returning to school to learn to read and write properly, he found his voice and wrote his stories. However, he didn't have the courage to pursue the woman that he loved and, though she may well have responded to him, he lost her to another. Tormented by loneliness, he lived without the love he craved.

I believe that the image of the little mermaid represents his emotions. Perhaps he felt at times as if he would gladly trade in his own hard-won powers of self-expression (just as the mermaid traded in her voice) if only he could be loved. And perhaps, when Anderson's beloved married another, he felt as if his soul had drifted away into the ether, as the little mermaid's does at the end of the story.

Each of us has a deep, secret yearning to see our own image reflected in the affectionate eyes of another. His story is not meant to be a prescription for how women should behave but is really a series of poetic images that express how strong within us all the desire for love can be.

Children may enjoy a biography of Anderson written by Ruth Saunders but there are many others written for adults about this complex, courageous and sad man.

What a BEAUTIFUL book! I'm an middle aged woman and I fell in love with this book! The story tugs at your heart and the illustrations are remarkable! I've never even heard of this story, written by Queen Marie of Romania, but I am SO glad that I found it! Enjoy, and MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BOX OF TISSUES NEAR BY!

If you love words, a great tale, a spinner of fable and fantasy, a literate charmer. Here's your man. Earnest Bramah has captivated me for fifty years, with no end in sight. I swoon each time I read one of his tales, or as he puts it: "Kai Lung unrolling his mat", so that he can commence telling his tale.

"The Mole's Daughter" is one of the best illustrated children's books. The pages of stylish paintings remind me of many childhood moments when the sky, the sun, the cloud, and the wind were still the sources of imagination. My son loves the book! In a world globally-warmed by machines, spiders, and poohs, "The Mole's Daughter" is a delightful breeze.

There are four character in this story. They are Mole, Fox, raccoon and skunk. Mole digging annoys fox, racoon and skunk. Fox says she has to stop digging and move when the maple leaves turn red and orange. Mole doesn't want to move and she gets an idea. So when raccoon and skunk come to check if she is getting ready to move they're in for a big surprise.
I liked this because it has beautiful picture they look like they are made out of ribbons with little black dots on them. My favorite character is Mole because she has a smart mind and great ideas.

For nearly forty years Fred Chappell has been displaying his mastery of various literary forms. Chappell considers himself primarily a poet, but he is also an accomplished novelist as well, and in 1980 he published his first collection of short stories, the present MOMENTS OF LIGHT. It is as masterful as his work in other genres, and there is more than one critic who believes that short fiction is Chappell's true forte.

Annie Dillard provides the introduction here, and she sees the stories tied together thematically as an attempt to show man's birth, innocence, and fall from grace. I'm not sure I agree with this interpretation, but I certainly concur with Dillard's estimation that MOMENTS OF LIGHT contains some truly extraordinary writing.

Chappell is such a versatile artist. He can write rural comedy and horror and historically based fiction. Among his characters are Joseph Haydn and Benjamin Franklin. In fact the best story here maybe the title tale, in which Haydn discovers the cosmos and gets a glimpse of the eternal prospects of great art. Equally fine is "Blue Dive", with a traditional blues musician bewildered by changing tastes in music, and "Thousand Ways", about desultory souls seeking solace. It is wonderful.

All the stories here are wonderful, and the book is well worthy your time and will repay you with delight.