Fables and Fairy Tales Books

Caught in a tangled web of envy, greed, and deceit, Blanche is frantically running away. But we don't know from whom. From its opening pages, we enter a world of more mystery, intrigue, and romance as Blanche, Rose, Bear, and Fish return in the sequel to The Shadow of the Bear.

Why is Blanche running away?

Bear, her boy friend, has gone to Europe with his younger brother Fish to sort through his life. Blanche's sister, Rose and her mom have left for a long vacation in California.

Frightened, alone, and pursued by two punks on a New York subway, Blanche seeks refuge in a once abandoned church, only to find someone else is now living there. Actually, it's not one person, but a whole community of friars.

But is Blanche safe? Can she run away or will she be pursued even here in the security of this new community.

More than a mystery thriller or a dressed up fairy tale, this book touches on a number of themes, as well as tackles some weighty contemporary issues. What is unconditional love? How do we treat those who are poor, sick, or suffering?

Will Bear and Blanche's family return home and find her before it's too late? Will she find out the truth before it's too late? Read Black as Night and find out.

In 'Black as Night', Blanche is alone in New York city. A mysterious enemy from Bear's past is stalking Blanche and framing her for a crime she didn't commit. The enemy is also targeting Bear and Fish, who must try to solve the mystery and find Blanche, who is missing after being framed for drug possesion. Regina Doman's sequel to 'Shadow of the Bear' is just as exciting and unique as the first book was. Two thumbs up!!!

At my daughter's request, I am reading Black as Night: A Fairy Tale Retold. This is a great book for young teenagers as it follows the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The outline of the story is a familiar one for most kids, and they will like that the author grabs your attention at the beginning and holds it throughout the story. The main characters are upright teens with a sense of moral fortitude that is lacking in most "teen reads" that are on today's bookstore shelves. When faced with sticky social situations involving drugs and other modern cultural dilemna, the characters make decisions to protect their morals, rather than taking the easy way out and falling "victim" to their peers. It is a win-win for teens who march to the beat of a different drummer and persist through difficulties in a sometimes heroic fashion.

AWESOME BOOK! One of our older teenage daughter's VERY favorites. 3 weeks after Christmas she's read it twice. Contemporary Christian living with a twist.

This book is a sequel to Snow White and Rose Red (renamed The Shadow of the Bear). I read it in about one and a half days. Regina Doman is, as before, a great writer of charachter and plot, and I love what she does with the original fairy tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. There are a lot of Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass allusions that were a neat touch. And the villian was truly witch-like.
On the downside, this book was just not as good as the first one for me. It was a lot darker. Also, one of the things that attracted me to the first book was it's issues of christian faith. This book seems to be more about catholiscism than christiaity, which made it harder for me to relate to as a non-catholic. I also felt like drugs were overused as a threat. I felt like they were kind of a cop-out so violence didn't need to be employed. At every plot turn there were drugs all over the place.
Nevertheless, this book is a suspenseful read and worth the money.
And it might could have gotten four stars if Bear didn't look like he was forty on the cover.

This is the second series of "Rainbow Magic" fairy books written by Daisy Meadows, picking up where the seven-part Rainbow Fairies series left off. These books are innocent and engaging, focusing on two young girls, Kirsty and Rachel, who meet while on vacation with their parents, and are drawn into the magical world of the fairies, who are in conflict with the mischievous Jack Frost. The structure of this series is nearly identical to the first: the girls are given a quest in which they must help seven fairies (each with sparkles aplenty and cute, super-girly outfits and princess-y names such as Hayley, Heather, Iris, Amber and Iris... ) who have been bothered by Jack and his goblin helpers. In each book they complete one part of the quest and meet one new fairy.

It is important to know going in that these books are interconnected -- each individual volume ties in with the others, so you will want to start with book #1, then go on to #2, etc. The plots are not very complicated, but they do make reference to each other, and the idea is to read them all together.

The other thing to know is that these books are not very scary or troubling - there is action, but not much real danger (the goblins are easily beaten, and not very frightening) so if you are looking for longer narratives for young kids to read, but don't want anything disturbing, this series is good option. One criticism is that the books are pretty WASP-y, and while a couple of the fairies might be seen as Asian, basically the entire series takes place in an all-white, middle-class world, populated with thin, blonde girls and a few brunettes. Other than that, though, this is a good series for families looking for light, engaging, age-appropriate stories. Not much depth, but they are very readable and engaging. (ReadThatAgain children's book reviews)

My Daughter Loves this book & looks forward to read the rest of the series. Its very easy to read.

My daughter liked Crystal so much she wanted to get the rest of the weather fairies. We have since bought the Rainbow Fairies and Jewel Fairies. She loves reading them! They are captivating and have super illustrations. She also enjoyed Holly The Christmas Fairy as a Christmas surprise!

My seven-year old daughter Clare has read 12 books by Daisy Meadows and we've ordered several more. She especially liked Crystal the Snow Fairy. It has great pictures. Some of her other favorites include: Pearl the Cloud Fairy and Heather the Violet Fairy. What a great series!

I love this book! I would recommend this book for ages 5 and up. In this book Jack Frost's evil goblins stole Doodle's, the rooster who gives the weather faries their weather feathers so they can control the weather in FairyLand, tail feathers which are the weather feathers! Kirsty and Rachel are best friends, who are friends with the fairies so they can help! Their first mission is in this book when they have to find Crystal the snow fairies weather feather. Read this book to find out more!

Like a lot of Maurice Sendak's books - you love it as a kid, and you love it as an adult for very different reasons.

I guess I need Dear Mili afterall to remind me of other things than life's mandane, and to help me see our seemingly unsatisfying life in a different light.

Maurice Sendak's drawings enhanced the classical beauty of the Grimm's fairytale. You can almost see the elegant images listlessly brings the words to life as the best storytellers do.

This story is sad, but told beautifully. It is also inspiring and comforting.

A little girl is sent into the woods alone by her fearful mother when war comes to the village. She manages to find peace and loving care in the home of St. Joseph. When it is time for her to return to the village so much has changed.

This tale by Grimm is beautiful. In my opinion it is translated well as the words are rich and descriptive and there is a satisfying pace to the story throughout. The introduction itself is nearly as moving as the tale that follows. Sendak's illustrations magically combine reality with imagination and the double page spreads grow out from the page and allow you to fall into them.
The setting and scene changes are enough to tug your emotions. This story's scene sequence is as follows: a quiet country village, a village in panic at the threat of invasion, a child wandering alone in the woods, a child in the comforting care of St. Joseph, back to the village which has now changed.

The subject matter is not light in this tale about love and two hearts coming together. A tale like this could not be as well told if one were to attempt to tell it lightly.

This book scared the crap out of me as a child. The images, the story are dark and nightmarish. The pictures are incredibly striking - I haven't picked up the book in years but I still remember many elements - fire licking from the sky, greyish tangling trees and flowers, the ghostly quality of the little girl. I wouldn't recommend this book for children. I don't think I've encountered anything in children's *or* adult literature since that has so disturbed me.

Dear Mili was a surprise in many ways. While Maurice Sendak has never failed to amaze, this tender rendering a newly discovered fairy tale set as a metaphor of children hidden in the holocaust is one of the most beautiful experiences a reader can have. This is my favorite children's book of all time: the artwork is I believe the peak of Sendak's career. A small girl living alone with her mother is sent for safety in the forest when a terrible foreboding threatens. In the forest she meets St. Joseph, and another small one, who keep her safe. Returning after a pleasant journey, she finds her mother aged and alone.
Their is joy and reunion: this is a poignant story on many levels. Looking deeply at the artwork one will see shoah themes:
Sendak in premiere Jewish sensitivity has done a remarkable thing: taken ancient Grimm Catholic legend and woven it into a metaphor for all of us, for all time. If this book does not tender the heart of the older who read to the younger, they have no heart. Absolutely 5-stars: Should be a classic and not out of print.

Although I adore the Fables series, when I first saw that Jack had his own series, I wasn't interested because Jack is my least favorite character.

However, I wanted something to fill the void between the release of Vol. 9 (in June!), so I turned to Jack...and loved it. Even though I continue to dislike Jack, the plot is quick and fun, and the supporting characters intriguing enough to draw me into this new series.

Bill Willingham's "Fables" series has already taken some of the world's best-loved characters in a new and thoroughly modern direction. Now, Jack of the Tales -- a.k.a. Jack the Giant-Killer, Jack Horner, Jack Frost, John Trick and Jack B. Nimble -- has broken with the fold (OK, he was banished) and is out on his own. It doesn't take him long at all before he's tossed unwillingly into the Golden Boughs Retirement Community, where the dread Scissorman keeps story characters captive until they fade from the collective subconscious and lose their power.

On the bright side, the revolutionary and homicidal maniac Goldilocks is there, not at all dead as previously believed, and without Baby Bear to sate her, she's willing to get kinky with Jack. (There's nothing explicit, but this isn't a book for youngsters.) But Jack wants to escape the inescapable, and with the help of Humpty Dumpty, a handful of fairies, a large flock of birds and an elderly Sambo, he just might do it.

Anyone who enjoys the "Fables" series will love this. And since everyone should enjoy "Fables," you might as well pick up your copy now.

by Tom Knapp, Rambles.NET editor

I'm a huge fan of Bill Willingham's FABLES series, but I was rather loathe to give the Jack books a try. Why? Of all the characters in FABLES, Jack was easily my least favorite. I found nothing about him to be at all interesting and in fact found him to be quite unlikable. So, I figured that this would be an unlikable, unpleasant book.

Was I ever wrong! To be honest, I still don't like Jack, but the book introduced a whole new collection of Fables, many of American origin (like Paul Bunyan and Babe or Dorothy and her buds from the WIZARD OF OZ). Maybe of the others seemed to be of more recent origin, like the several characters from Lewis Carroll who populated the story, including Alice. The most surprising fable was Sam, who for the life of me I couldn't identify until very late in the book, when he ran so fast he turned tigers into butter. Very few people today are familiar with the widely reviled former children's classic LITTLE BLACK SAMBO, but Sam turned out to be that story's title character. Goldilocks was back and we learned about her unpleasant (though deserved) fate after her attempt to kill Snow White and Bigby Wolf. All in all, this was just a great collection of characters and I thoroughly enjoyed every page of their story.

So if you are like me and don't like Jack, no worries. If you love FABLES, you'll love this. It has all of the magic, originality, humor, and charm of the main series. Even before I had finished reading this I had run to my computer and ordered the second Jack book.

Jack of Fables gets his own spin-off series! I have to admit, at first, I was sort of like, why? But, now I understand. It's because Jack kicks butt! In case you don't know, Jack also goes by Jack of the Beanstalk, Jack B. Horner, Jack of the Tales, and apparently Jack Frost in colder climates.

When we last saw Jack in the Fables comics, he had become a huge player in the Hollywood scene, with fame, money and lots of girls, only to have it all taken away from him by the sheriff of Fabletown, The Beast (from Beauty and the Beast, of course). Left to fend for himself, we meet up with Jack as he walks along a highway with the million dollars Beast let him keep. Suddenly he is picked up with a strange woman and two bagmen (men who are, well, bags, it's weird I know) and taken to a place called The Golden Boughs Retirement community. There he finds Goldilocks (missing from the Fables comics for awhile as well) and other various and sundry fable characters many of whom are very obscure. Someone did their research! Among them are Mother Goose, the Pathetic Fallacy, and a quick little guy called Sam. There are also cameos by Dorothy, Tin Man, Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, Toto, and many others.

There Jack meets a rather nefarious guy called Mr. Revise who runs The Golden Boughs. Mr. Revise's mission is, apparently, imprison fairy tales until the world at large forgets about them, making them less magical. Mr. Revise's sinister intent is to do away with them and rid the world of magic forever

As I said before, I was surprised when they decided to spin-off Jack. Now that I can see where the story is going, I totally understand. This series looks to be completely separate from the Fables universe (no Adversary, none of the regulars from that comic) and has a great story going. The parallels to our own world and the issues we face with censorship are expertly addressed in the story arc with Mr. Revise and the Golden Boughs. I can't wait to see where Bill Willingham and crew go with this in the next part of the series.

And, as always, the art was simply amazing, especially James Jean's beautiful covers. And, I would advise catching up on the Fables comics, not because this can't stand alone because I think it really can, but because they are just so fantastic they need to be read too!

If there was still the least doubt that Bill Willingham was a masterful writer in the pantheon of comic book genius along with Alan Moore, Kurt Busiek, Linda Medley, and Neil Gaiman, this book surely dispels it. Wit, erudition (absolutely spot-on research on often obscure characters --- loved seeing Little Black Sambo again!), and fast-paced engaging storytelling abound.

Toward the middle of the collection, when we find out how Dorothy really has felt about Toto all these years, well, this writer was still trying to compose himself and stop rolling on the floor in spasm of laughter a good forty-five minutes later. Absolutely delicious.

As with the other FABLES stories, these are not for the young. Rather, Willingham brings these wickedly flawed characters back to the shady and earthy sexiness and violence from which they originally sprang, before they were tidied up for Victorian and 20th century nurseries. Ironically, this is one of Willingham's themes throughout the FABLES tales (which are all also wonderful and highly recommended).

During a time of conflict and upheavel, a wandering story teller is arrested by a perfidious bureaucrat for the crime of appearing suspicious and being in the wrong place at the wrong time (and possible violations of the Patriot Act). Imprisoned, Kai Lung does not languish. Although his enemy has the ear of the local mandarin, Kai Lung is aided by a beautiful woman who possesses the mandarin's other ear. In the tradition of "The Arabian Nights" our hero intrigues the mandarin's interest, spinning tales by turn ironic, poignant and pointed. With each tale told, the sympathy of the mandarin, the frustration of the bureaucrat and the love between Kai Lung and his ally grow accordingly and Kai Lung survives another day.

This story is set in the China of long ago and related through the filter of an early twentieth century english writer. The courtly, overly flowery language is deliciously funny and displays a sly satiricism which reminds me of "Gulliver's Travels". A truly timeless gem which may be read on different levels by different ages.

Will Kai Lung survive? Yes, but you really should see how...

During a time of conflict and upheavel, a wandering story teller is arrested by a perfidious bureaucrat for the crime of appearing supicious and being in the wrong place at the wrong time (and possible violations of the Patriot Act). Imprisoned, Kai Lung does not languish. Although his enemy has the ear of the local mandarin, Kai Lung is aided by a beautiful woman who possesses the mandarin's other ear. In the tradition of "The Arabian Nights" our hero intrigues the mandarin's interest, spinning tales by turn ironic, poignant and pointed. With each tale told, the sympathy of the mandarin, the frustration of the bureaucrat and the love between Kai Lung and his ally grow accordingly and Kai Lung survives another day.


This story is set in the China of long ago and related through the filter of an early twentieth century english writer. The courtly, overly flowery language is deliciously funny and displays a sly satiricism which reminds me of "Gulliver's Travels". A truely timeless gem which may be read on different levels by different ages.

Will Kai Lung survive? Yes, but you really should see how...

I tried to write my comments on Ernest Bramagh's Kai Lung's Golden Hours, which I just finished, in the same style:

In the opinion of this lowly reader, the esteemed author before our unworthy eyes has created a gem of the highest quality, polished by fine craft.

But you can only do this so long before you get frustrated, which is why you have to admire Bramagh, because he could maintain this oblique and ornate style throughout and still manage to tell a compelling and, more than often, extremely humorous story.

The titular character, Kai Lung, is a storyteller who runs afoul of the local authorities, in particular a rather nasty advisor. The problem is that Kai has set his eyes on a most beautiful young woman who is also highly desired by the advisor, and the mandarin in charge is quite corrupt. The one saving grace for Kai Lung is that the mandarin also likes a good story. Like Scherazade, Kai Lung is therefore in the positive of entertaining for his life, and that he is able to accomplish this is not due to the fragment of 1001 stories available to him, but also the help of his beloved (a fairly strong female character given the situation and the date this was written, 1922).

Not everyone will care for this book, because a style as circular and dense as this doesn't lead itself to the short-attention-span-generation (only James Branch Cabell has a more elaborate, yet beautiful, prose form in fantasy). I don't know what it was about the 1920s that enabled the creation of such great comedy (Bramagh, Cabell, P.G. Wodehouse [who first became popular as a novelist in the 1920s], Thorne Smith). Maybe it was the post-War jubiliation, the underground of prohibition, or the pre-Depression stockmarket? Not ours to wonder why, but just to enjoy and laugh.

The earlier reviewers of this book have said everything there is to say (and much better than I could have said it). I am the lucky possessor of a collected volume of all the Kai Lung stories. After having read Kai Lung's golden hours and the other books in the series, there was just one thing felt : a sense of profound sadness that there isn't more of Kai Lung to read!

I am adding this in 2003. I was wrong in writing that I have the entire collection of Kai Lung books. I learnt subsequently that there are a few missed out from my collection. For the records here is the complete list of the published Kai Lung stories :

The Wallet of Kai Lung
Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat
Kai Lung's Golden Hours
The Moon of Much Gladness (novel)
Kai Lung Beneath the Mulberry Tree
Kai Lung: Six

The last apparently contains six Kai Lung stories previously published ONLY in Punch magazine; the print edition for this book ran into a mere 250 copies and was published by Tacoma: The Non-Profit Press, 1974.

I have only the following :

The Wallet of Kai Lung
Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat
Kai Lung's Golden Hours
Kai Lung Beneath the Mulberry Tree

Kai Lung: Six, unfortunately was published in a very limited number of copies and I am unable to acquire one at an affordable price. The Moon of Much Gladness I hope to get soon.

My thanks to one of the persons who read this review and through his queries alerted me to the fact that - as I discovered later -my Kai Lung collection was not complete.

If you're here for the first time, then you have my sympathy on learning that this book is out of print. It's time for a re-issue--are you listening, Penguin Classics?

These stories are about a wandering storyteller, who gets into various jams and escapes with the aid of his silver tongue and an admiring coquette. For someone who apparently never visited China, and never even met that many Chinese, the verisimilitude Bramah achieves is amazing. This is an English child's storybook China, yet the stories themselves richly delight adults, too. The scene-setting is wonderful, but the real gem is the dialogue. Suave, sly, elliptically ceremonious, mock-abnegating--but you really have to read it to catch the flavor. Hillaire Belloc's introduction is on the money about how deceptively easy this style looks, and it is a great pity that more people do not have the opportunity to enjoy this and the other Kai Lung works today.

May your sleeves be filled with a sufficiency of taels, and may hungry and homeless ghosts find solace at your house-pole, and preserve your family tablets from the mischiefs of the lesser orders of the beings of the Upper Air...

This book is so great I had a old copy that was my moms when she was litle then mine, so I bought a new one for my daughter it is GREAT, very interesting and good for the imagimation. However there were some coffe stains in the book when the seller listed it as new.

Over the years I continue to love this book. Part of the reason is that it is a well told story involving animals. I also love the drawings.
I recently purchased this book for my niece and for the older children of two families who will be having a new addition. When I was asked to present a child's book to my class in middle school this was the book I chose.

MY DAUGHTER LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH, THAT WHEN SHE WAS SELECTED TO READ TO OTHERS DURING LIBRARY WEEK, SHE CHOSE THE MITTEN. THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN A FAVORITE OF OUR FAMILY'S AND NOW I AM ORDERING THIS ONE FOR MY FIRST GRANDCHILD. A READER FROM CA.

Even though I buy them for my daughter, I try not to review items that I owned or remember from my childhood as I feel I am biased towards them simply because of the nostalgic factor. However, I do think I would still love this book even if I had just recently come upon it. For starters it has such vibrant colors with the alternating turquoise background and the bright red and gold Ukrainian clothing. And what child wouldn't love the thought of woodland creatures taking refuge from the snow in his or her lost mitten, although the story is just folklore and the product of a child's imagination...or is it?

What a treasure: the illustrations and the story go hand in hand so wonderfully, quiet and witty and authentic. If you have Slavic roots, the Ukrainian illustrator's work may have extra resonance for you. Yaroslava drew the animals wearing Ukrainian costume, but with subtle touches of real life; this one's boots have creases, see the wrinkles in that one's heavy coat. I always wondered if there was an anti-Soviet subtext to the characters all insisting on sharing one living-space until it bursts at the seams (literally)...

It can be difficult to find a fairy tale collection that manages to hit on a wider spectrum of stories, rather than the hish-hash collections of everything that everyone has memorized or the collections that go out of the way to find the most unknown and unusual. This has both, from the familiar to the distinctly different, and told in a classic Victorian voice. There is a story for everyone here, romantic, macabre, and even funny, and from a variety of countries and cultures. It's a good, basic show of different types of stories, and each one is memorable! Defintely a must-have for the fairy tale collector!

I originally heard about the Red Fairy Book in the Annotated Hobbit, it was listed as one of J.R.R. Tolkiens influance's.
Anyways I found it and started to read it, and I must say it is the best fairy tale book I own. It's much more lush and interesting than Grimms, though Grimm is great, this book is so far my favorite.
Quite possibly the best fairy tale book ever written.

I bought Lang's Red Fairy book on a lark, expecting it to be just another re-collection of Grimms' tales and various English and French fairy tales that I had already been exposed to. I expected it would be nice, light bedtime reading and little else. When I saw that the first tale was the Twelve Dancing Princesses, I settled in for a rehash of a tale I've know since childhood.

Was I ever surprised! The Twelve Dancing Princesses was related in a manner I had never read before, the end result being a much more engaging storyline. The hero and his bride were given names, personalities, and a depth that is missing from practically every other fairy tale collection I own. The result is a story that is short enough to be read to a child at bedtime, but lush, engaging, and interesting enough to grip even the most jaded folktale enthusiast. Just a small list of the differences in the Twelve Dancing Princesses story from the "traditional" versions I already owned:

1. The hero seeking the elusive answer is not an old, jaded soldier, but a young, thoughtful peasant boy.

2. The princes who fail to find the answer do not have their heads cut off by the murderous king (a plot device which made no sense, because it discouraged questors who might gain the answer, not to mention that the kingly fathers would likely object to this treatment of their sons), but rather "disappear" completely - a development that is carefully explained in the story.

3. The princesses come to accept the loss of their nightly amusements and relish a chance to grow up, put away childish things, and become queens.

4. The princess who marries the questor marries him out of love and acceptance, and the marriage is a joyous one, not a form of humiliation and punishment of the 'proud' princess.

Each of the stories is this way - old, familiar, completely recognizable, and yet totally new and compelling. I cannot recommend this collection highly enough, and once I finish the Red book, I will happily move to the next colors in the rainbow.

As Tolkien's enthusiastic, I read The Red Fairy Book because I wanted to know about Tolkien's early influences.
Andrew Lang's books were the first books that Tolkien ever read, he owned The Red Fairy Book and even after long time he remembered it fondly.
If you are searching for Tolkien in this book you will not be disappointed. You will find there the source for the name of Pippin for instance, you will find in the stories grains of ideas and themes that later found themselves in LOTR.

But you will find there more than just LOTR references. You will find great stories, some of them a little naive for the cynical reader, but all of them interesting. Even if you are adult, this book will conquer you completely. This is a book for all the members of the family. You will love it and your children will love it. Some of the stories are suitable for very small children to read to them before bedtime.

If you are searching for so called "sophisticated" books, this book is not for you. It contained simple stories, some of them with moral and it is lacking complex motives and emotions, after all, it is fairy tales.

When I was in third grade, my school had the Red, Blue, and Yellow Faerie books, and as I was an avid reader I read all 3 of them. The one I continued to check-out and reread over and over again however was The Red Fairy Book. I have fond memories of many hours spent turning the pages of this book, and admittedly, it could be that I am looking back thru rose colored spectacles, it made such an impression on me that I am now collecting the whole fairy book series.

If you liked Faerie Wars, you'll like this one. It continues Henry and Blue's "like me or love me" relationship as they try to save the Faerie Realm from both Blue's uncle and the demon Beleth. Lots of action and surprises that make it an easy entertaining read.

Another fast paced adventure in this series. The same characters are seen, and Henry's life on Earth is still just as confused. At the opening of the novel he is trying to convince himself that the Fairie Realm is his reation to stress and that he created it all in his mind. Of course he and the reader get to be really confused as he is abducted by aliens and later transported a la Star Trek into the Fairy Realm.

The love Henry and Blue feel for each other is exploited in this and Blue is having a hard time dealing with the pressures of being the Ruler.

While these books are about fairies and magic they have alot more of a tomboyish bent to them than a girly froofy fairy tale. Some very fun scenes happen and clearly this is not the last book in the series.

My favorite books are fantasy and while I may not put this right next to the dragon lance series, I thoroughly enjoyed the set.

the book was in better shape than listed and was sent in record time this is a good person to buy from and i will be buying more from him

A new 'Faerie Wars Chronicles' title for middle-school fantasy enthusiasts will reach both prior fans of The Faerie Wars and newcomers, who will find most accessible the story of the newly crowned Queen Blue, who is trying to rule her new kingdom. Her visit to the Spicemaster brings a warning and when her brother discovers a secret weapon just when Lord Hairstreak offers peace, trouble ensues, furthered by Blue's disappearance just as Henry returns from the Analogue world. It's the third adventure in the chronicles, but leisure readers will find it quite accessible.

Absolutely beautiful. The artwork is achingly pretty and the stories are wonderful. I'm a folklore nut and an illustration enthusiast, so this book made my whole weekend.

My 9 yr old son loves the stories in this book. He is very interested in dwarves, fairies and the like, so this book is perfect for finding out more about them. I would highly recommend this book.

This book far exceeded my expectations. The illustrations are not just beautiful, imaginative, and magically evocative; they are plentiful, too, with one on nearly every other page. The tales are well constructed and wonderfully readable in this translation. I assume they are 19th century art tales, but they are in the folk tradition and they keep to a standard stable of fantastic creatures (usually trolls, sometimes also tomtes or gnomes or elves). I would have liked a bit more bibliographic and biographical information on the writers (not just on the remarkable John Bauer), but this is a quibble that maybe a future printing can fix (along with the occasional typo).

Quibbles aside, I recommend this collection most highly. I read it out loud to an almost-four year old daughter and a five-and-a-half year old son and they love it. Princesses, trolls, brave and clever peasants making their way in the big world: what more could one wish for?

In short, the stories are a good length for reading aloud, the pictures are plentiful, and altogether this is a truly enjoyable book. I don't write many reviews, but I had to sing the praises of this gem.

The illustrations and the stories are a wonderful combination, and they converge to make this book truly a "must have". In fact, I ordered one copy for my daughters to share at Christmas, and then after seeing it, I ordered 2 more copies so that they could each have one of their own to keep. It's that good! I prefer these tales over the Grimm's fairy tales (though those are very good) but there is something simply spellbinding about these. And John Bauer's illustrations -- what can I say? Pure magic. I have since looked for more folk tales from this area of the world, and for more works llustrated by Bauer, but really there is nothing like this book out there. If your child loves to hear a good tale you can't go wrong with this book. Buy it, and I guarantee that you won't regret it.

Fantasy, whimsey & pathos- all the ingredients to wonderful tales for young and old are here in full measure. John Bauer's illustrations were for me a previously unknown treasure. They capture the beauty and grotesque elements of legend and folklore with the playfulness of a Dulac or Rackham. If only Bauer had lived, what more wonders could he have created? Some of the finest Swedish authors are included in this collection as well, including the superlative Elsa Beskow. Share this collection with a child as well as yourself.

I really enjoyed this book. I bought it to read to my four-year-old and the book well exceeded my expectations.

Here you will find classics such as the Three Billy Goats Gruff and tales you may never have heard of. They are all beautifully put together and could be told as a traditional story teller might or read aloud for maximum impact.

Great stories well told, and a treasure trove for children and folklorists alike.

I bought this book for my 9 yr old son who is interested in fantasy. The stories are really entertaining and he very much loves to read about the trolls, dwarves and other beings. The illustrations are also great! I would highly recommend this book.

I love children's books and I love sharing them with children. I have high standards... I like good writing. I expect illustrations that truly add something to the quality of the storytelling and which are truly artistic. Usually one or the other, and often both, is lacking.

Lise Lunge-Larsen brought my Scandinavian heritage forward in a respectful way when she retold these tales, and Betsy Bowen's well known woodcuts did everything art can do to encourage the telling of a tale. The art actually has a nostalgic feel that lends to how old troll tales are and seemed to have been dug out of the past with them.

I had begun reading about trolls to my son with D'Aulaires' Book of Trolls (New York Review Children's Collection), and while I love the d'Aulaires artistry and it's a well written book, it was as much the history of trolls as it was stories. My son sat through it, but he didn't beg for me to read like he did with this one. Lunge-Larsen takes the opposite approach with a little bit of Troll lore followed by mostly story. Having already read d'Aulaire aloud and taking my son's age into consideration, I read the commentary to myself this time and only read him the stories. He has continued to come back to this book to hear favorite stories again (which is good -- memory has its development in the early years and hearing stories repeated is beneficial) and asked for felt board characters to go along with the books and to aid him in narrating the stories from memory both for my benefit and when he is on his own.

I was so happy to find these wonderful troll stories told the way I remember them! My mother (who grew up in northern Minnesota) told us kids these stories when we were very small (that's a long time ago). Lately I thought the tradition was lost because I could only find watered-down versions of the the Three Billy Goats Gruff, not the fascinating and powerful tales I remembered. But all is not lost. Here is a collection of genuine Troll stories, with ugly, scary trolls in all shapes and sizes, and clever boys and girls who persevere through wild and strange adventures and eventually save the day. Great stories, wonderfully told. The illustrations are beautiful.

I first borrowed this book from the library, but of course had to then buy a copy of my own. I highly recommend this book.

My kids love these stories. Some of these I remember from my childhood but most were new to me. I love the intros to all the tales. They really describe what true Norwegian Trolls are like. The illustrations are perfectly done. They match the way the stories unfold and the ruffness of the illustrations really brings out that uncivilized Troll imagery.