Mythology and Folklore Books

Great primer for the unenlightened. I purchased this book after taking a fascinating tour of Salem, Mass. and I think that it has been a perfect complement to the information I learned in Salem. Good, detailed accounts of the Inquisition (i.e., the Great European Witch Hunt) and the Salem Witch Trials. Excellent listing of historic and modern-day witches, wiccans, neo-pagans, etc. Non-judgmental insofar as the book balances its criticism of witch-hunters with the amount of credence it places on so-called "witch powers." Surpisingly well-researched and authoritative (on the historical background section) given the airy, unencumbered prose. You forget that you're reading a compilation of excellent research. The only flaw I could find is that the author insists on spelling out the plots of some "popular culture" pieces (like Harry Potter, Charmed, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Rosemary's Baby, etc.) like a schoolmarm would read a story to her pupils. A bit uninspired in the end, but otherwise an interesting read.

From Author of "Script Magic: Subconscious Techniques to Conquer Writer's Block. I was spellbound by this book. Author Bartel presents her fascinating material in a voice rich with imagery yet with a scholarly accent. She's researched her subject well, and this book differentiates itself from its competitors in that its both fun and educational to read. Highly recommended!

Pauline Bartel's Spellcasters delves into the history and spirituality of witches, providing a history of witchcraft fabled and factual and covering both classic and contemporary witchcraft. From historical sources to modern mysticism and beliefs, Spellcasters presents true stories of rituals, events and history.

I admit that I bought it because my prof wrote it. She has done her research into the history and modernization of the craft in many cultures. She has consulted many pagans and puts forth a pretty unbias view. As a pagan myself, I have read many of the books in the bibliography and I found Pauline's to be informative to the well read and the not so well read. Give it a try, and tell me what you think.

Jack Zipes has edited many excellent "fantasy" anthologies. This one takes a slightly different tact than most, pulling from a variety of cultures over a long history. You won't find many modern fantasy authors within. Only Jane Yolen, Tanith Lee and Robin McKinley stand out as outstanding recent authors. Zipes reaches all the way back to the Second Century for the first tale, "Cupid and Psyche" by Apuleius, and continues on with well known classic authors like Goethe, Hawthorne, Hans Christian Anderson, Oscar Wilde, Yeates and even Mark Twain. There are 67 tales included spanning the Second Century to the 1980's. Great authors from nearly every literary movement appear and give the reader a tour of the genre.

Readers will find well known tales like "Sleeping Beauty" and "Rumpelstiltskin," but also some lesser known gems like "The Seven Wives of Bluebeard" and "Spiegel the Cat." This collection is a great way to get a young fantasy fan to enjoy the work of classical authors that may have a stigma attached to them (I have to read that for school!) Readers should note that the language of the tales has been altered to the vernacular. So, Cupid and Psyche is told in a straightforward manner without the archaic structures used by the original author. Purists may gasp at the audacity, but new readers will be grateful for the translation! The tone and heart of the stories remain intact. This is a huge work with something nearly everyone can enjoy. Overall, a very well done anthology that is more than worth the price of admission.

From Apuleius to Tanith Lee, _Spells of Enchantment_ is filled with fairy tales written through the ages. If you like adult fairy tales, don't hesitate for another moment. There is something in here for every taste, and Zipes is picky enough about quality that every story is well-written even if it's not in your favorite style. My only gripe is that it ends on a down note, with a depressing story by de Larrabeiti. I liked the story, but I wanted a happy tale at the close of the book. But that's just a quirk of mine. Highly recommended.

This book is has stories for any taste. It has almost nonsensical stories to tales that make you weep with joy. Some of these stories are especially good read aloud. If you like fantasy, you will probably discover a new favorite author

i love fairy tale compliations because they are great to set your mind at ease after a long day. this one is particularly good. the stories are from authors such as Jean-Jacque Rosseau, Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, William Hawthorne, and so on. It's a who's who from classical to comtemporary authors, political figures, and philosophers. Because of the variety of contributors, each story is very different, smart and compelling in it's own right. the stories range from about 5 pages to over 30. it is definately not a children's fairy book, but can awaken and inspire the child in all of us. because it includes about 60 different tales, it can be reread time and time again. just a great book to have around.

I really loved Spooky Southwest! The stories were short, and some of them were really scary -- like the Death Waltz and Old Granny Tucker. There were also some good laughs -- for example, the story "The Ultimate Stakes" has two Comstock miners making it into Heaven, and they go a little crazy when they realize the streets are made out of gold!

I have read all three books by S.E. Schlosser, and they keep getting better and better. Can't wait to see what's next from this author.

Spooky Southwest was a great read. I love to read about Ghosts and strange things that happen. I want to visit the places I read about and see if these stories are true. I had to read this book during daylight hours only because I'm easily spooked, but that is half the fun anyway. I can't wait until S.E. Schlosser comes out with a new "Spooky" book.

My students have loved this book. It is a quick read of short stories that fill in for any down time we may have in the classroom.

The Southwest . . . land of cowboys, Indians, legends and folklore. Pecos Bill visits the most haunted house in the west, a slave prays for his freedom, gold miners head for Heaven's streets of gold, skeletons, ghosts, treasure and more. This book continues the tradition of exciting tales made famous in the Southwest. Both the well known and less well known tales are equally exciting. Anyone who finds the Southwest interesting will put this book on their definite read list.

I had been searching for a book of Native American star lore, and hit the jackpot with this book: Stars of the First People by Dorcas S. Miller.

This book covers some Greek Mythology and whereabouts of the common constellations so that the reader has a basis to start with, and can find the star patterns mentioned in the book.
The book is then broken into sections of North America by going over the tribes that lived in each place. It covers not only that tribes star lore, but goes into detail about how each tribe lived, such as food/shelter/migrating habits, so that the reader can easier understand how certain elements follow into the star lore.

With over 300 pages of detailed information this is a wonderful book and I am happy to own it!

Curious about the stories that different Native American peoples told about the stars? Dorcas Miller's "Stars of the First People" will go a long way towards satisfying your curiosity. Focusing on the peoples of North America, she has pulled together a robust collection of tales and star lore and grouped them by region. Plentiful sketches, star maps, and charts accompany the text to provide a visual reinforcement of the material contained in the stories.

In addition to the star lore, Dorcas has also included a decent amount of background information on the individual tribes to help the reader better understand the context of the star stories. In the back of the book you'll find an extensive set of notes and bibliographic references for those interested in further reading on this subject.

Don Childrey, author of "STAR TRAILS - Navajo"

This is one of the most complete set of Native American star legends that I have seen. The author first reviews the standard Greek and Roman myths that have given us our constellation names. For each region of North America, he devotes an entire chapter to star legends from indigenous people that live in that region. At the end of each chapter he lists standard constellations and groups and the Native American legends behind each, and at the end of the book he provides an overall listing. Some interesting similarities come out - for example, the Big Dipper is a bear in standard Greek and Roman and in many Native American myths, and Sirius is a dog or wolf star in standard and in Native American myths. The stories are well written and can be used anywhere where storytelling is called for - for example, to groups of children. For a good summary of Native American myths, look to this volume. I just wish there was a similar compendium of ALL the world's indigenous star myths.

Dorcas Miller's book is a gateway into our North American sky. I have already given my first copy to a scout leader. Her organization is superb: sky-watchers can pick a star or constellation and use the reference guide to access all its stories; ethnographers can follow the chapter organization by region and tribe. I will annotate her lists as I add other sources and tales.

Miller starts with the conventional Greek constellations that still map our sky for professional astronomers, providing myth summaries and seasonal sky maps. Her stick figures of these constellations are a delight and I copy their details onto the daily sky charts from the internet.

Both the Greeks and our First Peoples filled their skies with peoples and animals. Only a few identities, such as bear and dog, straddle both hemispheres. Greek heroes and heroines may be banished forever to the sky by the action of the gods as punishment, or placed by a friendly god to protect them from the angered one. Animals and humans are often antagonists. I can't think of a creation myth. The dead didn't go there.

Our First Peoples connection with the sky seems ongoing and personal- get lost and you may wander into it. Die and you may walk up the Milky Way, past guides and obstacles. Suffer and you may find an opening to the sky or a rescuer who will take you into it; you may be homesick, come and go, but finally choose the sky. If you navigate by the stars, why not? It may be a refuge. The myths feel contemporary, the characters often ordinary, and creation feels recent. The animals may be small and hungry, brave or lazy.

Miller provides the myth texts as she finds them, supplementing with discussion and drawings- maps of their known or probable stars and historic diagrams such as rock art that may be relevant. The bibliography is broad. This book will be a good anchor for collecting other North American books coming into print or reprint. `

for young and old alike. My 3yr old granddaughter loves to hear the story, look at the pictures, over and over. She wants us to make "stone soup"!

For the classic tale of two peddlers making soup out of a stone, there are many versions of this story. The illustrations and story in Heather Forest's version are suberb! There is a recipe for stone soup at the end of the book. I read this story to my kids' kindergarten classes as a way to teach the idea that when you work together you can make something great for the community! The kids bring canned vegetables to "put in the pot" which is a box to bring to a local food pantry.

Stone Soup is a popular folktale in many countries that has been told for centuries. The Author Heater Forest tells a contemporary version of the popular folktale. Her Stone Soup is an imaginatively creative story with colorfully descriptive pictures that bring the plot about sharing to life. The author's writing is so clear and vivid that reader's can see the characters even before looking at the pictures. The illustrations are realistically drawn and help kids follow along with the story. The author uses the illustrations to teach kids a lesson about sharing. In Stone Soup, two hungry travelers stumble into a village. The travelers go door to door asking for food. Because the villagers say there is no food, the travelers decide to help them by making their magical soup. In the process of making the soup, the village learnes that if everyone shares good things can come out of it. The language and concept is simple for kids. When the traveler talks to the villagers, he uses simple words. "Please ," said one of the travelers, "we are hungry. Do you care? Will you share? Do you have any food?" These simple sentences express many ideas about sharing. "Do you care?" says that if a person doesn't share it's because they don't care. "Do you have any food?" says that if a person has food they should share it. Stone Soup isn't just good reading that is imaginative and creative; it also tells a moral, which teaches kids a lesson but doesn't preach to them. The moral, that if everyone shares then the outcome is huge, comes across clearly in this imaginative story. The travelers said the magic ingredient to their stone soup is sharing; every contribution counts from the smallest to the largest when people share. This is a idea kids can use in their lives. The author tells a well-written story that, even without pictures, could put the characters vividly in one's mind. The author makes a vivid picture of the travelers hopelessness in the reader's mind: "...travelers came along. Their coats were tattered. Their hats were torn. Their dusty shoes had holes in their soles." Using these descriptive words helps everyone enjoy this story. Susan Gaber illustrated this book. She made the pictures so detailed that a person can see the hair on a man's beard and the buttons on a kid's top, but not so much detail that it takes away from the story. The pictures are realistically drawn and colored. There are no purple trees or orange-haired people. This adds to the realistic plot of the story. Gaber does a great job drawing difficult items, for example: a kernel of corn and a green bean. The colors that are used are bright. When characters talk there is a picture of the main topic in the bubble of what the person is saying. An example of this is when a man says he has a potato and the picture shows a bubble with a potato in it. This helps kids follow the story. From start to finish, Stone Soup is a page-turner, with colorfully detailed pictures to its descriptive wording, which bring alive the imaginative story. Stone Soup is well-written for its age group, using word and concepts kids will understand, while at the same time teaching them a moral and new ideas about sharing. This is definitely one book to check out. -Michele Jicha

Two travellers come to a village and work their magic. Includes recipe.
You must play the music, written and performed by the author herself !!!! The kids will naturally sing along. Before you realize it, you'll be a singing storyteller too.

My family has read these stories aloud to our children for three generations. Since the 1st edition of these stories is long ago out of print, it was great to see that a new compilation of these stories was published. Now we all can have a copy of these wonderfully funny stories to give to our children, instead of fighting over the scarce old copies!

I had never heard of C. A. Stephens until this book was given to me (thanks, Stuart!). I suspect the book is best consumed as a read-aloud. The book is packed with stories, and much to my surprise, almost every one of them is quite funny! After reading this book, two new entities were permanantly added to our family culture: "Vermifuge" and "Master Lurvey".

I had never heard of C. A. Stephens until this was given to me (thanks, Stuart!). I suspect the book is best consumed as a read-aloud. It is packed with stories, and much to my surprise, almost every one of them is quite funny! After reading this, two new entities were permanantly added to our family culture: "Vermifuge" and "Master Lurvey".

This notable book is a compilation of stories based on the life of an extended family living on a Maine farm in the mid 19th century. It gives a rare glimpse into life at that time. Our family felt that it was in the same league as the Little Britches and Little House series. It's a great book for outloud family reading.

Ms. Ching truly pays homage to author Cao Xuequin's Dream of the Red Chamber. Her photographs carry us on a personal sojourn exploring the central love story and the unfolding allegory behind it. Beautiful and evocatively enticing. A lovely coffee table book to share with my friends.

I really enjoyed this book! Wonderful and stunning to look at. I read "Dream of the Red Chamber" many years ago and thought this book was an interesting visual interpretaion.

Loved it!

Makes an impressive gift! The photographs were taken in China and give life and excitement to an old tale, Story of the Stone.
I would highly recommend giving this beautiful book to family, friends and clients.

"In the hands of Linda Ching the camera is a delicate paintbrush. The images she has created to tell the tale of "Story of the Stone" summons the senses--like delicate water paintings, opalescent colors emerge. In silky browns and beiges she arouses ecstatic figures; a wistful woman is caught in a gossamer mirror; a twig soars alone, overlaid in sunlit leaves. A fresh new look at an old Chinese masterpiece." -- Moana Tregaskis

There's some confusion in the earlier reviews. Keene has translated the early 10th-century Japanese tale (with the original on facing pages), NOT Kawabata's modern version, which is printed in back in Japanese (no translation). I also have to take issue with the Amazon reviewer's use of "heartlessness" to describe the main character. She's not of this earth, and consequently can't marry anyone: her actions are taken to spare the feelings of others, not out of heartlessness. (She's got plenty of heart for her adopted parents.) The tale is a wonderful example of early Japanese literature, and the art is gorgeous. Highly recommended.

This is an elegant package. The story is a classic Japanese folktale interpreted by one of Japan's greatest writers. A cautionary tale about love between humans and spirits, it is a well paced story, calm and quiet like a new moon. The text is balanced with the original Japanese script on one side and the English translation on the other. Interspersed though out are beautiful paper-cut illustrations. "Tale of the Bamboo Cutter" is very much a piece of book art.

The only drawback of this edition is the size. It is small, and would have benefited from a hard-backed coffee table edition. As it is, it is too fragile to be a child's book.

The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter was my introduction to Kawabata and I loved it. Yasunari Kawabata was the first Japanese writer to be honored with a Nobel Prize. Taketori Monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) is an extremely old Japanese story, credited to around the late ninth or early tenth century under disputed authorship.

Donald Keene has done a wonderful job of translating Kawabata. This is a fast paced fable beautiflly presented in an oblong book. Physically it is one of the most attractive books I have ever purchased.

This translation of Tale of the Bamboo Cutter had been delayed by twenty years before the translator Keene came across a brilliant series of paintings done by Miyata Masayuki of the same story. The elements finally came together to create one of the most beautifully presented books I've come across.

The book is 176 pages long, presented with Japanese and English on opposite pages. Don't expect a long read here, perhaps only a day or so's worth, but you won't be disappointed. This is truly a beautiful story that I hope you, like me, will return to from time to time to enjoy.

This is a wonderful story beautifully told. The excellent translation brings across Kawabata's style. The pictures are gorgeous. It is short, but wonderful.

While Mary Pope Osborne is best known for her Magic Tree House series, this set of books chronicling the Odyssey is an appropriate and well written introduction for young readers. Included in each book in the set is a concise prologue introducing Homer's Odyssey, along with a summary of Greek Gods & Goddesses (including illustrations, brief descriptions and an invaluable pronunciation guide). While I ordered the set to read aloud to my six year old, I have found that despite the lack of illustrations (with the exception of the Gods/Goddesses) my four year old son is captivated by the stories as well. I highly recommend this series to anyone interested in introducing their children to this classic.

The Odyssey is about this man named Odysseus and his adventure to the island of the Sun God. It's based on the original book, Homer's Odyssey. He's got to go through some amazing things to get to the Sun God. He also has to keep his men safe, plus he has to deal with his men, because they want to slay and eat the cattle of the sun god.
Odysseus had to fight 3 monsters on his way to the Sun God. He had to fight the Charybidis, which is a giant whirlpool. He has to fight the three-headed monster that killed six of his men. The last thing he had to fight was the lady merchants that led you to their island and killed you or you drowned on the way before you got there.
Then Odysseus got to the land of the Sun God and he told his men that if they slayed and ate the cattle that the sun god owned their families would be cursed. Then when he goes to sleep they eat the cattle because they haven't eaten for a very long time.
The reason that I recommend this book is because it's a fun book for all ages and it is a pretty fast read. Another reason I recommend this book is because it's a fast paced historic fiction story. The last reason I recommend this book is because if you've read the other Mary Pope Osborn books, like the Magic Tree House books, you'll love it.

I use this book for an ESL English class. It's much more comprehensible than reading the poetic version. The kids seem to enjoy it, where I think they would be lost with the poetic translation in our textbook. All of the students in this class are low level English speakers, so this gives them something interesting to read without a huge comprehension challenge.

We read all these books in the series together as a family. This one was our favorite. My boys couldn't wait for bedtime so they could hear what would happen next in the story. These books offer enough action to keep one's interest, young and old. I recommend all the books in the series. We can't wait for #6!

I am not Chinese, however these are wonderful folk tales and present morals and metaphors that transcend culture. I highly recommend this for reading a loud to your children, especially young girls.

Very good stories and a wonderful look into the old way in China.

Twenty-four years after reading this book, its spirit still remains in me. I first read Tales of a Chinese Grandmother while in the third grade. Although I was raised in a traditional Chinese household, this book explained, with charm, the traditions and origins Chinese folklore.

This is not a college compendeum of every tradition, rather it is an endearing look at Chinese culture as explained by a grandmother to two young children as they grow up in old China.