A retelling of the well-known tale in which two children lost in the woods find their way home despite an encounter with a wicked witch. Whether portraying the fear and anguish of children abandoned by their parents, the delicious sumptuousness of a candy house, or the joy of being reunited with one’s family, Paul O. Zelinsky captures both physical and emotional nuance.
Primary (ages 6-9)
Material appropriate for primary age groups
Mr. Frog Went A-Courting
Readers find out why a frog wants to marry a mouse, how the cat is involved, and where they all end up in a charming adaptation of the popular old ballad featuring seventeenth-century settings and costumes.
The Seven Ravens
A little girl walks to the end of the world to find her seven brothers and free them from enchantment.
Cinderella
With the help of her fairy godmother, a beautiful young woman mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters attends the palace ball where she meets the prince whom she marries.
The First Marathon: The Legend of Pheidippides
Twenty-five hundred years ago, in ancient Greece, a small band of Greek soldiers faced the mighty Persian army on the plain of Marathon. A runner named Pheidippides ran to neighboring Sparta, one hundred forty miles away, to ask for the Spartans’ aid. Afterwards he sped back to the battle, where he helped defeat the enemy. Then the weary runner did his duty yet once more; he ran from Marathon to Athens to deliver the miraculous news of the Greek victory. The legend of brave Pheidippides has inspired the running of marathons worldwide.
The Bearskinner: A Tale of the Brothers Grimm
A dejected soldier makes a pact with the devil in this haunting, ultimately hopeful fairy tale. When a person gives up hope, is he still human? Such is the story of a soldier who has lost everything to war: his childhood home, his family and friends, his youth, and his innocence. Enter that sly opportunist, the devil, who wraps the soldier in the armor of a dead bear’s skin, fills its pockets with gold, and makes a dangerous and horrible wager.
The Goose Girl
On her way to marry a distant prince, a young princess is forced to trade places with her evil serving maid and becomes a goose girl instead of a bride when she reaches her destination.
Days Of The Blackbird
Gemma, a young girl living in the mountains of northern Italy, asks the blackbirds to sing to her ailing father, Duca Gennaro, and only one blackbird decides to remain when the weather becomes cooler. The story of the origins of the Days of the Blackbird.
The Tiger and the Wise Man
Tricked by a mischievous and hungry tiger, a wise man appeals to other animals and tree to intervene and save his life. However, he finds that the natural world does not hold humanity in as high a regard as he had though. And even being rescued from the tiger has its dangers.
Hansel and Gretel
This book provides young readers with a new twist on a classic tale as Hansel and Gretel accidentally come across Glut Annie Stout and realize they must find a way to escape from her dangerous home in order to return to their father and his health food store.