A collection of traditional stories from around the world, reflecting the cumulative wisdom of Sufi, Zen, Taoist, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, African, and Native American cultures.
Folktales and Fairytales
Wonder Tales (World Storytelling)
Includes twenty-seven folktales from Europe, Asia, Africa, India, the Arctic, and the Americas.
Indian Children’s Favorite Stories
Eight retold stories that introduce the values of Indian culture.
Grannie and the Jumbie: A Caribbean Tale
When a young Caribbean boy does not listen to his grandmother, an evil spirit threatens to snatch him.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
The Pied Piper pipes a village free of rats, and when the villagers refuse to pay him for the service, he pipes away their children as well.
How Night came from the Sea: A Story From Brazil
There was no starlight or moonbeams. There were no night creatures and no night flowers to fill the air with perfume. Everywhere there was only sunlight and brightness and heat.
In graceful, deeply felt text and bold, brilliant pictures, this story shows how an ancient African sea goddess brings the gift of night to the land of daylight. With the coming of night there is not only beauty and wonder of night flowers opening their petals at dusk, of stars and moonbeams flickering across the sky, and of the gentle chorus of night creatures, but there is rest, too. For when the dark, cool blanket of night covers everything, the people can then leave their work from under Brazil’s bright, hot sun.
This traditional story expresses Brazil’s unbroken connection to Africa as it show how one woman finds peace and hope in a strange new land. Celebrating all the beauty of the lush, tropical night, here is a tale that will be long remembered.
Vassilisa The Wise
A clever and beautiful woman uses her wits to get her husband out of Prince Vladimir’s prison.
Broucci
Broučci is a classic children’s book by Jan Karafiát published in the Czech language in the early 1870s. The title is the Czech word for beetles, and the word is also used for “traditional Czech figures of fairylike insect people”[2] such as the characters in the book. In English, the title is often translated as Fireflies.
It Could Always Be Worse: A Yiddish Folk Tale
Once upon a time a poor unfortunate man lived with his mother, his wife, and his six children in a one-room hut. Because they were so crowded, the children often fought and the man and his wife argued. When the poor man was unable to stand it any longer, he ran to the Rabbi for help. As he follows the Rabbi’s unlikely advice, the poor man’s life goes from bad to worse, with increasingly uproarious results. In his little hut, silly calamity follows foolish catastrophe, all memorably depicted in full-color illustrations that are both funnier and lovelier than any this distinguished artist has done in the past.
Kibitzers and Fools
Thirteen brief, illustrated, traditional Jewish tales, each accompanied by an appropriate saying.