Folktales and Fairytales

Waynetta and the Cornstalk: A Texas Fairy Tale

Times sure are tough on the ranch, and Waynetta and her ma can use all the luck they can get. But when Waynetta trades their last longhorn for a handful of so-called magic corn, Ma is none too pleased. “The only magic this corn’s got is the disappearin’ kind,” she says, and tosses it out the window. But come the next morning, there’s a giant cornstalk growing up to the sky, and Waynetta climbs it to find her own luck… Helen Ketteman’s Texas-style retelling of “Jack and the Beanstalk” is full of cowgirl sass. Diane Greenseid’s paintings bring rollicking new life to a familiar tale. The author lives in Florida; the illustrator lives in California.

The Silk Princess

Princess Hsi-Ling Chi has heard tales of a sleeping dragon and ancient gods residing in the Holy Mountains beyond her father’s palace. But when she emerges from the gates for the first time, she is not afraid. She has a magical thread unraveled from a tiny cocoon that dropped into the Empress’s teacup, and she knows it will lead her back to the palace garden. She is very far from home when she notices that the thread has broken, and that she is lost.

The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, Book 3) (His Dark Materials)

The Amber Spyglass brings the intrigue of The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife to a heart-stopping end, marking the final volume of His Dark Materials as the most powerful of the trilogy. Along with the return of Lyra, Will, Mrs. Coulter, Lord Asriel, Dr. Mary Malone, and Iorek Byrnison the armored bear, come a host of new characters: the Mulefa, mysterious wheeled creatures with the power to see Dust; Gallivespian Lord Roke, a hand-high spymaster to Lord Asriel; and Metatron, a fierce and mighty angel. So, too, come startling revelations: the painful price Lyra must pay to walk through the land of the dead, the haunting power of Dr. Malone’s amber spyglass, and the names of who will live–and who will die–for love. And all the while, war rages with the Kingdom of Heaven, a brutal battle that–in its shocking outcome–will uncover the secret of Dust. Philip Pullman deftly brings the cliff-hangers and mysteries of His Dark Materials to an earthshattering conclusion–and confirms his fantasy trilogy as an undoubted and enduring classic.

Red Butterfly: How a Princess Smuggled the Secret of Silk Out of China

An enchanting tale of hidden beauty and fierce courage, retold in the style of T’ang Dynasty poetry and illustrated with charm and grace. A young Chinese princess is sent from her father’s kingdom to marry the king of a far-off land. She must leave behind her home of splendors: sour plums and pink peach petals and — most precious and secret of all — the small silkworm. She begs her father to let her stay, but he insists that she go and fulfill her destiny as the queen of Khotan. Beautifully told and arrestingly illustrated, here is a coming-of-age tale of a brave young princess whose clever plan will go on to live in legend — and will ensure that her cherished home is with her always.

Mediopollito: Cuento Tradicional en Espanol e Ingles/Half-Chicken: A Folktale in Spanish and English

Have you ever seen a weather vane? Do you know why there is a little rooster on the top, spinning around to tell us which way the wind is blowing? Here is the answer in this old, old story about a very special chicken. With only one eye, one leg, and one wing, Half-Chicken sets off to see the world. His adventures take him far and wide, until at last he’s carried straight to the top in this lively, humorous retelling, in Spanish and English, of a traditional folktale.

A Completely Different Place

When Johnny Nesbit wakes up in a pink bedroom that is inside a glass bottle, he soon realizes that he is battling the Strangers, the fairies that had stolen his baby sister a year earlier. Johnny returns to the Stranger country with his former classmate, Cheryl to try to save a group of kidnapped children from the nasty fairies.

This book is a sequel to The Same Place but Different.

The Fox And The Wolf: Ukrainan Folk Tale

The fox and the wolf play tricks on one another, with neither one ultimately triumphing, until fox manages the best trick of all and fools the wolf into putting his tail into icy water and losing it.