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.It Could Always Be Worse is a 1977 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and Outstanding Book of the Year, and a 1978 Caldecott Honor Book.

    Come join in the 20th-anniversary fun as gnomania strikes again!Did you know that gnome couples always have twin children? Or that a gnome is seven times as strong as a human? Do you want to hear some gossip from the gnome who knew Rembrandt? Dutch artist Rien Poortvliet's charming illustrations and physician Wil Huygen's detailed observations of the gnomes' habits, anatomy, and lifestyle are a delight for readers of all ages. Children will adore the gnome family's underground home and the constant interaction with animals; adults will appreciate the tongue-in-cheek scientific data. Gnomebody is immune to the gnomes' tremendous appeal--and a whole new generation is waiting to love them for the first time!

    When eleven princes are changed by an evil spell into wild swans, it is up to their sister, Elise, to knit them shirts of nettles, and remain silent while doing so, in order to break the spell.

    poetry, tr Norman, w/scholarly essay

    Recommended by Iceberg Slim, this is an excellent collection of hustlers toasts (Afro-American oral folk poetry) as transcribed by one of the authors with full notes about the content of each.

    An ALA Notable Children's Book, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a New York Times Book Review Outstanding Children's Book of the Year.

    In six lucid essays collected for this volume, Eliade reveals the profound religious significance that lies at the heart of many contemporary cultural vogues. Since all of the essays except the last were originally delivered as lectures, their introductory character and lively oral style make them particularly accessible to the intelligent nonspecialist. Rather than a popularization, Occultism, Witchcraft, and Cultural Fashions is the fulfillment of Eliade's conviction that the history of religions should be read by the widest possible audience.

    

    Taking the form of both a mouse and a grandmother, Mouse Woman’s role is to keep order between other narnauks and humans. Both a teacher and a nurturer, the ever-watchful Mouse Woman keeps a particularly close eye on the princesses of the great clans of the Northwest Coast, who carry the royal blood line. From them all future chiefs would descend. Though well protected, these princesses are sometimes lured away and spirited off by such diverse things as a bear, a magic plume, and gigantic snails. Mouse Woman must use tact and her own forms of trickery to set things right. This reissue of the original 1976 text features the striking black-and-white line drawings of Douglas Tait. With a new and more contemporary look, these compelling stories appeal to both longtime Christie Harris fans and new readers, young and old.

    “This book was amazing. Every page answered a question I had about the moon… pictures of ancient moon goddesses, moon mythology and folklore in other countries, the ancient feminine connection to the moon and her cycles. What a joy to read.” imnotwiccan.blogspot.com “The book succeeds in conjuring a shimmering image of the White Goddess in many of her lost forms. In the hands of Rush and her colleagues, she shines on.” Carolly Erickson, San Francisco Review of Books “The book is best read in a quiet, contemplative mood. Moon, Moon invites you to treat it as a kaleidoscope of images, to turn its pages as an old and treasured scrapbook, pausing briefly at images or words that catch your eye…. As I began rereading the sections on the moon goddess, I realized that Rush had set before me a feast of images, not scholarship, but evocations of the many faces of the Moon Mother. Suddenly (Navajo) Changing Woman came alive for me and I saw her sitting peacefully at the place of all beginnings…. I recommend Moon, Moon highly to women who are willing to give it the time and space it deserves, who wish to feel the energy and power of the moon rhythms flowing in their own bodies and minds.” Carol P. Christ, Plexus “Since ancient times the moon has been a symbol of the female, and in this book Anne Kent Rush has gathered an impressive compendium of moon lore.” Los Angeles Times “Moon, Moon is a wondrous offering to the women of the world. It is whimsical and playful at times, and yet absolutely serious and certain of its political ramifications. As Jean Mountaingrove writes in Womanspirit, ‘It is a major reference book for feminists’.” Chellis Glendinning, Runes “An early ripple in the New Wave of feminism.” Publishers Weekly, 1976 “An in-depth exploration of lunar legend, mythology, history and philosophy through the ages. Richly illustrated.” San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle

    

    Swanton’s Myths and Tales of the Southeastern Indians is a classic of American Indian folklore. During the years 1908-1914 Swanton gathered the myths and legends of the descendants of Muckhogean-speaking peoples living in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma, and in this volume he preserved more than three hundred tales of the Creek, Hitchiti, Alabama, Koasati, and Natchez Indians.Myths and Tales of the Southeastern Indians stands as the largest collection of Muskhogean oral traditions ever published. Included are stores on the origin of corn and tobacco, the deeds of ancient native heroes, visits to the world of the dead, and encounters between people and animals or supernatural beings in animal form. Animal tales abound, especially those on the southeastern trickster Rabbit.

    The essays in Spiritus Mundi--the title comes from one of Yeat's best known poems, "The Second Coming," and refers to the book that was supposedly the source of Yeat's apocalyptic vision of a "great beast, slouching toward Bethlehem"--are arranges in three groups of four essays each. The first four are about the "contexts of literature," the second are about the "mythological universe," and the last are studies of four of the great visionary or myth-making poets who have been enduring sources of interest for Frye: Milton, Blake, Yeats, and Wallace Stevens.The volume is full of agreeable surprises: a delightful piece on charms and riddles is followed by an illuminating essay on Shakespearean romance. Like most of the other essays in the book, these two are compressed and elegant expositions of ideas that in the hands of a lesser writer would have required a book. In another selection Frye rescues Spengler from neglect and argues for the inclusion of The Decline of the West among the major imaginative books produced by the Western world. Elsewhere he advances the case for placing Copernicus in a pantheon composed primarily of literary figures. OF particular interest are several essays in which Frye comments personally and reflectively on the influence he has had on the study of literature and the reactions elicited by his work. In "The Renaissance of Books" he dissents from the opinion of the McLuhanites that the written word is showing signs of obsolescence and argues that books are "the technological instrument that makes democracy possible."As the dozen essays collected here amply attest, Northrop Frye continues to be the most perceptive and most persuasive exponent of the power of mythological imagination--or as he himself calls it, "the mythological habit of mind"--written in English.