Reviews "A wonderful collection of tales that range from creepy to silly to haunting. ...Gammell's drawings add just the right touch..." -- John Scieszka, Entertinment Weekly"Guaranteed to make your teeth chatter and your spine tingle." -- School Library Journal"Read these if you dare." -- The New York Times

    SECRETS OF THE GNOMES is the fascinating account of a long, arduous journey undertaken by the authors at the request of the gnomes. It is overflowing with the authors' on-the-scene sketches and firsthand observations.Poortvliet and Huygen are not invited as mere observers, however, for after a meal of mushrooms and cream-tasting as if were made of "everything that light, air, sun, moon, and earth could produce"-they find that they have been turned into gnomes themselves! The authors take a penetrating look at their subjects: they learn of the tender emotional life of a gnome; they see and diagram the mechanics of the ingenious gnome technology; they observe how gnomes administer justice in the wild; they are told how fairy tales first began (Little Red Riding Hood was actually a gnome). And, best of all, they are allowed to see parts of the magical Secret Book.Endowed with gnome characteristics (which include exceptional vision and heightened senses of touch, smell taste, and hearing), complete with peaked gnome caps, Poortvliet and Huygen are led from Lapland across the Siberian wilderness by Nicholas, their gruff by kindly guide who teaches them the secrets of survival in the icy north. Because of the gnomes' rapport with living creatures, the three travel in a troika pulled by lemmings, they are borne on a fox's back and on the head of a moose-they are even carried by the abominable snowman!Lovers of gnomes will celebrate the arrival of this new volume and will delight in the opportunity to know these elusive creatures better. Scores of enchanting illustrations by Dutch artist Rien Poortvliet record the comings and goings of gnomes and the loving interaction with nature for which they are so famous.

    A cumulative rhyme relating how Ki-pat brought rain to the drought-stricken Kapiti Plain. Verna Aardema has brought the original story closer to the English nursery rhyme by putting in a cumulative refrain and giving the tale the rhythm of “The House That Jack Built.”

    Embracing the tradition of the fairy tale, but adding Jones' inimitable comic imagination and originality, each story makes a perfect bedtime read for children - and grown ups! 'Could become a 'modern classic' ...the book is a joy' - Brian Patten, "Spectator".

    This is the only complete, one-volume recitation of their legends in any available source. Also contains an index of associations and groupings of goddess "families". With photos from the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.

    Originally published in hardcover by Philomel and then brought out a few years later in a trade paperback, this book of essays has become well identified with me. And the phrase, "Touch magic, pass it on" shows up in the oddest places. After five years out of print, the book in an expanded and revised edition has been reissued by the folklore publisher, August House. The new section is called "Touchstones" and has six new essays: "Fabling to the Near Night," "Killing the Other," "Throwing Shadows," "Literature As a Social Disease," the eponymous "Touchstones," "An Experiential Act," and an updated and revised Preface. - Jane Yolen

    In this collection of mostly nineteenth-century folk and fairy tales, Ethel Johnston Phelps's heroines successfully portray women as being spirited, courageous and smart. This type of heroine is not easily found in most collections; in most traditional folk and fairy tales we encounter women are portrayed as being good, obedient, submissive, and, of course, beautiful. These women—and girls—are resourceful; they take action to solve a problem and use cleverness or shrewd common sense to solve the dilemmas they face.The tales themselves are part of an oral tradition that document a generation according to the values of the time. Phelps has given these older tales a fresh, contemporary retelling for a new generation of readers, young and old. She shapes each story—adding or omitting details—to reflect her sense of a feminist folk or fairy tale. The twenty-one tales collected represent a wide variety of countries; approximately seventeen ethnic cultures from North America to Europe to Asia tell a story in which women play a leading or crucial role in the story.

    Copyright 1981 Turtle Island Foundation

    "An engaging portrait of our predecessors in California. Their stories, here brilliantly illuminated by Margolin's comments, contain beauty, humor, and wisdom" -Harold Gilliam, San Francisco Chronicle.

    Presents, in encyclopedia format, monsters and supernatural beings from Abominable Snowman to Zombi.

    This collection includes the Tibetan myth of creation; some of the famous Jataka tales, or stories of former lives of the Buddha; and the most popular of all the time-honored legends of Tibet, the great epic of King Gesar of Ling, the warrior who became a national hero.

    The tales included are those the author himself liked best, and he even rewrote some of them especially for this anthology. Ben Carlton Mead has contributed 32 original line drawings to illustrate the stories.These tales spring from the soil and folklore of our land; but more than this, they make the readers contemporary with the times, filling us with the wonder of something past and yet still with us. They are arranged topically into sections whose titles speak for them: "The Longhorn Breed," "Mustangs and Mustangers," "The Saga of the Saddle," "Characters and Happenings of Long Ago," "Animals of the Wild," "In Realms of Gold," and "Ironies."

    But one morning, he hears a rumor that Cucullin, the strongest giant in the land, is coming to find and fight him.Fleeing home, Fin tells his wife of his worries. But clever Oonagh the giantess has a plan-- with her wits and her skills and her magic charms, she sets out to trick Cucullin and save her husband.Full of humor and charm, Tomie dePaola's retelling of this classic fable is boldly illustrated, with detailed borders based on ancient Irish metalwork.

    Courlander explores the unwritten traditions and literature of the Spanish, French, and English-speaking islands of the Caribbean, the areas of Central and South America inhabited by people of African descent, the black communities of the United States, and many others. With a focus on the interconnectedness of cultural inheritances throughout the Afro-American region as well as the local divergences, this remarkable collection demonstrates the powerful cultural influence of Africa on this side of the Atlantic. A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore is a must-read for anyone interested in this exciting aspect of America's cultural history. Illustrated with photographs and drawings throughout, this classic collection is now beautifully repackaged. "This is the most important collection of Afro-American folklore compiled."—Ralph Ellison

    It evokes fiddle tunes, patchwork quilts, split-rail fences, and all the other artifacts that decorate a cherished romantic region of the American mind. David Whisnant challenges this view of Appalachia (and consequently this broader imaginitive tendency) by exploring connections between a comforting cultural myth and the troublesome complexities of cultural history. Looking at the work of some ballad hunters and collectors, handicraft revivalists, folk festival promoters, and other cultural missionaries, Whisnant discovers a process of intentional and systematic cultural intervention that had (and still has) far-reaching consequences. Why, Whisnant asks, did so many Bluegrass ladies and upper-class graduates of Seven Sisters colleges rush to erect cultural breakwaters around mountaineers? Why would a sophisticated New England woman build a Danish folk school in western North Carolina? Why did a classical musician from Richmond who hated blacks love southern mountain music? How did the notions and actions of all these cultural missionaries affect the lives of the mountaineers? And what do these episodes of intervention teach us about culture and cultural change--in Appalachia and elsewhere? Whisnant pursues these and other questions in closely documented case studies of the Hindman Settlement School in eastern Kentucky, the cultural work of Olive Dame Campbell throughout the mountains, and the White Top Folk Festival on the Virginia-North Carolina border. Moreover, he relates them to broader social and economic developments of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: the comingof the railroads and the opening of the mines, the Depression, the advent of TVA, and more diffuse processes such as urbanization, the decline of agriculture, the movement of radio and the commercial recording industry into the mountains, and the implicit restrictions Victorian America placed on the political perspectives and activities of socially conscious upper-class women. We must begin to understand the politics of culture, Whisnant writes, especially the role of formal institutions and foreceful individuals in defining and shaping perspectives, values, tastes and agendas for cultural change. All That Is Native and Fine opens the way not only to a reexamination of the history of a single region but also to a more sophisticated understanding of the dynamics of cultural continuity and change in other regions and in the nation as a whole.

    Depicts what life was like on Georgia's Okefinokee Swamp, and includes, photographs, anecdotes, folk tales, and descriptions of local customs.

    The Little Mermaid (Well Loved Tales)

    Lavishly Illustrated with mono and colour photographs and drawings. Hardback with dust wrapper , Near Fine/Near Fine.

    Aveni, one of the pioneers in this new interdisciplinary field, couples basic astronomy with archaeological and ethnological data to present a readable and entertaining synthesis of what is known of ancient astronomy in this hemisphere.

    Drawing on her peasant heritage and childlike sense of wonder, Gág translated the fairy tales in a uniquely American vernacular tongue. More Tales from Grimm contains over thirty more, including “The Golden Key,” “The Seven Swabians,” and “The Wolf and the Fox,” as well as almost one hundred illustrations. No other editions of Grimm’s fairy tales for children can match Gág’s richness of prose and the humor, beauty, and sheer magic of her pictorial interpretation. Best known for her Newbery Honor winner Millions of Cats, Wanda Gág (1893–1946) was a pioneer in children’s book writing, integrating text and illustration. Born in New Ulm, Minnesota, she rose to international acclaim. In recognition of her artistry, she was posthumously awarded the 1958 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award for Millions of Cats and the 1977 Kerlan Award for her body of work.

    Relates how the tragic parting of a boy and his horse led to the creation of the horse-head fiddle of the Mongolian shepherds.

    Words of the Lagoon is an account of the pioneering work of a marine biologist to discover, test, and record the knowledge possessed by native fisherman of the Palau Islands of Micronesia.

    This collection of stories shares the secrets of the giants, Spriggans, Knackers, and changelings who inhabited and ruled the moors, mountains, and seacoasts of Cornwall. Each shivery tale is preceeded by an introduction to Cornwall's wondrous inhabitants, and is followed by helpful tips on what to do should you encounter one of these unearthly creatures.

    Norm Cohen provides a sweeping discussion of the human aspects of railroad history, railroad folklore, and the evolution of the American folksong. The heart of the book is a detailed analysis of eighty-five songs, from "John Henry" and "The Wabash Cannonball" to "Hell-Bound Train" and "Casey Jones," with their music, sources, history, variations, and discographies. A substantial new introduction updates this edition.

    The older officers over whom he had jumped in rank soon displayed their animosity. From them, and many others, a series of charges against him were circulated; from these grew the innumerable Custer legends. This volume includes many interesting and unusual Custer legends, which include the alleged fathering of Monahseetah’s Indian son; the Annie Jones story buried in the National Archives; Custer’s capture of Lee’s supply trains at Appomattox Court House that caused Lee to surrender—and much more.

    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.