Peter: The Untold True Story


Christopher Daniel Mechling - 2013
    The book tells the adventures of the real boy who came to London and became a well-known figure more than a hundred years before James Barrie penned his classic. Peter the Wild Boy lived in eighteenth century England, through the reigns of three kings (all named George), and achieved legendary status in his own lifetime. He was not only a popular figure, but also drew intense philosophical and scientific study, and was a subject of interest to literary figures such as Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift. Peter retained a youthful appearance throughout his life, and had a joyful, intuitive spirit that was both challenging and infectious. This imaginative dramatization of the life of Peter the Wild Boy captures the joy, innocence and fire of a bright, feral child living in the midst of the Age of Enlightenment. It is narrated by the girl who perhaps knew him best. The epic story of his life, spanning approximately seventy years, navigates a tumultuous and thoughtful period in English history, rich with characters. Peter is a magical, poignant tale full of humor, love, and courage in the face of life's difficulties. It will make you laugh, cry, dream and remember what it means to be young.

A Year Full of Stories: 52 Classic Stories From All Around the World


Angela McAllister - 2016
    The book is broken into 12 chapters, for each of the 12 months of the year, and throughout, stories are matched to internationally celebrated dates, including Valentines Day and the International Day of Friendship, as well as seasonal events and festivals. Collected and retold by award-winning author Angela McAllister, and illustrated by internally recognised artist Christopher Corr, this is a book that will be treasured by families and appeal to teachers and librarians around the world.CONTENTS --Dedication --JANUARY --New Year's Day Father Frost (A Russian story) --Wintertime The Magic Porridge Pot (A German story) --Chinese New Year King of the Forest (A Chinese story) --FEBRUARY --Candlemas The Empty Barn (A Latvian story) --Valentine's Day The Frog Prince (A German story) --The Mole's Wedding (A Korean story) --Shrove Tuesday The Runaway Pancake (A German story) --MARCH --St. David's Day Gelert the Hound (A Welsh story) --World Wildlife Day The Bird Wife (An Inuit story) --Purim The Blue Coat (A Jewish story) St. Patrick's Day The Pot of Gold (An Irish story) --World Water Day Tiddalik, the Thirsty Frog (An Indigenous Australian story) --APRIL --April Fools' Day Rabbit and Crab (A Mayan story) --Easter The Basket of Eggs (A Canadian story) --World Health Day How the Bear Clan Learned to Heal (An Iroquois story) --St. George's Day The Glass Knight (An English story) --The Shoemaker and the Dragon (A Polish story) --MAY --May Day The Cracked Pot (An Indian story) --Springtime Spring and Autumn (A Japanese story) --Vesak The Hare in the Moon (A Buddhist story) --JUNE World Oceans Day Prince Fire Flash and Prince Fire Fade (A Japanese story) --Ramadan The Boots of Hunain (An Arabic story) --Midsummer Anansi and Turtle (A Caribbean story) --World Music Day Skeleton oman (An Inuit story) --JULY --Eid ul- Fitr Zirak and Ring-dove (An Iraqi story) --Tanabata The Weaving Maiden and the Oxherd (A Japanese story) --St. Swithin's Day Elephant and the Rain Spirit (An African Bushman story) --International Day of Friendship Heungbu and Nolbu (A Korean story) --Androcles and the Lion (A Roman story) --AUGUST --Lammas Day The Little Red Hen (A Russian story) Harvest The Ship of Wheat (A Dutch story) --Persephone (An ancient Greek story) --SEPTEMBER --Yom Kippur Jonah and the Whale (A Bible story) --International Day of Peace The Two Kings (A Buddhist Story) --Autumn Why the Evergreeens Keep Their Leaves (An American story) --The Gifts of the North Wind (A Norwegian story) --OCTOBER --World Food Day The Raja and the Rice (An Indian story) --Why the Bananas Belong to the Monkey (A Brazilian story) --Diwali Rama and Sita (An Indian story) --Halloween The Buried Moon (An English story) The Shortest Ghost Story in the World (An English story) --NOVEMBER --Thanksgiving How the Pine-tree Chief Got His Name (An Iroquois story) --The Gift of a Cow-tail Switch (A West African story) --Bonfire Night How Grandmother Spider Brought Fire (A Choctaw story) --National Tree Week The Woodcutter and the Wolf (A French story) --The Tree of Magical Leaves (A Chinese story) --St. Andrew's Day Conall and the Thunder Hag (A Scottish story) --DECEMBER --Human Rights Day The Bell of Atri (An Italian story) --Midwinter East of the Sun, West of the Moon (A Scandinavian story)

The Children of Odin: The Book of Northern Myths


Padraic Colum - 1920
    Odin All Father crossed the Rainbow Bridge to walk among men in Midgard. Thor defended Asgard with his mighty hammer. Mischievous Loki was constantly getting into trouble with the other gods, and dragons and giants walked free. This collection of Norse sagas retold by author Padraic Colum gives us a sense of that magical time when the world was filled with powers and wonders we can hardly imagine.

The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth


Robert Graves - 1948
    In this tapestry of poetic and religious scholarship, Graves explores the stories behind the earliest of European deities—the White Goddess of Birth, Love, and Death—who was worshipped under countless titles. He also uncovers the obscure and mysterious power of "pure poetry" and its peculiar and mythic language.

The Book of Dragons


E. Nesbit - 1899
    Some of the legendary monsters are funny and mischievous, others are downright frightening, and a number of them are wild and unpredictable. There's a dragon made of ice, another that takes refuge in the General Post Office, a scaly creature that carries off the largest elephant in a zoo, and even a dragon whose gentle purring comforts a tiny tot.And who challenges these amazing creatures? Why, daring heroes, of course, as well as a wicked prince, and even an entire soccer team — which, unfortunately, meets its fate with a fire-breathing brute that flies out of the pages of an enchanted book.E. (Edith) Nesbit (1858–1924) was one of the pioneers of fantasy fiction for children. Her classic novels — such as The Railway Children and Five Children and It — have remained popular for more than a century. 24 illustrations.

BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine


Lisa Jervis - 2006
    Magazine, Bitch was launched in the mid-nineties as a Xerox-and-staple zine covering the landscape of popular culture from a feminist perspective. Both unabashed in its love for the guilty pleasures of consumer culture and deeply thoughtful about the way the pop landscape reflects and impacts women's lives, Bitch grew to be a popular, full-scale magazine with a readership that stretched worldwide. Today it stands as a touchstone of hip, young feminist thought, looking with both wit and irreverence at the way pop culture informs feminism--and vice versa--and encouraging readers to think critically about the messages lurking behind our favorite television shows, movies, music, books, blogs, and the like. BITCHFest offers an assortment of the most provocative essays, reporting, rants, and raves from the magazine's first ten years, along with new pieces written especially for the collection. Smart, nuanced, cranky, outrageous, and clear-eyed, the anthology covers everything from a 1996 celebration of pre-scandal Martha Stewart to a more recent critical look at the "gayby boom"; from a time line of black women on sitcoms to an analysis of fat suits as the new blackface; from an attempt to fashion a feminist vulgarity to a reclamation of female virginity. It's a recent history of feminist pop-culture critique and an arrow toward feminism's future.

Tales of Old Japan: Folklore, Fairy Tales, Ghost Stories and Legends of the Samurai


Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford - 1871
    B. Mitford traveled widely with his parents as a youth and lived in various European countries. From 1866-70, he served as an attaché with the British legation at Edo (Tokyo) — one of the first foreign diplomats to do so. During his brief stay there, Mitford lived through a period of dramatic and tumultuous change in Japanese history. A feudal nation on his arrival, Japan had entered the era of “Westernization” before he left some three years later. During that time, however, he quickly and thoroughly mastered the Japanese language and acted as an interpreter between the young Japanese Emperor and British royalty.Mitford’s famous collection of classic tales (the first to appear in English) covers an engrossing array of subjects: grisly accounts of revenge, knightly exploits, ghost stories, fairy tales, folklore, a fascinating eyewitness account of a hara-kiri ceremony, gripping narratives of vampires and samurai, Buddhist sermons, and the plots of four Noh plays.A treasury, as well, of information on most aspects of Japanese life, with information on locales, customs, and characters, the illustrated volume delights as it entertains, chronicling acts of heroism, devotion, ruthlessness, and chivalry that illuminate the island nation's culture.“One of the first and in many ways still one of the best books on Japan.” — The Japanese Times.“An excellent introduction to Japanese literature.” — Mainichi Daily News.

Cunt: A Declaration of Independence


Inga Muscio - 1998
    Inga Muscio traces the road from honor to expletive, giving women the motivation and tools to claim cunt as a positive and powerful force in their lives. In this fully revised edition, she explores, with candidness and humor, such traditional feminist issues as birth control, sexuality, jealousy between women, and prostitution with a fresh attitude for a new generation of women. Sending out a call for every woman to be the Cunt lovin Ruler of Her Sexual Universe, Muscio stands convention on its head by embracing all things cunt-related. This edition is fully revised with updated resources, a new foreword from sexual pioneer Betty Dodson, and a new afterword by the author.

The Tale of the Firebird


Gennady Spirin - 2002
    When Ivan-Tsarevitch, youngest son of the Tsar, goes on a quest for the amazing bird, he finds himself flying over mountains and woods on a talking wolf, confronting a wicked Baba Yaga, and rescuing an enchanted princess from Koshchei the Immortal. But when he returns from his magical journey, he brings home the most precious treasure of all. Gennady Spirin brings this original version of the Firebird tale from his native Russia and has illustrated it in his trademark rich, luminous style. This retelling of a classic is sure to become the new standard.

Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism


Bushra Rehman - 2002
    Now a new generation of brilliant, outspoken women of color is speaking to the concerns of a new feminism, and their place in it. Daisy Hernandez of Ms. magazine and poet Bushra Rehman have collected a diverse, lively group of emerging writers who speak to their experience—to the strength and rigidity of community and religion, to borders and divisions, both internal and external—and address issues that take feminism into the twenty-first century. One writer describes herself as a “mixed brown girl, Sri-Lankan and New England mill-town white trash,” and clearly delineates the organizing differences between whites and women of color: “We do not kick ass the way the white girls do, in meetings of NOW or riot grrl. For us, it’s all about family.” A Korean-American woman struggles to create her own identity in a traditional community: “Yam-ja-neh means nice, sweet, compliant. I’ve heard it used many times by my parents’ friends who don’t know shit about me.” An Arab-American feminist deconstructs the “quaint vision” of Middle-Eastern women with which most Americans feel comfortable. This impressive array of first-person accounts adds a much-needed fresh dimension to the ongoing dialogue between race and gender, and gives voice to the women who are creating and shaping the feminism of the future.

Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination


Toni Morrison - 1992
    She shows how much the themes of freedom and individualism, manhood and innocence, depended on the existence of a black population that was manifestly unfree--and that came to serve white authors as embodiments of their own fears and desires.Written with the artistic vision that has earned Toni Morrison a pre-eminent place in modern letters, Playing in the Dark will be avidly read by Morrison admirers as well as by students, critics, and scholars of American literature.

Irish Fairy and Folk Tales


Various - 2014
    These are stories that passed down through the ages virtually unaltered in their telling. To those who told and listened to them, they expressed something fundamental about Irish culture and the Irish way of life. The stories in this volume feature a wide variety of fantastic beings, including ghosts, witches, fairies, and changelings, but several feature creatures that are virtually exclusive to Ireland: the banshee, the merrow, the pooka, and the leprechaun. Read these tales of frightening supernatural horrors, brave folk heroes, and everyday people clever enough to outwith the devil, and you'll agree that they could only take place on Irish soil.

Cinderella


Kinuko Y. Craft - 2000
    Readers young and old will be enchanted by the vision and mastery of Kinuko Y. Craft's luminous paintings, inspired by the lavish artwork of late seventeenth-century France and embellished with extraordinary borders and ornamentation.Rich with radiant color and astonishing detail, here is a dream come true for anyone who has ever believed in living happily ever after.

Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson


Camille Paglia - 1990
    It ultimately challenges the cultural assumptions of both conservatives and traditional liberals. 47 photographs.

Cinder Edna


Ellen Jackson - 1994
    Cinder Edna was forced to work for her wicked stepmother and stepsisters, just as her neighbor, Cinderella, was.Edna, on the other hand, had learned a thing or two from doing all that housework, such as how to make tuna casserole sixteen different ways and how to get spots off everything from rugs to ladybugs. And she was strong and spunky and knew some good jokes.Then one day the king announced that he would give a ball ...