A collection of short folktales featuring silly characters, nonsensical situations, or general tomfoolery.

Folktales are among the most resilient types of lore one generation passes to another. Tales we tell today -- whether they are cautionary, humorous, or embedded with moral instruction -- date back to ancient civilizations.Storyteller, writer, and folktale enthusiast Pleasant DeSpain has an uncanny ear for those tales that transcend particular eras or cultures and have passed into the universal frame of reference. A pioneer of the storytelling renaissance, DeSpain first published some of the tales in these three volumes in the two-volume Pleasant Journeys, later repackaged as the two-volume Twenty-Two Splendid Tales to Tell from Around the World.Now DeSpain has thematically arranged selections from the original collection (nine stories are included in each of Book of Nine Lives) and updated the sourcenotes and bibliographies. Repackaged into affordable, digest-sized, kid-friendly readers -- with updated pen-and-ink work by artist Don Bell -- these three volumes are only the first in DeSpain's Books of Nine Lives series.Like any species with extraordinary survival skills, folktales thrive because they are adaptive. DeSpain's adaptations carry his trademark elegance and succinct style.

Contains nine short folktales about tricksters, featuring selections from Persia, India, Poland, France, and other places.

Contains a 'catty' collection of folktales from around the world.

A collection of nine hero folktales includes "William Tell" from Switzerland, "The Hero of Budapest" from Hungary, and "Burning the Rice Fields" from Japan.

Contains a magical collection of folktales from around the world.

Contains a collection of folktales from around the world that depicts how various holidays are celebrated.