Explains how to write folktales, discussing such literary elements as setting, character, point of view, and plot, and contains examples from successful books and profiles of notable authors.

This book introduces readers to the folktale genre. Readers will learn that folktales are often passed down and retold from generation to generation. Writing activities help readers write their own folktales.

This collection of over two hundred folk and fairy tales from all over the world is the only edition that encompasses all cultures. Arranged geographically by region—West and East Europe, British Isles, Scandinavia, and Northern Europe, Middle East, Asia, the Pacific, Africa, North America, the Carribean and West Indies, and Central and South America—and lovingly selected from the personal favorites of folklorists and writers, this book is a major anthology in its field. Gathered together in this wide-ranging collection are familiar classics like "Snow-White" and "Sleeping Beauty," and stories that equal them from all major cultures. Together they offer magic, adventure, laughter, reflection, vivid images, and a throng of colorful characters. More important, they offer insight into the oral traditions of different cultures and deal with universal human dilemmas that span differences of age, culture, and geography. Animal fables, proverbs, ghost stories, funny tales, and tales of enchantment provide a unique reading experience for all ages. A category index groups the tales by plot and character, e.g., humorous, supernatural, and "pourquoi" tales, married couples, enchanted sweethearts, etc. Like all great literature, these tales can be read with fascination on many levels, making Best-Loved Folktales of the World a classic and enduring collection.

'Engaging, modern fables with a feminist tang' Sunday Times DARK, POTENT AND UNCANNY, HAG BURSTS WITH THE UNTOLD STORIES OF OUR ISLES, CAPTURED IN VOICES AS VARIED AS THEY ARE VIVID. Here are sisters fighting for the love of the same woman, a pregnant archaeologist unearthing impossible bones and lost children following you home. A panther runs through the forests of England and pixies prey upon violent men. From the islands of Scotland to the coast of Cornwall, the mountains of Galway to the depths of the Fens, these forgotten folktales howl, cackle and sing their way into the 21st century, wildly reimagined by some of the most exciting women writing in Britain and Ireland today. 'A thoroughly original package that has a hint of Angela Carter' The Times 'Sharp writing and cleverly done' Spectator

First published in paperback by UNM Press in 1976, The Way to Rainy Mountain has sold over 200,000 copies. "The paperback edition of The Way to Rainy Mountain was first published twenty-five years ago. One should not be surprised, I suppose, that it has remained vital, and immediate, for that is the nature of story. And this is particularly true of the oral tradition, which exists in a dimension of timelessness. I was first told these stories by my father when I was a child. I do not know how long they had existed before I heard them. They seem to proceed from a place of origin as old as the earth. "The stories in The Way to Rainy Mountain are told in three voices. The first voice is the voice of my father, the ancestral voice, and the voice of the Kiowa oral tradition. The second is the voice of historical commentary. And the third is that of personal reminiscence, my own voice. There is a turning and returning of myth, history, and memoir throughout, a narrative wheel that is as sacred as language itself."--from the new Preface

The garden is an oasis, a pocket of nature in our busy modern lives, full of plants, animals, insects – and a fair bit of magic. Folk Tales from the Garden follows the seasons through a year of stories, garden lore and legends. Explore the changing face of nature just outside your front door, from the tale of the Creator painting her birds and the merits of kissing an old toad, to pixies sleeping in the tulips, and an unusually large turnip.

Read Along or Enhanced eBook: When Goat, Rooster, and Donkey decide to try their hand at farming, Donkey learns the price of being greedy and discovers that the truth will always come out in the end.