An international collection of 18 nursery tales for young children, grouped by theme, such as "Runaway Cookies," "Slowpokes and Speedsters," and "Chain Tales," and brillantly illustrated with full-color borders.
Presents eighteen simple stories from international folklore, grouped around six themes, such as "Runaway Cookies", "Slowpokes and Speedsters", and "Chain Tales". Includes background information and storytelling hints.From the Introduction: "After lullabies and nursery rhymes, a young child's literary education naturally continues with stories. Parents are often in a rush to introduce their children to classics like Winnie-the-Pooh and Charlotte's Web. But not many two-, three-, and four-year-olds are ready for these. The age-old nursery tales from the oral tradition are more closely attuned to the needs of young listeners. Strong in rhythm, rhyme, and repetition, these stories are tailored to their unique ways of viewing the world. Through these tales, children learn the basic story patterns of plot, theme, and character."
Innovatively conceived and exquisitely executed, this sumptuous collection of 18 tales is a surefire crowd-pleaser. While presenting familiar fare, Sierra (Good Night, Dinosaurs) takes a fresh approach: rather than organizing the stories by country or continent, she groups them by the themes they share and the similarity of the messages they convey. From this structure the striking parallels among the folktale traditions of vastly different cultures immediately emerge. For young readers and listeners, opportunities arise: to discover the likenesses or differences among various tales in a grouping, and to choose the type of story they want to hear or read next. A section titled Runaway Cookies, for example, unites "The Gingerbread Man," from the United States, with Norwegian and Russian variants. The source notes on each entry reflect Sierra's scholarship; the read-aloud appeal of the tales demonstrates her storytelling skills. Vitale's (Christmas Lullaby) oil paintings on wood panels, with their distinctive folk-art sensibility, echo the cultural cadences of each tale, while the intricately patterned borders he supplies for each page contribute vastly to the luxurious quality of this outstanding offering. Ages 3-up. (Feb.) Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information.
PreS-Gr 2 Eighteen nursery tales, grouped by type or theme: Runaway Cookies; Incredible Appetites; The Victory of the Smallest; Chain Tales; Slowpokes and Speedsters; and Fooling the Big Bad Wolf. Six stories are from the U.S., including one African American and two Native American tales. There are two from England, and one each from ancient Greece, China, India, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, Russia, and Zaire. Some ("This Is the House That Jack Built," "The Three Pigs") are familiar and readily available elsewhere, while others ("The Boy Who Tried to Fool His Father," "Odon the Giant," "The Rooster and the Mouse") are less well known. The selections generally read aloud well, although Wilhelmina Harper's version of The Gunniwolf (Dutton, 1970) is preferable to the one given here, and Sierra's retelling of "The Goat in the Turnip Patch" in The Flannel Board Storytelling Book (Wilson, 1987) is better than "The Ram in the Chile Patch" here (which appeared in Spanish in Sierra's Multicultural Folktales [Oryx, 1991]). "Groundhog's Dance" is also available in Margaret R. MacDonald's Twenty Tellable Tales (Wilson, 1986). The book is extremely attractive. Each selection has a full-page painting and one or more smaller pictures done in oil on wooden panels in a folkloric style evocative of the tale's country of origin, and every page is framed with a full-color border. The introduction and notes are a model of clarity and care, making the collection equally useful for parents and professionals.æPam Gosner, Maplewood Memorial Library, NJ School Library Journal Reviews
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