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Tales of Tricksters

Pleasant DeSpain (author)

Publisher: August House ISBN: 9780874836448

This book contains nine short traditional and very entertaining folktales about tricksters, featuring selections from Persia, India, Poland, France, and other parts of the world.

Tales of Insects

Pleasant DeSpain (author)

Publisher: August House ISBN: 9780874836684

Nine traditional tales about insects from various parts of the world, including Mexico, Japan, Jamaica, and Fiji.

Tales of Holidays

Pleasant DeSpain (author)

Publisher: August House ISBN: 9780874836677

These nine short folktales feature stories about traditional holidays celebrated from Czechoslovakia, Russia, France, the United States, and other parts of the world.

Tales of Heroes

Pleasant DeSpain (author)

Publisher: August House ISBN: 9780874836660

Nine inspiring folktales about heroes, including selections from Hungary, Switzerland, India, Japan, and other parts of the world. Each of these classic stories shares an inspiring message of courage and perseverance.

Sister Tricksters

Robert D. Sansouci (author), Daniel San Souci (illustrator)

Publisher: August House ISBN: 9780874837919

Everyone remembers the exploits of Br'er Rabbit and his cohorts Br'er Fox, Br'er Possum, and other sly characters. But while these tales were circulating among slaves in the southern United States, another set of stories was passed along just as enthusiastically only here the clever tricksters were female. Who better to tackle the stories of these sister tricksters than the San Souci brothers? Utilizing a contagiously rhythmic, pitch-perfect dialect, writer Robert gleefully interprets the exploits of Molly Cottontail, Miz Grasshopper, Miz Duck, and Miz Goose against worthy (and not-so-worthy) foes such as Mistah Slickry Sly-fox, Mistah Rooster, and Mistah Bear. Brother Daniel's comically realistic paintings capture the slapstick frenzy of these characters engaged in battles of wits against the rural Southern landscape that nourished the tales in their infancy.

Tales of Enchantment

Pleasant DeSpain (author)

Publisher: August House ISBN: 9780874837117

A collection of nine traditional tales about leprechauns, dwarfs, shapeshifters and other enchanted creatures from various countries, including Russia, Norway, and Germany.

Tales of Cats

Pleasant DeSpain (author)

Publisher: August House ISBN: 9780874837131

This collection of nine short stories features a range of cat "tales" from different countries that are especially worth sharing. You will find stories that explain why cats choose women over men, how cats trick other (in cat's view) "lesser" animals, how cats outwit humans, and how cats wait patiently for their time in the sun.

Ride the Butterflies

Donald Davis (author)

Publisher: August House ISBN: 9780874836066

Maybe it's because his mother was a teacher. Or maybe it's because he has spent most of his life in classrooms - as a wide-eyed first grader, a naive college student, a seminarian, and now as a visiting writer in residencies across the country. There's something about school that infuses the work of Donald Davis and he has collected his all-time favorite school stories in the book. Whether we're traveling around the world with Miss Daisy, the fourth grade teacher who was integrating arithmetic, geography and English before the term whole language ever surfaced; or watching in awe as a classmate conjugates malaprops in Miss Vergilius Darwin's Latin class; or driving a school bus and learning about segregation - we experience flashes of recognition in moments that transcend Donald Davis's childhood stories.

Mama Learns to Drive

Donald Davis (author)

Publisher: August House ISBN: 9780874837452

The author presents eight short stories about his mother and other family members as they grew up in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina.

Of Kings and Fools

Michael; Olivier Parent (author)

Publisher: August House ISBN: 9780874834819

Bubbling with beautiful princesses, dragon-slaying underdogs, and crafty tricksters, these Franco-American stories explore a heritage that has become known as "a quiet presence". Co-authors, Parent and Olivier recount the lutin's tricks on farmers, the Jack-like adventures of Ti-Jean, Pierre and his modern-day chainsaw, a beautiful princess conquering an evil witch, and family stories passed down from generation to generation. Meet Michael's grandfather, Honor Fournier, who spoiled his grandchildren with kindly generosity, and Alexis Lacasse, Julien's grandfather, who didn't let a prank stop him from arriving to dinner on time. Life in Franco-American families revolved around two entities: family and church. The authors address these two important aspects and how they have influenced their stories. Olivier and Parent inherited their families' love of stories and continue that legacy by sharing their ancestry and heritage in this charming book.

Listening for the Crack of Dawn

Donald Davis (author)

Publisher: August House ISBN: 9780874836059

The fourteen personal stories in this delightful coming of age book apply universal elements with characters and situations that everyone will recognize so that only the names, places and times change from our own childhood stories.

Farm On Nippersink Creek

Jim May (author)

Publisher: August House ISBN: 9780874834468

Jim May writes the stories of his youth, growing up in the rural Midwest between the Truman and the JFK eras, where trading stories was as common as trading horses, and frequently required the same skills. Neighboring, as his mother called it, was part of the social fabric. These 18 poignant and humorous stories of life's joys and trials told with the freshness of youth, yet tempered with the wisdom of age evoke a simpler time in our nation's history without romanticizing the inherent hardships.

African-American Folktales

Richard & Judy Dockrey Young (authors)

Publisher: August House ISBN: 9780874833096

This collection of African-American folktales highlights the unbroken chain of a rich oral tradition. The stories share the richness and variety of a cultural heritage that has crossed the Atlantic, survived slavery, and triumphed over the ignorance of racism and bigotry.

Barking At a Fox-fur Coat

Donald Davis (author)

Publisher: August House ISBN: 9780874831405

Highly acclaimed, award winning author Donald Davis wants us all to remember and share our family stories. Among other tall tales, he writes about how his uncle hung onto the multitudinous Democratic votes of the Ratherton clan while at the very same time keeping them from shooting Davis' squirrels in a lean year; how he got Phyleete, wife Jolly, their eleven sub-natural sons and one forgettably natural daughter to move their log house from the unlikely place they'd built it; and how he tried to solve the problem of the chatty Misses Lena and Lucy Leatherwood, who clogged up the eight-party telephone line so badly that Uncle Frank paid for his new phone four months before he ever got the chance to talk on it. Davis offers seventeen vintage family stories, including Rainy Weather, The Southern Bells, and Old Man Hawkins' Lucky Day.

Asian Tales and Tellers

Cathy Spagnoli (author)

Publisher: August House ISBN: 9780874835267

In this abundant and kaleidoscopic collection, Spagnoli includes stories from Japan, India, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Laos, Tibet, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Burma, and Nepal. After profiling modern Asian storytellers practicing traditional storytelling styles, she arranges the stories around dominant Asian themes such as Harmony and Friendship

Adventures of High John the Conqueror

Steve Sanfield (author)

Publisher: August House ISBN: 9780874837742

High John the Conqueror sometimes called simply High John or John was a slave trickster who always outwits Old Master. Much like Greek slave Aesop's animal characters, High John was the subject of a series of subversive narratives, whose mission was to outsmart his oppressors. Tall tales of High John's exploits flourished during slavery, but after emancipation they fell out of circulation and his antics were all but forgotten.