Celtic Fairy Tales - A Victorian Children's Classic

CELTIC FOLKLORE overflows with vivid stories that fire the imagination. This book was compiled, longhand, in the field, by Joseph Jacobs in the 1890's. While these stories were originally published in the 19th. C. they probably date back to the middle ages or even further into the mists of time, back to the dawn of the Celtic race. After being passed orally from grandparents to parents to children before being recorded in the vernacular by Joseph Jacobs, one can only wonder how many evolutions and changes the stories have gone through before being cemented into print.

While some of the themes are similar to those of contemporary fairy tales, other stories in this collection are infused with a flavour that is uniquely Celtic. In Jacobs' own words,"The Celts went forth to battle, but they always fell. Yet the captive Celt has enslaved his captor in the realm of imagination." Here you will find 26 uniquely Celtic tales of horned women, breweries of eggshells, sprightly tailors, gold and silver trees, King o' Toole's goose, sea maidens, and more. Of particular interest could be the 13th century legend of Beth Gellert, wherein the dog of Llewelyn (I) the Great, Prince of Wales, protected the prince's infant son from a wolf attack. When Llewelyn arrived at the house he saw the bloodied dog and an equally bloody cot and assumed the worst and killed the dog. It was only after he slew the dog he found his son alive, under a mattress with a dead wolf alongside him. So wrought with grief was he, that he erected a memorial to the dog which still stands today in the village of Beddgelert, near Snowdon, Wales. Next time you're in Wales, be sure to pay it a visit.

In an attempt to give a library of the Celts' wealthy imagination to his readers, Jacobs has attempted to begin the readers' captivity with the earliest recordings of these tales. And captivate he does - Celtic Fairy Tales not only preserves a cultural history, but also is richly entertaining. In addition some, nay, indeed most of these stories, will not have been read nor heard by most children of today, and dare I say their parents as well. As such it will, and does, make for an interesting and captivating read. Even though the content of this book is centuries old, after reading, it will only be the dullest imagination that hasl not be ignited and set aflame.

For more info, a table of contents or to view a sample of the interior go to http://www.abelapublishing.com/Celtic.html

33% of the Publisher's profit from the sale of this book will be donated to the Prince's Trust charity.

John Halsted is CEO of Abela Publishing and an out-and-out fan of fairytales.

He founded Abela Publishing as a Social Enterprise and specialises in publishing new and old Children's stories, fairytales, folklore, myths and legends.33% of Abela Publishing's profit is donated to charities around the world. To see which charities are currently supported, go to http://www.abelapublishing.com/charity.html

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Educational School Supplies: Classic Children's Books

Every one has that book that loved the most when they were a child. Most of the ones we come across tend to be in our elementary school libraries, or sitting in the bookshelves in the back of the classroom. Reading is important no matter what age and these stories and characters have lasted for years. There are quite a few classic children books that should be part of every school's educational school supplies.

For simple books for the younger set, there are plenty of classics that are light on words but big on beautiful pictures. Goodnight Moon, while a bed time classic, is also great in the classroom to read to kindergarten kids before nap time. Published in 1947, it's been going strong decades later. It's large illustrations are a favorite for the little ones.

Harold and the Purple Crayon is a great book to encourage creativity, though Harold does take his artistic journey onto walls, so make sure you provide plenty of paper for your students inspiration so they don't do the same! If you have kids who are less artists but love words, Tiki Tiki Tembo is a great read-aloud book with tongue twisters and a very fun Chinese folktale at the heart of it.

As kids get older and can start to read books with a bit more depth to them, you'll want to look for more wordy and intricate stories to add to your educational school supplies. A great one to get them into is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. Beyond his other poetry anthologies that work well to teach structure and rhyme, The Giving Tree is a deeper story about what it means to have someone take care of you and the consequences of taking them for granted.

You can also move into classics that even adults love, like The Wizard of Oz or Mr. Popper's Penguins. These books are longer, with full chapters and multiple characters. Once kids are in the later elementary years, these are a great way to get them introduced to story basics like plot, characters, conflict, and resolution.

It's important to consider various picture books and novels when stocking educational school supplies. Building classes around these classic stories and using them as a way to entertain as well as educate is going to make all the difference in your students' learning. These stories are the kind that will stick with them forever, ones they will pass down to their children in the future.

UnitedSupplyCorp.com boasts a 150,000-item warehouse featuring discount office supply products, as well as educational school supplies.

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Classic Kid's Books - Roald Dahl's The Witches

If ever there was an author who could capture the wonder of a child's imagination, mix it with the bizarre, and add some scary, to create stories that children adore, it was Roald Dahl. In the classic kids' book, The Witches, by Roald Dahl, he mixes all those elements into a story that will have youngsters looking for the signs.

What signs? The signs to recognize a witch, of course. The young boy in the story lives with his grandmother, who warns him to watch for several telltale signs.

The first sign is that witches will be wearing gloves, always.

"Surely not always," he says. "What about in the summer when it's hot?"

Yes, even in the summer, because witches do not have fingernails. They have curvy claws, like a cat, so they wear the gloves to hide them. But there are many women who wear gloves, who aren't witches, so that didn't help very much.

The second sign to watch for is baldness. A real witch is always bald. So of course, she would be easy to spot. That's why they all wear wigs.

Real witches also have telltale nostrils. They are extra large, for smelling out children.

If you look into a real witch's eyes, you will see, in the dot in the center, not black, like ordinary people. Instead, it will keep changing color. You will see fire and ice dancing. It will send shivers all over your skin.

They also have feet but no toes. The ends of their feet are squared off, but they smash them into normal-looking, pointy-toed shoes.

Finally, they have blue spit. So you could spot them easily if they spat. And of course, that means they never spit, so they can't get caught.

Armed with this knowledge, the boy thinks he has found an entire convention of witches when they go to a seaside hotel for a vacation. Things start to get very creepy when the witches catch him, and he is forever changed...into a mouse!

Then he must risk getting killed by the witches, the hotel staff, and of course, a cat, in order to get back to Grandma for help. But they do better than that. Together, he and Grandma hatch a plan to destroy every witch.

Kids love this book because of the magical terror involved. It's just real enough to be believable, and scary. The fact that this book has been made into a movie attests to its popularity.

If you like other magically strange and scary books, you will also enjoy this classic kids' book: Roahl Dahl's The Witches. And watch out for women who are scratching their heads with gloved hands!

Want to see more childrens' book reviews?
Find more great books for kids and books for reluctant readers at http://greatbooksforkids.info/

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American Indian Fairytales - A Forgotten Native American Children's Classic

Initially published in 1895 and again in 1907, American Indian Fairytales is a collection of Native American folklore especially compiled for children and young adults.

The author, Margaret Compton, drew on authentic lore and anthropological research from a wide variety of sources of the day, including the Smithsonian Institute and US government reports. Considering the difficulty and duration of trans-continental travel in the day (the Trans-Continental railroad was only completed in 1869) and the relatively young age of the United States, it's a wonder she managed to collate so much material in such a short space of time. Markedly, she retains some of the most colourful story elements, such as grotesque monsters and cross-dressing characters, which some other authors and publishers of her day (and possibly ours) might have omitted under the banner of Political Correctness.

She further maintained the authenticity of the works by sprinkling throughout stereotypical language references of the time, like "squaw," "papoose," and "wigwam". The late Sir George Webbe Dasent, the famous translator and editor of mainly Norse and Viking sagas and tales, once wrote "the person who, in such a work, wilfully changes or softens, is as guilty as they "who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." Therefore we can thank Margaret Compton for her perseverance in retaining the stories and tales as she saw them. Something that could not have been easy for a female author in her day.

Originally published under the title Snow Bird and the Water Tiger and other American Indian Tales, this volume includes 17 stories of Magical Feathers, Fighting Hares, Islands of Skeletons, Great Wizards, Bended Rocks, Snow bird and Water Tiger, Star Maidens, Living Statues and more. In addition, and interestingly, a description of the Iagoo, the narator of the stories in this book, also waits within. Each story is embellished with a decorative capital and there are at least 10 exquisite illustrations.

American Indian Fairytales also provides an interesting window into the attitudes of the past; as such we encourage readers to think upon how attitudes have changed in the century since this book was originally published. So join with us and journey back to a time when these stories were told around spitting and crackling campfires, to the delight of young and old alike.

This book is one of seven dedicated to raising funds for the American Indian Education Fund. 33% of the publisher's profit from the sale of this book will be donated to this institution.

For more info, a table of contents or to view a sample of the interior, go to http://www.abelapublishing.com/IndianTales.html

John Halsted is CEO of Abela Publishing and an out-and-out fan of fairytales.

He founded Abela Publishing as a Social Enterprise and specialises in publishing new and old Children's stories, fairytales, folklore, myths and legends.

33% of Abela Publishing's profit is donated to charities around the world.
To see which charities are currently supported, go to http://www.abelapublishing.com/charity.html

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Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales - A Children's Literary Classic Given a New Lease of Life

Dr. Ignas Kunos' 1913 classic "Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales" has been re-released in hardcover with a colour interior giving a new lease of life to this classic of children's literature. This volume is a treasure chest of classic Eastern tales drawing on the rich folklore of Turkey. Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales has not been in print for almost 100 years, mainly because the original edition had lavish production standards.

This volume is appropriately titled Fairy Tales because something definitely 'fairy' occurs. There are talking animals, flying horses, birds that magically change into beautiful maidens, quests to win the hand of a princess, magical objects, simple, yet brave, peasants, wizards, witches, dragons and dungeons, epic journeys, and lovable fools. The majority of these stories contain encounters with 'Dews', or Turkish supernatural beings, better known in the West as 'Genies.' Sometimes the Turkish Dews are also called 'Arabs!'

With almost 200 exquisite illustrations by the late Willy Pogany, this volume will enable a whole generation of today's children to become reacquainted with fairy tales and imagery of the Orient. There are many other specifically Turkish elements and references in the stories, for which the glossary at the end of the book is of particular help. So this isn't simply an orientalised set of European Tales, but was drawn from an authentic Turkish oral storytelling tradition by Dr. Ignacz Kunos.

Note: some of the illustrations may be considered unsuitable by 21st Century standards because they can be considered as caricatures with obvious ethnic stereotypes. However, in most cases, the illustrator is portraying imaginary creatures, which are supposed to be grotesque. Also to be remembered is the book was originally produced in 1913 when the world's attitudes towards racial tolerance and acceptance were quite different to those of today.

Fore more information, a table of contents and a cover image go to http://www.abelapublishing.com/FortyFourTales.html

John Halsted is CEO of Abela Publishing and is an out-and-out fan of fairy tales and folklore.
In 2008 he established Abela Publishing as a Social Enterprise and publishes new and old children's stories, fairytales, folklore, myths and legends. He donates 33% of the company's profits to charities around the world.

Abela Publishing
http://www.abelapublishing.com/

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The Red Fairy Book - A Victorian Children's Classic

IN gleaning the fields of Fairy Land, Andrew Lang hoped that some of the tales in the Red Fairy Book may have the attraction of being as familiar as old friends. The tales have been translated, or adapted, from the originals originally written in old Norse, French, German, Romanian and many other European languages - he had a large field to choose from.

The popularity of Andrew Lang's books, and similar books from other folklorists of the day, did not rest well with some in the Folklore Society whose president believed it was not acceptable for the then prominent folklorists to be publishing fairy tales. Messers Lang, Jacobs and Campbell disagreed and opted to "Put themselves on their country and be tried by a jury of children" - and they were certainly not found wanting. So high was the demand that Andrew Lang followed the Red Fairy Book with the Blue Fairy Book and intended the third in the sequence, the Green Fairy Book, to be last. But so popular were these books that he published no less than 12 - almost running out of the colours that were available on the Victorian palette.

But why call them FAIRY TALES? One cannot imagine a child saying, 'Tell me a folk-tale', or 'Another nursery tale, please, grandma'. Fairy tales are stories in which something 'fairy' occurs, something extraordinary -- fairies, giants, dwarfs, speaking animals, or the remarkable stupidity of some of the characters. nd what better way to bring a gleam into a child's eye and put a smile on their face than by reading them a fairy tale. And just when you think you've finished, don't be surprised if you feel a tug at your sleeve and a request for "'nuther fairy tale please" for you have to remember that this is where good always wins over evil, where the Prince always gets his Princess and where the common man is allowed to best Knights, Princes and Kings.

In this volume, the first of many compiled by the late Andrew Lang, you will find the familiar fairytales and stories of the Pied Piper, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel and The Golden Goose and less familiar tales of Sigurd, Drakestail, Little Golden Hood, The Six Sillies, Snowdrop and many others. With the exception of a few perennial favourites most will have not been seen, read nor heard for over a century thereby re-introducing children and young parents of today to a library of "new" material.

This book has been published to raise funds for The Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) Children's Charity. In buying this book you will be donating to this great charity that does so much good and enables families to stay together in times of crisis. And what better way to help bring a sunbeam of joy into an ill child's life than to read them a fairytale and help them, albeit for a moment, to escape their reality.

33% of the Publisher's profit from the sale of this book will be donated to the GOSH Children's Charity.

For more information, a table of contents or to view a sample of the interior, go to http://www.abelapublishing.com/redfairybook.html.

John Halsted is CEO of Abela Publishing and an out-and-out fan of fairytales, folklore and legends.

He founded Abela Publishing as a Social Enterprise and specialises in publishing new and old Children's stories, fairytales, folklore, myths and legends. He donates 33% of Abela Publishing's profit to charities around the world.

To see which charities are currently supported, go to http://www.abelapublishing.com/charity.html

View the original article here