The Bourbon Street Musicians by Kathy Price

by Carol3 Comments
The Bourbon Street Musicians by Kathy Price, illustrated by Andrew Glass (Suggested reading level: Pre-K through Grade 3) I mentioned a week or two ago that I was looking for a picture book version of  "The Bremen Town Musicians" that I liked. I love the idea of sharing traditional fairy tales and folk stories with kids, but some re-tellings are just better than others. This is not one of the best. Well, I take that back. I really enjoyed how the story was told, but felt the illustrations ruined the book. What I liked: Price has taken the traditional tale and set it in New Orleans. The four old animals decide to run away to Bourbon Street to become musicians. As in the original, the donkey is the first to set out and gathers the others along the way, with the cat the last to join the troupe. "Why not come wit' us?" invited the mule. "We is goin' to Bourbon Street to bebop and jazz....
Read More

The Rough-Face Girl by Rafe Martin

by Carol4 Comments
The Rough-Face Girl by Rafe Martin, illustrated by David Shannon This tale takes place long ago in a small village on the shore of Lake Ontario. In the largest wigwam set away from the others some lives an Invisible Being, a rich, powerful handsome warrior. All the young women of the village want to marry him, but it is said that he will only marry the one who can see him. In the same village lives a poor man with three daughters. The two older daughters were cruel to the youngest, forcing her to sit by the fire and feed the flames. The sparks burned her skin, face and hair, leaving her arms, hands and face scarred and rough. Her hair hung in charred tatters. You can tell this is another version of the Cinderella story. Once again, I'm surprised by how the same stories show up in entirely different cultures. The two evil sisters try to convince the Invisible Being's sister that...
Read More

The Bremen Town Musicians by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

by Carol6 Comments
"The Bremen Town Musicians" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Today's story features four old animals, a donkey, a dog, a cat and a crow. All are going to be killed by their respective masters because they are too old or tired to do their jobs in the household. The donkey is the first animal. He decides that he will run away and be a town musician in Bremen. Along the way, he meets the other critters and they each join him. The friends stop for the night and find a little house, who's light gives them the hope of a warm place to sleep and a bite to eat. Looking in the window, though, the donkey sees that, while the table is covered with good things to eat, the house is filled with robbers. The animals come up with a plan and stand at the window, each on top of the other as in the statue above. When this was done, at a given...
Read More

“The Three Army Surgeons” by The Brothers Grimm

by Carol2 Comments
"The Three Army Surgeons" by the Brothers Grimm Over the last year or so, I've learned that fairy tales are not all sweet and light, some are downright gruesome and nasty. Today's choice, a new one to me, certainly falls in the second category. Three surgeons "who thought they knew their art perfectly" were traveling and stopped at an inn to stay the night. The innkeeper asks them to prove what they can do. They each state that they will cut off a body part, a hand, heart, and eye respectively, and reattach them in the morning.  The innkeeper believes that that will indeed prove that they know everything, but the surgeons actually carry a salve with them that joins body part together. Each of the surgeons cuts off the body part. The pieces are put on a platter and given to the servant, who placed it in the cupboard. During the night, though, the servant girl's lover, a soldier, comes and she...
Read More

“Mary Belle and the Mermaid”

by Carol9 Comments
"Mary Belle and the Mermaid" I read the saddest, saddest fairy tale today. It's a cante fable from South Carolina dating back to the early 1900s, although it may have a Portugese connection. A cante fable, I just learned today, is narrative interspersed with short songs conveying crucial information, in this case magical spells. The important difference is that while a lot of folktales contain verses, a cante fable storyteller actually sings the passages. In this story, a sweet young girl's mother dies and her father remarries. Sound familiar? Mary Belle gains two step-sisters, who, along with their mother are mean to her and she spends hours crying by the banks of the river. One day a mermaid rises to the top of the river, sympathizes with booy Mary Bele and brings her down, deep in the water. The mermaid gives the child something to drink and a delicious meal before sending her back home. The next day, Mary belle returns to the...
Read More

Father Frost

by Carol5 Comments
"Father Frost" Today's story comes from Russia, but it features some familiar characters. We have a the typical beautiful kind young woman, the evil step-mother and a loving father with no backbone. The story starts in a far-off land somewhere in Russia. The stepmother is kind and loving to her own daughter but, as expected, mean and cruel to her lovely step-daughter. One day, step-mom demands that the father take his daughter away. "Now, old man, I want thee to take thy daughter away from my eyes, away from my ears. Thou shalt not take her to thy people into a warm izba. Thou shalt take her into the wide, wide fields to the crackling frost." The old man shows some remorse weeping, but nevertheless packs the girl off in the sleigh, drives her to the fields,...
Read More