This collection of original folktales and stories created the foundation for the most popular films in recent memory including: Star Wars, Star Trek, Superman, and Lord of the Rings.
Maybe it's the king who spills honey, and then says it is not his problem - until it causes a war. Or maybe it's some sandpipers and whales who get into a foolish fight that almost destroys their homes. Perhaps it's the man who thinks that a gun makes him strong or the monkeys who follow their leader into water that's too deep. Peace Tales contains more than three dozen folktales and proverbs that illustrate these choices. Always fun to read these stories also prompt us to think about the seemingly minor events that lead to war and the little events that can also lead to peace. Stories from across the globe are accompanied by generous story notes, source information, and suggestions for further reading on the topic of peace.
Italian-Americans compose one of the largest ethnic groups in the United States.Unfortunately, they have often been portrayed negatively in fiction and film based on stereotypes that are not borne out among the immigrant population. These entertaining stories highlight a rich cultural heritage that has often been neglected.
This collection of traditional Jewish-American stories includes lunar holidays and everyday observances; wonder tales from the Sorcerer's Apprentice; a Jewish version of Cinderella; tales of dybbuks, golems and other supernatural beings; and superstitions and traditions surrounding birth, marriage, and death.
When she was a young girl, Barbara McBride-Smith was introduced to the ancient Greek myths but she didn't quite hear right. When her teacher told her they lived in the cradle of western civilization, young Barbara thought she said Western civilization - as in central Texas, around about Waco, where they seemed to fit right in. Ol' Man Zeus, after all, was a gun-totin' Big Daddy, sort of the J.R. Ewing of Mount Olympus. You know Aphrodite, the school basketball queen or Pandora the debutante, the best guitar picker around was Orpheus - Tom T. and wasn't Medusa the one who started the fashion trend known as Big Hair? With her incurable Texas drawl, feminist sympathies, and cheerleader's do-right attitude, master storyteller Barbara McBride-Smith spins the Greek myths as you've never heard them before.
This collection of 30 stories about wise judges, clever lawyers, and deceitful tricksters, were collected from places as diverse as ancient Greece, Morocco, Germany, China, and Ireland. Some date back to pre-biblical days while others come from the American colonies.
This collection of 31 stories comes from all over the world and different variations can be found in a variety of cultures that have been passed over the grapevine and adapted in different cultural traditions.
This collection of delightful tales from around the world and through the ages explains why an animal, plant, or natural object looks or acts the way it does.
Just who was Robin Hood? What did William Tell do that was so special? Why is Joan of Arc so famous? Author Lorna Czarnota presents medieval tales that answer these questions and many more in a highly entertaining format. Czarnota offers solid historical background for each story so that young readers have a framework to enhance the significance of each story. As they explore these action packed stories, young readers will be able to imagine themselves pulling Excalibur from the lake, untying the Gordian Knot, or fighting with Roland and the Frankish army.
As a companion to her award-winning story collection Three Minute Tales, Margaret Read MacDonald has compiled another delightful collection of entertaining stories from around the world edited especially for the tastes and interests of young readers.
In the Native American tradition, a strong connection exists between the spirit world and the natural world. It is believed that what happens in one has a definite impact on the other. In this collection, Choctaw storyteller Tim Tingle draws from the rich heritage of the Five Civilized Tribes - the Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole nations.
For the past three decades, Pleasant DeSpain has explored Latin America its people, customs, cultures, and especially the myths and legends. The tales in this collection are full of compassionate souls, tricks and humor, explanations of nature and geography and as always, memorable characters and places. Mario Lamo-Jimnez's Spanish translation that accompanies the English version reverberates with the rich, vibrant quality that has become the bench mark for the best stories from Latin America.
If you love animal stories or like turtles, then this collection of eleven turtle stories is for you. Turtle carries the world on her back: this story has been told by different cultures around the world for generations. Like Mother Nature, Turtle is unhurried, wise, and enduring. She walks on land, swims in water, and breathes the air and so embodies three of the four elements of creation. We have much to learn from Turtle in these timeless, classic turtle stories.
In this new millennium, we are faced with a critical question: are we willing to work together to ensure the survival of the planet? Eleven ancient stories address this challenging issue through tales of natural elements such as Sun, Moon, Stars, Ocean, Wind, Fire, Mammals, Reptiles, Birds, Insects, Rocks, Trees, and Humans.
This collection of urban myths assembles 50 brief stories from modern oral tradition. Commonly attributed to FOAFs (friend of a friend), they are intriguing and often frightening tales passed along in casual conversation. These tales are the substance of modern folklore, an evolving treasury of narratives. From the famous Vanishing Hitchhiker to incredulous tales of alligators in the New York City sewer system these stories still live in our collective imagination.
This collection of traditional tales and proverbs from over twenty ethnic groups touches upon both human and ecological themes such as environmental protection, the care of other creatures, and the connection of all things in nature.
This collection of humorous folktales from around the world share one common feature: the character of a fool.
Appalachian humor can be dry, colorful, and earthy. The chapters vary greatly ranging from topics of Love and Marriage; Schools, Religion; Lawyers; Mountaineers and the Law; Animals and Hunting; Mountaineers and City Folks; Health and Medicine; and Rural Life.
This fifth volume in W.C. Jameson's Buried Treasure series contains 38 tales and legends about Native American Indian hoards, Civil War caches, lost mines, and robbery stashes. Jameson includes classic treasure stories like The Lost Treasure of Pirate William Kirk (Virginia), Chief Sontechee's Silver Hoard (North Carolina), Natchez Trace: Treasure Trail (Mississippi) that are part myth and part history.
The Mid-Atlantic States are rich in history, legends of lost fortunes, and buried treasure stories. This twelfth book in W.C. Jameson's Buried Treasure collection offers thirty tales of this region that have remained largely untold for generations. Lost mines, buried loot, caches of gold and silver ingots, gangsters, Native American Indians, pirates, chests of precious stones -- such are the ingredients of a rich stew of folklore gathered from the melting pot of the Mid-Atlantic region.
Do Native Americans know the location of the cursed Lost Gold of Devil's Sink? Did Sir Francis Drake bury millions of dollars' worth of ancient Incan treasures? Has anyone found the box of gold coins buried by a reputed giant in the Washington rain forest? Is there a noble family's fortune buried near an old log cabin in the Cascades? The Pacific Northwest provides a picturesque backdrop for these stories as it stretches from the rugged coastline east over the snowy mountains and into the vast plateau that leads to Idaho. For over a century, outlaws, prospectors, Russians, Indians, loners, soldiers, and immigrants have thrown themselves into all of the adventure and intrigue money can buy.
These 32 tales from the Backbone of America include The Gold Behind the Waterfall (Arizona), The Treasure of Deadman Cave (Colorado), Lava Cave Cache (Idaho), Henry Plummer's Lost Gold (Montana), The Curse of the Lost Sheepherder's Mine (Nevada), Lost Train Robbery Loot in Cibola County (New Mexico), Eighty Ingots in Spanish Gold (Utah), and Lost Ledge of Gold (Wyoming). As Jameson points out in his introduction, the Rocky Mountains still have many remote areas that even today can only be reached on horseback or on foot. Centuries ago Native American Indians, Spaniards, explorers, prospectors, miners, the occasional wandering cowboy and even outlaws fleeing the law roamed these rugged mountains. Today this land remains laced with hidden treasures just waiting to be found.
The dusty trails heading west of the Mississippi provided intrigue, adventure, and danger for the men and women who set out in search of a new life and fortune. Outlaws along with pioneers and forty-niners traveled this frontier often, finding and losing riches along the way. The Great Plains region - loaded with history from Native Americans, Spanish explorers, and Mexican, German, and Scots-Irish settlers, holds some of the country's most promising opportunities for finding buried treasure. Scattered from North Dakota to Texas, these stories provide a glimpse into the lives of fleeing outlaws, hard-working ranchers, priests, prospectors, and immigrantsall entwined in their search for treasure.
This book is a collection of more than thirty stories about long lost buried treasures and forgotten stashes that are said to be hidden along the Atlantic Coast.
A cedar chest that had been packed with gold coins robbed from a bank just south of Lexington, Kentucky in 1860 was recovered 50 years later by a fishing guide at King's Mill Pond. Only a handful of coins were left in the chest, which had mostly rotted away. Is the rest settled beneath the silt of the pond today? The Appalachian Mountains have witnessed untold fortunes gained and lost. The confluence and clashes of a number of cultures Native American Indian, French, Spanish, pioneer, and Union and Confederate forces - often resulted in struggles over mineral resources or fights about stashes of gold and silver that were hidden for later retrieval. W.C. Jameson gathered his material from journals, maps, on-site research in the Southern Appalachian Mountains and from interviews with people whose lives have been entwined with the search for long lost treasures. This book contains 40 legends with accounts of caves stacked from floor to ceiling with gold ingots; of caches guarded by skeletons and curses; and of Union payrolls scattered to the four winds.
