You have exceeded your limit for simultaneous device logins.
Your current subscription allows you to be actively logged in on up to three (3) devices simultaneously. Click on continue below to log out of other sessions and log in on this device.
In our Book Reviews section, between Fiction and Nonfiction, you can often find reviews of Folklore and/or Poetry. This is an “and/or” because we don’t always have both, and sometimes we have neither. Our coverage tends to ebb and flow, as do the trends in books being published. In our...
“You don’t know what you don’t know.” This was a phrase one of my previous coworkers liked to use frequently, but I never truly appreciated her words until the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything. Suddenly, toilet paper went from being a banal commodity to a coveted luxury as the stuff became...
We here at Calling Caldecott are tremendously sad to learn about the death yesterday of author-illustrator Jerry Pinkney at the age of 81. As noted in the NPR obituary, released last night, Pinkney illustrated over one hundred books in his magnificent career, which began in 1964 with the publication of...
I don’t retell fairy tales. They retell me. Over and over again they tell me who I am, how I feel, what I believe.This process of self-discovery happens every time I write a poem, but it seems to happen most acutely when I throw on Red Riding Hood’s cloak or...
Primary school–age children are ripe for enjoying literary parody, and fractured fairy tales are a great introduction. By this time, ideally at least, kids have listened to or read many of the classic old tales: “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” et al.It’s that familiarity with the original...
I often write novels based on fairy tales, folktales, myths, and religious stories. They attract me for three reasons. They have stood the test of time, and I want to harness that power. Their plots grip me so hard I can barely breathe. They challenge me: how do I interest...
by Gerald McDermottI’ve been on a journey past paper mountains, flying men, foolish spiders, talking trees, and the flaming arrows of the solar fire. It has been a journey of discovery through the bizarre and exotic forms of world mythology. The Rainbow Trail has become a path for my work...
This week on Out of the Box, guest columnist Rapunzel has been helping readers with fairy-tale dilemmas, from marital woes to unruly enchanted objects. Who needs a fairy godmother with Rapunzel around? Don't miss her columns:Snarky stepchildrenFamily mattersGood-for-nothing crittersA cave of one's ownBoor or bear?"Be Our Guest"? Not so muchFor...
From the depths of the jungles to Middle Eastern marketplaces to magical fairy forests, the following books span diverse settings. The stories illustrate just how effectively narrative can represent and transmit different cultures’ traditions, heritage, mythos, and history.In Odile Weulersse’s Nasreddine, Mustafa and his son Nasreddine set out for the...
Once upon a time . . . there was an old sow with three little pigs, and as she had not enough to keep them, she sent them out to seek their fortune. The first that went off met a man with a bundle of straw, and said to him:...