(urth) D'Aulaires books

Stuart Hamm hammstu at sbcglobal.net
Mon Mar 22 17:49:22 PDT 2010


My 10 year old is allowing me to re-read her "The Phantom Tollbooth"...sigh...happy days!

             
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--- On Mon, 3/22/10, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:

From: James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) D'Aulaires books
To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
Date: Monday, March 22, 2010, 4:48 PM

> Thanks John & Allan.
> The D'Aulaires look great. I'll be picking those up for sure.
> We watched the Jim Henson Storyteller: Greek Myths recently and my son
> loved them. I thought they might leave him cold. A few weeks later he
> recounted the story of Icarus to me and said "he shoulda listened to his
> father" all seriously. :D


I miss being able to read to my kids. Fortunately I still have one daughter who is willing to read to ME on long drives.

Let's see (for what it's worth)...

Check out the Golden Treasury of Myths and Legends by Anne Terry White. It includes Greek myths but also Persian, Nordic, and British stories. The illustrations are amazing IMO.
http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Treasury-Legends-Adapted-Classics/dp/B000P4HH9S%3FSubscriptionId%3D15HRV3AZSMPK0GXTY102%26tag%3Die8suggestion-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB000P4HH9S

You shouldn't miss the opportunity to read all the Winnie the Pooh stories to your kids. It's extremely enjoyable for adults but there is an age when a kid won't tolerate it.

The Wizard of Oz stories are obvious choices. You get 14 volumes IIRC by Baum, but then after him there's Ruth Plumly Thompson's stories (whom Wolfe has identified as an influence).

David Hartwell (Gene Wolfe's editor) produced the twin volumes "Masterpieces of Fantasy and Wonder" and "Masterpieces of Fantasy and Enchantment". They collect fantasy stories from the 19th century to modern times that are all just a little bit skewed from all the fantasy that is squarely in Tolkien's shadow. The collection includes Wolfe's "The Detective of Dreams" for instance. But each volume also has a story by Frank Stockton. "The Bee Man of Orn" is a story Wolfe would write if he could write stories for children. Also fantasy stories by Baum, Horace Wapole, George McDonald, Lafferty, and Philip K. Dick.

If your son enjoyed Pyle's King Arthur then he would probably be able to appreciate Kenneth Morris' "The Book of Three Dragons", a free retelling of the labors of Manawyddan.  The scene where Manawyddan confronts the literary critics is perfect.

There's the Gormenghast trilogy. Some kids (and adults) *really* like it and some don't at all.

The Complete Grimm Fairy Tales has almost a year's worth of nightly readings. The Windermere Series "The Arabian Knights Entertainments" is perfect for reading to kids. It includes the stories kids are most likely to be familiar with (unlike Richard Burton's translation which are almost unreadable and certainly unreadable to children). But perhaps a better choice is a large volume called "The Enchanted World: The Greatest Folk and Fairy Tales" which combines stories from the Grimms, Arabian Nights, Lang, Charles Perault, William Griffs, and others.

Speaking of which, don't roll you're eyes but the 20 volume Time Life Enchanted World series is absolutely *packed* with readable stories from all over the world. Some of them are really creepy, which is appealing to boys. And the illustrations are phenomenal. You can often pick the volumes up at used bookstores for as little as $2.

Also, the graphic novels by Jim Fitzgerald on the myths of Ireland.

I tried hard to convince my wife we needed more kids, and the opportunity to read to them and teach them to read was probably my impetus.

J. 
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