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ellenjanemck's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
missbookiverse's review against another edition
4.0
On the one hand, I love fairy tales and folk stories because of their magic objects, talking animals, and the call of adventure. On the other hand, I sometimes struggle reading the original stories. They were recorded at a different time, of course, and this sometimes shows in bland, simplistic, or repetitive writing. I do love a good retelling, but I’m also curious about the original stories and that’s why this collection of tales from Britain and Ireland is such a great book. Kevin Crossley-Holland took the original tales and updated them by employing modern language, shortening repetitive sections (you know how things tend to come in threes in fairy tales), and getting creative with the writing style and narrative structures. On top of that the book is separated into different sections such as “Love,” “Magic and Wonder” (my favorite), or “Ghosts” and beautifully illustrated throughout.
elspeth56's review against another edition
I adore the stories in this book, the only reason I didn’t finish is that it ran out of its library loan time, and I’d actually like to borrow a copy and approach it more as a dipping in book than as reading all the way through!
b3thj0n3s01's review
fast-paced
4.0
Favourites: Butterfly Soul, The Dead Moon, The Wildman, Sea Tongue, Fairy Ointment, Mossycoat, The Dauntless Girl
loris13's review against another edition
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
alongreader's review against another edition
5.0
Kevin Crossley-Holland has a gift with this kind of title. There's no denying it. This one stands among his best, a wonderful selection of folk takes from the British Isles, retold in his signature style. This will make a wonderful gift for anyone and find a home on any bookshelf. Just wonderful.
rkiladitis's review against another edition
4.0
Forty-eight folk and fairy tales from Britain and Ireland; some you've heard before, most will be new to you. The tales are organized by Magic and Wonder; Adventures and Legends; Power, Passion, and Love; Wits, Tricks, and Laughter; and Ghosts. This is a wonderful tome for your fantasy and fairy/folk tale collections; especially, if, like me, you love having a collection of tales from all over the world. Some are short enough to read aloud, others are longer and invite readers to sit down, have a nice cup of hot chocolate, and imagine a storyteller leading you back through time for stories about fairy rings, boggarts, and changelings. Frances Castle's stark black-and-white illustrations set a mood for each story and each section. An afterword on "Why Everyone Needs to Be Able to Tell a Story" is told as a final folktale, infusing the entire volume with a bit of magic. Comprehensive source notes identify each story's source(s) and original titles, if any.
andiez's review against another edition
4.0
I love folktales and this is such a wonderful collection. I'd heard versions of some of these before but a lot of them were brand new to me. One actually reminded me of cassette tape I had growing up that had a version of one of these stories that I LOVED, and now I'm hoping that tape is still in a box somewhere and I can go find it and listen to it.
As with all anthology collections, some of the stories resonated more than others and a few didn't connect at all, but overall I really enjoyed this and would recommend it!
Thank you to the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
As with all anthology collections, some of the stories resonated more than others and a few didn't connect at all, but overall I really enjoyed this and would recommend it!
Thank you to the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
ehays84's review against another edition
4.0
This sort of book is about as close as we can get to traveling back in time. Thanks to Neil Gaiman for recommending this, although I have read 4 other books by Crossley-Holland before, and enjoyed them all.
I am not a folklorist, but I have always loved to read folk and fairy tales. Of course, when I was young, I loved to read them just for the stories, and often the kind of mystery of the stories. I remember finding some copy of original (not Disney-ified) folktales on a bookshelf in my house, probably mostly Grimm brothers, and being entranced and heartbroken at many of the stories, and also at finding out the truth about the original versions of many stories I thought I already knew. But I think even at that age, I was sensing something deeper, and that is really the joys, fears, sorrows, and sensibilities of our ancestors. In many ways, reading stories like these is a much truer way to understand what it would have been like to live in, say, Norfolk or Galway in the early modern period up until around 1900 or so, than reading many social history books.
What you always struggle to learn from a history book is, "what did the people at the time actually think and feel about what they were experiencing?" A lot of that will just always be hidden from us due to the subjective nature of human consciousness, but I think stories get at something much deeper than what can be described based on parish records or the like. We need both, of course, but too often these sort of folktales are neglected.
We get so much in these stories that just doesn't always make sense, and for that reason, this excellent set of linguistically modernized original folktales by the master story teller Kevin Crossley-Holland is not for everyone. But life and what happens in it doesn't always make sense.
Did people in the British Isles literally believe in the fair folk? I don't know, probably some did, but I think that is missing something more important. People's lives in those days were characterized so much by what they didn't and couldn't know, and this comes out in story form. People didn't know much beyond a 30 mile radius from where they were born. They didn't know why they got sick. They didn't know what the weather would be like 2 days from now. I could go on and on. They just had to respond, as best they could, to what they faced. And this definitely comes out in a lot of syncretism in these stories--we often have priests and magic charms co-existing, without any seeming dissonance.
My main other experience with these sort of stories as an adult is the master folklorist Joseph Jacobs, and these stories compared favorably with those. Jacobs' works are all old enough that they are out of copyright, so I plan to keep reading more of his works in the future to expand the geographic regions from which I have read folktales.
I am not a folklorist, but I have always loved to read folk and fairy tales. Of course, when I was young, I loved to read them just for the stories, and often the kind of mystery of the stories. I remember finding some copy of original (not Disney-ified) folktales on a bookshelf in my house, probably mostly Grimm brothers, and being entranced and heartbroken at many of the stories, and also at finding out the truth about the original versions of many stories I thought I already knew. But I think even at that age, I was sensing something deeper, and that is really the joys, fears, sorrows, and sensibilities of our ancestors. In many ways, reading stories like these is a much truer way to understand what it would have been like to live in, say, Norfolk or Galway in the early modern period up until around 1900 or so, than reading many social history books.
What you always struggle to learn from a history book is, "what did the people at the time actually think and feel about what they were experiencing?" A lot of that will just always be hidden from us due to the subjective nature of human consciousness, but I think stories get at something much deeper than what can be described based on parish records or the like. We need both, of course, but too often these sort of folktales are neglected.
We get so much in these stories that just doesn't always make sense, and for that reason, this excellent set of linguistically modernized original folktales by the master story teller Kevin Crossley-Holland is not for everyone. But life and what happens in it doesn't always make sense.
Did people in the British Isles literally believe in the fair folk? I don't know, probably some did, but I think that is missing something more important. People's lives in those days were characterized so much by what they didn't and couldn't know, and this comes out in story form. People didn't know much beyond a 30 mile radius from where they were born. They didn't know why they got sick. They didn't know what the weather would be like 2 days from now. I could go on and on. They just had to respond, as best they could, to what they faced. And this definitely comes out in a lot of syncretism in these stories--we often have priests and magic charms co-existing, without any seeming dissonance.
My main other experience with these sort of stories as an adult is the master folklorist Joseph Jacobs, and these stories compared favorably with those. Jacobs' works are all old enough that they are out of copyright, so I plan to keep reading more of his works in the future to expand the geographic regions from which I have read folktales.
trioplan's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75