A Forest of Stories: Magical Tree Tales from Around the World - Hardcover

Singh, Rina

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1841489638 ISBN 13: 9781841489636

Publisher: Barefoot Books, 2003

Synopsis

A collection of tree tales enourages readers to appreciate the many magical gifts that trees can offer.

About this title

About the Author:

Rina Singh was born in India and moved to Canada in 1980, where she earned a Master's Degree in creative writing in addition to her teaching degree. Rina currently teaches visual arts, drama and creative movement and lives in Toronto, Canada, with her husband and two children. A Forest of Stories is her first title for Barefoot Books. Helen Cann has worked as an illustrator since 1992 after graduating from the University of Wales. Helen has illustrated over fifteen beautiful books for children and uses all kinds of patterns to create her artwork, including those from textiles, ceramics, furniture, jewellery and body art. Her previous titles with Barefoot include Mother and Daughter Tales (1996), Mary's Story (1999) and The Lady of Ten Thousand Names (2001).

From School Library Journal:

Grade 3-6-In reworking these folktales, Singh has made the stories gentler and prettier but less pithy. The selections, each immortalizing a different tree, are presented in a literary form without traditional beginning and ending phrases such as "once upon a time." In place of the simple language of the original tales, the reteller has provided rich stories embellished with much detail that sets the locale with descriptions of clothing, food, and surroundings. In updating the tales, however, there have been some substantive changes. A foolish boy who steals the fruit of a magic tree is turned forever into a part of that tree in the traditional story. In this adaptation, he is set free when the tree is moved to mercy by the tears of the maiden who tempted him to steal the fruit, and thereby a treacherous and foolish deed goes unpunished. A traditional tale in which turtle tricks the townspeople and receives just punishment is changed to a story of a boy, with a tortoise and a monkey as sidekicks, who fools the townspeople and receives a merciful reprieve. Again, wickedness goes unpunished. The beautiful watercolor, graphite, and collage illustrations greatly enhance the text. Each story is prefaced by a framed illustration of the tree with gracefully printed information about it. Charming borders and lovely paintings result in a pretty package, but the tales lack the integrity of their roots.
Marlene Gawron, formerly at Orange County Library, Orlando, FL
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Barefoot Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1841489638
• ISBN 13: 9781841489636
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 64
• Illustrator: Cann Helen