Books in Myths from Around the World series

For millennia, Somalia has been crossed and recrossed by camel caravans of merchants, bringing with them stories such as "The Good Prince," in which a kindhearted prince conquers the evil magic of a beautiful sorceress, and "The Ogress and the Snake," a Somali Hansel and Gretel story about five little girls, abandoned in the desert, who take refuge in the house of a man-eating ogress. Elizabeth Laird heard many of these tales in Jigjiga, the capital of Ethiopia's Somali region. She gathers together the finest of them in The Ogress and the Snake and Other Stories from Somalia. The stories abound with colorful characters — Deya Ali, the greedy trickster fox; Kabaalaf the shopkeeper, crooked as a jug-handle, who meets his match in the slippery Hirsi; and the miraculous (and bodyless) Head, whose magic powers conjure up a talking camel and bring him a princess. These and the other magical tales in this delightful collection are the perfect introduction to a fascinating and little-known country.

This beautifully illustrated children's book is in two languages in parallel - Japanese and English. It presents two fables where Fox is the main character. In Aesop's 'The Fox and the Crane' the fox deliberately serves the crane's dinner on a plate that she cannot eat from. But how will the fox feel when the tables are turned? In the traditional Chinese fable 'King of the Forest' a clever fox outsmarts a ferocious tiger and saves her own life...

The Yoruba people are descendants from a variety of West African communities. They are united by Geography, History, Religion and most importantly their Language. Many years ago, before the advent of the West African slave trade, the Yoruba people inhabited an area which stretched, along the coast of West Africa, all the way inward and down to Angola in South West Africa. Today this is not the case. The legends and fairy stories in this book belong to the Yoruba. They relate the adventures of men and animals, and try to explain the mysteries of Nature-Why Women have Long Hair, How the Leopard got his Spots, the Three Magicians, the Boa- Constrictor, How the Elephant got his Trunk and more. These stories grew from the imagination of the people. We read these folk-tales for their quaintness and humour, for their sympathy with Nature, and because we find in them the ideas and ideals, not just of one man, but of a race of people. IN modern times we have begun paying close attention to folklore - old tales, not invented by one man, but belonging to the whole people; not written down, but told by parents to their children, and so handed on for hundreds of years. The legends express primitive notions of right and wrong. As a rule, the wicked are punished and the good rewarded; and that, we feel, is as it should be. We may weep at the death of rascally Tortoise, but we may also feel that he somehow has deserved his fate! A percentage of the net sale from this book will be donated to Edgbarrow School in Crowthorne, Berkshire to augment fundraising for their Ghana Project.

Meet marvelous princesses from around the world with this wonderful book. These fantastical princesses are just like real ones from the kingdoms of China, India, and Italy. Through these pages, we enter their magical worlds . . .Katell Goyer graduated with a degree in French literature before choosing to become a teacher. She has always wanted to make up and write stories since she was a child, first for herself, and later for her children.Misstigri is a painter, a graphic designer, and an illustrator. Using acrylic for her paintings, she creates truly original and colorful worlds.