Customer Reviews

American Fairy Tales

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a wonderful book for anyone with a taste for humorous fantasy. The stories are short and well written. There are no illustrations in this particular edition. Be aware of that, if you like the book enough, and consider finding a more robust printing to love and keep on a book shelf. Ultimately, though, any reader will find an extremely enjoyable read here.

This book gives interesting stories with a moral at the end of each story and has illustrations on each page. The stories vary in length but can be read quickly due to the author's writing style. While different from "Oz" books, these stories are still a lot of fun.

This book, written by Lyman Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz and many other Oz books is possibly his greatest work ever. Everyone should read this classic book of American fairy tales

I have only started reading this book on my Kindle. The stories are entertaining. I will read them to my grandkids. BUT I am disappointed that there is no Table of Contents. If they ask me to read a certain story, I will have to search the book for the title name. Would help so much to have a listing inn the Table of Contents.

Baum, who lived between 1856 and 1919, collected thirteen tales in this volume. The stories are humorous. They seem to be new stories, not versions of fairy tales found in other cultures. The Box of Robbers is a good example. A young girl is left alone at home, goes up to her attic, finds an ancient chest, opens it, and discovers that it contains three Italian robbers. Her reactions to the robbers and theirs to her and to America are funny. They insist that they must continue their profession, so they go down stairs and bring up to the attic a lot of the girl's parent's possessions. After awhile, the girl finds a funny excuse to lure the robbers back into the chest. "The story should teach us," Baum writes, "not to interfere in matters that do not concern us. For had Martha refrained from opening Uncle Walker's mysterious chest she would not have been obliged to carry downstairs all the plunder the robbers had brought into the attic."

American Fairy Tales is a 1901 collection of twelve fantasy stories by L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

These stories feature good humor, and are often tongue-in-cheek. While perfectly appropriate for children, they were clearly written with adults in mind, and can be enjoyed by such. Highlights here include "The Glass Dog" and "The Queen of Quok."

They aren't all classics, but everything is short and moves briskly. There is also some mild racism in a couple of places, but nothing worth starting a bonfire over.

Overall, American Fairy Tales is a charming, clever, entertaining work.

What a nice surprise this book was.

Baum wrote a dozen short, fable-like fantasies for children that have a bright, modern (well, 1901) voice to them. They should please adults as well because of the tongue-in-cheek humor and irony. Baum's voice and personality come through clearly enough to give him a presence as the story teller, which is a nice plus when reading the stories to someone else.

Be sure to get a version with all of the original illustrations and page border graphics.

I didn't know that he wrote short stories. Wonderful. Really reflect the time and attitudes. Have shared this book with other OZ fans.

This is a delightful book of whimsy-filled tales that Baum wrote shortly after his best known work THE WIZARD OF OZ.

The stories are a delight. They are filled with morals, but never fail to entertain.

Some mix the whimsy with touching elements, such as "The Dummy That Lived" (about a mannequin that comes to life) and "The Wonderful Pump", about a poor family whose pump produces gold. A few are outright farce, such as "The Box of Robbers" (about a girl who finds a trunk with three Italian bandits similar to Aladdin's Lamp) and "The Magic Bon Bons," a story that still amuses over a century later. Interestingly, in spite of the book's title, "The Laughung Hippopotamus" and "The Mandarin and the Butterfly" take place in Africa and China, respectively.

Great to read for the kiddles or by yourself on your porch or in front of a fireplace in a rocking chair.

Okay some of the stories are long and drawn out, but the book was free and the reviewers published the pages numbers where the stories begin, so the lack of a appendix/index was not a problem for my e-reader