From "The Banshee" to "The Flying Dutchman" this collection of mysterious tales is designed not only to entertain, but also to show that curiosity about the spirit world knows no cultural boundaries, and that human nature demands explanation and solutions for what it doesn't understand. Full-color illustrations.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Grade 5 Up-- Twenty-five eerie tales from folklore, myth, and legend told around the world, written with resonance and precision. Presented for readers' shivery enjoyment are stories ancient and modern, myth and fable, some playful and many truly horrifying. Some of the characters are motivated by the fear of death or the desire to make harmony in their worlds. But here too are the familiar folklore catalysts of jealousy, greed, curiosity, and disobedience. Of course there are also poor, hapless souls who just by virtue of happenstance fall victim to evil-doers. Most effective are the tales from folklore that lack the distant, formal quality of some of the myths and legends. And those stories with children as protagonists strike the most affecting chord. Even without illustrations these tales are chilling. But add to them Davis' disquieting portraits, and the stories really pack a wallop. Frightening is the depiction of an oni as it screams in pain from a sword plunged into its tongue. Conversely there is almost a peaceful, pink-cheeked quietness to the portrait of a dying priest as his soul leaves his body in the form of a butterfly. These stories are ripe for telling, and both readers and tellers will find useful the background notes and comments at the end of each story. Read and enjoy. But beware, for there are witches in the air. --Denia Lewis Hester, Dewey School, Evanston, IL
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
Virginia Esther Hamilton was born, as she said, "on the outer edge of the Great Depression," on March 12, 1934. The youngest of five children of Kenneth James and Etta Belle Perry Hamilton, Virginia grew up amid a large extended family in Yellow Springs, Ohio. The farmlands of southwestern Ohio had been home to her mother's family since the late 1850s, when Virginia's grandfather, Levi Perry, was brought into the state as an infant via the Underground Railroad.
Virginia graduated at the top of her high-school class and received a full scholarship to Antioch College in Yellow Springs. In 1956, she transferred to the Ohio State University in Columbus and majored in literature and creative writing. She moved to New York City in 1958, working as a museum receptionist, cost accountant, and nightclub singer, while she pursued her dream of being a published writer. She studied fiction writing at the New School for Social Research under Hiram Haydn, one of the founders of Atheneum Press.
It was also in New York that Virginia met poet Arnold Adoff. They were married in 1960. Arnold worked as a teacher, and Virginia was able to devote her full attention to writing, at least until daughter Leigh was born in 1963 and son Jaime in 1967. In 1969, Virginia and Arnold built their "dream home" in Yellow Springs, on the last remaining acres of the old Hamilton/Perry family farm, and settled into a life of serious literary work and achievement.
In her lifetime, Virginia wrote and published 41 books in multiple genres that spanned picture books and folktales, mysteries and science fiction, realistic novels and biography. Woven into her books is a deep concern with memory, tradition, and generational legacy, especially as they helped define the lives of African Americans. Virginia described her work as "Liberation Literature." She won every major award in youth literature.
Virginia graduated at the top of her high-school class and received a full scholarship to Antioch College in Yellow Springs. In 1956, she transferred to the Ohio State University in Columbus and majored in literature and creative writing. She moved to New York City in 1958, working as a museum receptionist, cost accountant, and nightclub singer, while she pursued her dream of being a published writer. She studied fiction writing at the New School for Social Research under Hiram Haydn, one of the founders of Atheneum Press.
It was also in New York that Virginia met poet Arnold Adoff. They were married in 1960. Arnold worked as a teacher, and Virginia was able to devote her full attention to writing, at least until daughter Leigh was born in 1963 and son Jaime in 1967. In 1969, Virginia and Arnold built their "dream home" in Yellow Springs, on the last remaining acres of the old Hamilton/Perry family farm, and settled into a life of serious literary work and achievement.
In her lifetime, Virginia wrote and published 41 books in multiple genres that spanned picture books and folktales, mysteries and science fiction, realistic novels and biography. Woven into her books is a deep concern with memory, tradition, and generational legacy, especially as they helped define the lives of African Americans. Virginia described her work as "Liberation Literature." She won every major award in youth literature.
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