Customer Reviews

The Fish of Gold and other Finnish Folktales

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I bought this book as part of my search for my own Finnish roots and was delighted to read about the author's own studies which began when most people are nearing retirement. I'm looking forward to reading her autobiography at some point.

The folktales in this book are wonderful, some were familiar such as the title story and The Mouse Bride, others were new-at least to this folklore enthusiast. I purchased this book from Amazon about 3 1/2 years ago and read it to my sons. The stories were imaginative, enchanting and exciting enough to hold their attention, yet were not gruesome or very violent (Bettelheim's theories on how that might be good for young children aside). They loved the stories, as did I. Now that they are in 3rd and 4th grade they are rediscovering the stories and appreciate them more fully.

The illustrations on the book's covers, and at a few spots through out the book, are lovely and leave you wishing there were more. In true folk tale tradition few of the characters in the stories have names, but are `the emperor's daughter', `the merchant's son' or such. For the few that did have proper names, a pronunciation guide would have been helpful.