Customer Reviews

The Troll With no Heart in His Body

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lise Lunge-Larsen grew up with troll stories in Norway and has been sharing them with American children since her coming to this country. For a parent to read, or a storyteller to tell, this collection is rich and valuable. Children need stories as vehicles for understanding. They reveal universal turths. They speak to our inner circumstances, they make us human. Some of the basic lessons that are repeated and surface include: -be true to your nature -remember who you are -Life is a journey and only you can take yours -Use your gifts -Don't ever give up -Everything you need can be found inside yourself While learning these stories, children can rest in a world that is full of magic, but mirrors their own. A world that has the possibility of greatness that lies within each human heart. I bought this book to add to my collection of stories to tell again and again to children to remind them of their own capacity to overcome challenging situations in thier lives. I could not be more pleased!

Because I am of Scandanavian descent, I saw this book in my public library and immediately picked it up. My son loves Harry Potter, Narnia, etc and wants me to read and re-read every story I have time for in this book for the last few nights. The author has been a storyteller for the last 20 years and this book is one of the easiest to read aloud books I've gotten. Great woodcut illustrations that capture the essence of trolls and Norway. I'm buying copies for myself and my nieces and nephews as an essential for a child's library. Has some violent, Grimm's fairy tale images, that the author explains to disquieted parents in afterwords to each story. children are less upset by the violence than the parents, it seems to her and me. My son delighted at the images of trolls being turned into stone, or shoved by little boys into boiling water head first. ... can tell parents more about the meaning of this child's delight.

Lise Lunge-Larsen is a Norwegian-American storyteller who wants to tell us about a creature rarely reported on in zoological circles, the Norwegian Troll. These nine (really ten, if you keep reading past the bibliography and sources) stories are relatively short, and easy to read. The illustrations are provided by woodcuts created by Betsy Bowen, and they provide just the right atmosphere for these wonderful tales.

My children and I all loved these stories, and we recommend them to you.

My kids love these stories. Some of these I remember from my childhood but most were new to me. I love the intros to all the tales. They really describe what true Norwegian Trolls are like. The illustrations are perfectly done. They match the way the stories unfold and the ruffness of the illustrations really brings out that uncivilized Troll imagery.

The stories in this Houghton Mifflin hardcover, reflect the heritage of the author, who, like myself, is Norwegian. I love the forward in the book in which she refers to the reason stories are so important. These tales all told about trolls are written beautifully for telling or reading, and the woodcut illustrations evoke just the rough hewn image required to help transport ourselves to a gentle time and place.

Buy this to read to others and yourself. It is a modern classic!

Now that I have kids, I've found my forays back into the world of children's literature disappointing. I can only assume the publishing business has become so efficient at branding and marketing, that it seems like anything that doesn't conform to a carefully categorized set of shiny, cheerful production values is marginalized into oblivion. I keep wondering, where is the mystery that I remember from when I was a kid? Where the sense of possibility? The feeling that there was more to the world than met the eyes? So much of what's available seems so . . . obvious.

This book was a wonderful discovery. It's the product of an inspired collaboration between a wonderful storyteller and an imaginative printmaker. The storyteller remembers first hand those great old tales that I dimly recall from when I was a kid, and manages to keep them true to what made them so fascinating while helping to explain them to a new generation. Great playfully handled stuff about how there are forces out there in the world that defy our sense of order and reason, but that how even something as ur-awful as a troll can easily be managed by the littlest child, if he only stops to use his brains! And stories that have been repeated too often like the Three Billy Goats Gruff come compellingly back to life. The illustrations are at least as strong as the story. They break away from the greeting card/funnypaper/cuteness school of artistic design, in favor of woodcuts that manage to be richly colored and engaging, but also to introduce a degree of subtelty and abstraction that leave room for a sense of mystery and possibility that is so lacking in so many children's books.

This book gets my highest recommendation. (Certainly every child of Scandinavian heritage should have a copy in his or her library!) I only wish I could find more books like this . . .

I bought this book for my 9 yr old son who is interested in fantasy. The stories are really entertaining and he very much loves to read about the trolls, dwarves and other beings. The illustrations are also great! I would highly recommend this book.

I love children's books and I love sharing them with children. I have high standards... I like good writing. I expect illustrations that truly add something to the quality of the storytelling and which are truly artistic. Usually one or the other, and often both, is lacking.

Lise Lunge-Larsen brought my Scandinavian heritage forward in a respectful way when she retold these tales, and Betsy Bowen's well known woodcuts did everything art can do to encourage the telling of a tale. The art actually has a nostalgic feel that lends to how old troll tales are and seemed to have been dug out of the past with them.

I had begun reading about trolls to my son with D'Aulaires' Book of Trolls (New York Review Children's Collection), and while I love the d'Aulaires artistry and it's a well written book, it was as much the history of trolls as it was stories. My son sat through it, but he didn't beg for me to read like he did with this one. Lunge-Larsen takes the opposite approach with a little bit of Troll lore followed by mostly story. Having already read d'Aulaire aloud and taking my son's age into consideration, I read the commentary to myself this time and only read him the stories. He has continued to come back to this book to hear favorite stories again (which is good -- memory has its development in the early years and hearing stories repeated is beneficial) and asked for felt board characters to go along with the books and to aid him in narrating the stories from memory both for my benefit and when he is on his own.

I was so happy to find these wonderful troll stories told the way I remember them! My mother (who grew up in northern Minnesota) told us kids these stories when we were very small (that's a long time ago). Lately I thought the tradition was lost because I could only find watered-down versions of the the Three Billy Goats Gruff, not the fascinating and powerful tales I remembered. But all is not lost. Here is a collection of genuine Troll stories, with ugly, scary trolls in all shapes and sizes, and clever boys and girls who persevere through wild and strange adventures and eventually save the day. Great stories, wonderfully told. The illustrations are beautiful.

I first borrowed this book from the library, but of course had to then buy a copy of my own. I highly recommend this book.

I really enjoyed this book. I bought it to read to my four-year-old and the book well exceeded my expectations.

Here you will find classics such as the Three Billy Goats Gruff and tales you may never have heard of. They are all beautifully put together and could be told as a traditional story teller might or read aloud for maximum impact.

Great stories well told, and a treasure trove for children and folklorists alike.