Customer Reviews

The Wizard King: & Other Spellbinding Tales

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This book contains nine folk and fairy tales from nine different cultures. The stories are printed in a medium size type and with simple, yet bright and inviting fantasy pictures, it is an open invitation to children to expand their reading skills while being pleasantly entertained. These stories are sufficiently obscure to seem brand new to young readers and so provide a wonderful sense of discovery as well as a fun journey through the realm of make-believe. The tales come from the British Isles, Europe and Russia, the Mediterranean and also two from the treasure-house of North American Indian lore. John and Caitlin Matthews are brilliant scholars of folk history and of magical lore and their choices of these nine stories provide a beautiful opportunity to experience lesser known folk tales that are filled with magic and wisdom. Having been fortunate enough to visit the ancient stone circle in England called the Rollright Stones, my personal favorite story in this collection is "The Witch of Rollright" that tells how the ring of stones came to be standing where it is now located. The illustrations for this story include fairies dancing at the feet of the beautiful witch who kept the land safe from a would-be conquerer. The text contains tidbits of folklore concerning the offering of milk to the fey and the significance of the elder tree in pagan lore. All the stories have similar indigenous imagery. This is not your average fairy tale book but instead the Matthews have faithfully delivered gems of wisdom and whimsy from the simple people who lived with and understood these concepts as part of their daily lives. I heartily recommend this book.

This is one super book I love the diffrent storys and I realy like "The Sick Wizard"story.This book is excellent for younger children (4-9).In this book it says the contry of origin (eg"The Boy Magician Hopi)It is good to practice the story and tell others.