Feathers, Paws, Fins, and Claws: Fairy-Tale Beasts

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Wayne State University Press

Just the Series: Fairy-Tale Studies

Series and Publisher: Fairy-Tale Studies

Annotation: Shares lesser known fairy tales featuring animals, including "Ballad of the Bird-Bride," "Nanina's Sheep," and "The Maiden and the Fish."

Genre: [Fairy tales]

Reviews: 1

Catalog Number: #122816

Format: Publisher's Hardcover

Publisher: Wayne State University Press

Edition Date: 2015 Release Date: 09/14/15

Illustrator: Kusaite, Lina,

Pages: ix, 122 pages

ISBN: 0-8143-4069-5

ISBN 13: 978-0-8143-4069-1

Dewey: 398.24

Dimensions: 28 cm.

Subject Heading:
Animals. Folklore.
Fairy tales.
Animals. Folklore.
Fairy tales.

Language: English

Reviews:

ALA Booklist

This collection presents 10 classic fairy tales from around the world, some likely familiar, others less so, that feature or include various animals and creatures, along with exploration of their roles, potential purpose, and meaning. "The Story of the Three Bears" hearkens to the nineteenth-century version, where the chaos-causing intruder is not young Goldilocks but an old, cantankerous woman. "The Maiden and the Fish," a Portuguese tale, incorporates Cinderella-esque elements. An arrogant, greedy rat gets his comeuppance in the South Asian "The Rat's Wedding." The retellings cluding those translated into English e traditional in tone, in somewhat archaic, formal language, and accompanied by elegant, line-detailed color illustrations incorporating intricate patterns, fanciful elements, and periodic decorative page embellishments. A preface for each tale provides background, including sources, and refers to some various versions. Though this collection has a slightly more academic approach cluding a somewhat scholarly introduction, with chapter notes iry-tale aficionados and researchers will enjoy reading and learning more about these diverse tales as well as what the animal characters may reveal and represent about culture and human nature.

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ALA Booklist

Bibliography Index/Note: Includes bibliographical references (pages 15-17).

Reading Level: 3.0

Interest Level: 2-5

A wide variety of creatures walk, fly, leap, slither, and swim through fairy-tale history. Some marvelous animal characters are deeply inscribed in current popular culture?the beast redeemed by beauty, the wolf in pursuit of little girls and little pigs, the frog prince released from enchantment by a young princess. But like the adventures of many fairy-tale heroes, a curious reader's exploration in the genre can yield surprises, challenges, and unexpected rewards. Feathers, Paws, Fins, and Claws: Fairy-Tale Beasts presents lesser-known tales featuring animals both wild and gentle who appear in imaginative landscapes and enjoy a host of surprising talents. With striking original illustrations by artist Lina Kusaite and helpful introductions by fairy-tale scholars Jennifer Schacker and Christine A. Jones, the offbeat, haunting stories in this collection are rich and surprisingly relevant, demanding creative reading by audiences aged young adult and up. Schacker and Jones choose stories that represent several centuries and cultural perspectives on how animals think and move. In these ten stories, rats are just as seductive as Little Red Riding Hood's wolf; snakes find human mates; and dancing sheep and well-mannered bears blur the line between human and beast. Stories range in form from literary ballads to tales long enough to be considered short stories, and all are presented as closely as possible to their original print versions, reflecting the use of historical spelling and punctuation. Beasts move between typical animal behavior (a bird seeking to spread its wings and fly or a clever cat artfully catching its prey) and acts that seem much more human than beastly (three fastidious bears keeping a tidy home together or a snake inviting itself to the dinner table). Kusaite's full-color artwork rounds out this collection, drawing imaginatively on a wide range of visual traditions?from Inuit design to the work of the British Arts and Crafts movement. Together with the short introductions to the tales themselves, the illustrations invite readers to rediscover the fascinating world of animal fairy tales. All readers interested in storytelling, fairy-tale history, and translation will treasure this beautiful collection.

Ballad of the Bird-Bride
The story of the Three Bears
The Rat's wedding
Babiole
Nanina's sheep
Costantino Fortunato
East o' the Sun, West o' the Moon
The Snake-Skin
Prince Cheri
The Maiden and the Fish.

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