Excerpt: "It was in a space in a thicket that he came into the world, in one of those little, hidden places in the wood which seem to be open on every side but which in fact are completely surrounded by foliage. That is why there was so little room there, but just enough for him and his mother. He stood up, he staggered on his thin legs as he wondered what was happening, looked out with eyes which were dull, wondered what was happening but saw nothing,...

First Published in 1892, "The Green Fairy Book" is the fourth in a series of collections of fairy tales from around the world edited by Andrew Lang, the Scottish novelist, poet and literary critic, with translations and retellings by several authors, including his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne. Lang and Alleyne collaborated on popular and enduring collections of fairy tales and poetry for over twenty years. Lang and Alleyne achieved great commercial...

Retells the familiar tale in which one of three brother pigs survives a wolf's attacks by using his head and planning well.

"In this witty and exuberant collection of linked stories, Aoko Matsuda takes the rich, millenia-old tradition of Japanese folktales-shapeshifting wives and foxes, magical trees and wells-and wholly reinvents them, presenting a world in which humans are consoled, guided, challenged, and transformed by the only sometimes visible forces that surround them. A busybody aunt who disapproves of hair removal; a pair of door-to-door saleswomen hawking portable...

Xingyin won her mother's freedom from the Celestial Emperor. But the discovery of a strange magic on the moon as the emperor tightens his grip on power forces Xingyin and her companions to venture to unexplored lands of the Immortal Realm. To rise against the evil before it destroys the worlds she has grown to love, Xingyin must uncover the truth of her heart--even if doing so demands the greatest price of all.--Adapted from jacket.

Three clever billy goats outwit a big ugly troll that lives under the bridge they must cross on their way up the mountain.

While civil war raged in Lebanon, Najla Jraissaty Khoury traveled with a theater troupe, putting on shows in marginal areas where electricity was a luxury, in air raid shelters, Palestinian refugee camps, and isolated villages. Their plays were largely based on oral tales, and she combed the country in search of stories.

A boy tending sheep on a lonely mountainside thinks it a fine joke to cry "wolf" and watch the people come running--and then one day a wolf is really there, but no one answers his call.

A collection of fairy tales of folk and legendary origin.