World Folktales and Fables Week is held each year during the third week of March to encourage exploration of the lessons to be learned from folk tales, fables, myths, and legends from around the world.
The folk tales and fairy tales vary from culture to culture, but often share common morals, themes, and characters. Check out some of the wonderful picture books, chapter books, graphic novels, and young adult books that our library has available to celebrate!
- Picture Books
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Sugar In Milk by Thrity Umrigar and Khoa Le
A young immigrant girl joins her aunt and uncle in a new country that is unfamiliar to her. She struggles with loneliness, with a fierce longing for the culture and familiarity of home, until one day, her aunt takes her on a walk. As the duo strolls through their city park, the girl's aunt begins to tell her an old myth, and a story within the story begins.
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Such a Library! : a Yiddish Folktale Re-imagined by Jill Ross Nadler Stevie craves quiet until he meets Miss Understood, a magical librarian whose books come to life and wreak havoc in this modern day twist on an old Yiddish folktale.
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Quill Soup: a Stone Soup Story by Alan Durant
In this African version of the traditional folktale Stone Soup, Noko the porcupine tricks the other well fed but selfish animals into sharing their food with him and the whole village.
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Gloria's Porridge by Elizabeth Laird
Gloria is making a delicious porridge, but she's too hungry to share it with the cat. When Gloria goes to fetch some water, the cat eats all the porridge. Angry Gloria shakes her spoon at the cat, and the scared cat runs away, starting a chaos around her. A retelling of an Ethiopian folktale by acclaimed author, Elizabeth Laird.
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Reading Beauty by Deborah Underwood and Meg Hunt
In this version of Sleeping Beauty, told in verse, the Princess is threatened with a curse which will start with a paper cut; devastated that all her books have been taken away, she sets out with her dog, Prince, to find the fairy who cast the curse and make her reverse it.
- Chapter Books
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When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
Lily has always loved her Halmoni's stories; Korean folktales that begin, "long, long ago, when tiger walked like a man" But Lily never expected to encounter the fierce magical tiger in her sick grandmother's basement, or to strike a deal to heal Halmoni by releasing the powerful stories she stole as a young woman. Keller illuminates Lily's desperation to heal Halmoni and bring her family together through the tiger stories interspersed throughout the book; stories of heroism and self-sacrifice, of sisterhood and bravery.
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The Dreamweavers by Gail Zhuang Schmidt
It is time for the mid-autumn festival, a favorite time of year for 12-year-old twins Mei and Yun, because it is when their grandfather makes his famous mooncakes. This year they will have a special visitor, and their grandfather spends days preparing for their arrival. When the day finally arrives, disaster ensues: their grandfather is arrested and set to suffer a dreadful fate while their small village is hit by a mysterious and catastrophic storm, destroying their crops and livestock. Now it is up to Mei and Yun to save their grandfather. Through their quest they will learn about old curses, encounter the legendary Jade Rabbit, and uncover the secrets of their family lineage.
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We Belong by Cookie Hiponia Everman
As Elsie's three children prepare for bedtime, they beg her for a story — Elsie's own story. She instead tells them about Mayari, the moon goddess, who journeys with her siblings from one land to another. Mayari's story parallels Elsie's, as well as how her family fled the Philippines and came to America. It is, at times, a painful but familiar new immigrant story of struggle and hardship, but it also showcases not only the very tight bonds of Filipino families but also their perseverance.
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Mañanaland by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Twelve-year-old Max, who loves the legend Buelo tells him about a mythical gatekeeper who can guide brave travelers on a journey into tomorrow, sets out on a dangerous quest to discover if he is true of heart and what the future holds, armed with a treasured compass, a mysterious stone rubbing, and Buelo's legend as his only guides.
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The Republic of Birds by Jessica Miller
After her family is exiled from the capital of Tsaretsvo, Olga must use her wits, cunning, and forbidden magic to rescue her kidnapped sister, Mira, and return home from the Republic of Birds. Inspired by Russian folklore.
- Graphic Novels
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Blancaflor, the Hero with Secret Powers: a Folktale from Latin America by Nadja Spiegelman
In this updated adaptation of a classic Latin American folktale, Blancaflor, a young ogre with magical powers, decides to secretly help a charming prince who has made a foolish bet with her father. Through saving the prince and the kingdom, she learns to be honest with herself and others about the things that make her special.
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The Fox & Little Tanuki. Volume 1 by Tagawa MI, author, artist
It is said that there are some special animals occasionally born with great powers. Senzou the black fox is one of those ... but instead of using his powers for good, he abused his strength until the Sun Goddess imprisoned him for his bad behavior. Three hundred years later, he's finally been released, but only on one condition — he can't have any of his abilities back until he successfully helps a tanuki cub named Manpachi become an assistant to the gods.
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The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor, author, artist
Aware of the racial tumult in the years after the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Mei tries to remain blissfully focused on her job, her close friendship with the camp foreman's daughter, and telling stories about Paul Bunyan--reinvented as Po Pan Yin (Auntie Po), an elderly Chinese matriarch.
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The Daughters of Ys by M. T. Anderson, author
Ys, city of wealth and wonder, has a history of dark secrets. Queen Malgven used magic to raise the great walls that keep Ys safe from the tumultuous sea, but after the queen's inexplicable death, her daughters drift apart. Rozenn, the heir to the throne, spends her time on the moors communing with wild animals, while Dahut, the youngest, enjoys the splendors of royal life and is eager to take part in palace intrigue. When Rozenn and Dahut's bond is irrevocably changed, the fate of Ys is sealed, exposing the monsters that lurk in plain view. M. T. Anderson and Jo Rioux reimagine this classic Breton folktale of love, loss, and rebirth, revealing the secrets that lie beneath the surface.
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Award-winning duo Metaphrog transform the classic folktale into a feminist fairy tale, about the blossoming of a young child to womanhood striving for independence. Eve spends an idyllic childhood of long summer days with her sweetheart Tom, and together they dream of exploring the world, but that dream is soon shattered as she comes of age. The mysterious Bluebeard is looking for a new bride and has his sights set on Eve, and rumor has it that his former wives have all disappeared. What will Eve find in the castle beyond the enchanted forest? A forbidden chamber, a golden key and the most terrifying secret, take on a new life in this gothic graphic novel.
- Young Adult
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The Princess and the Fangirl: a Geekerella Fairy Tale by Ashley Poston
Return to the geek-tastic world of Starfield fandom with a tale of a superstar and a superfan who swap lives in this sweet and funny companion novel to Geekerella. Movie star Jessica Stone can't go up onstage at another con and pretend to love Starfield anymore--except that she's contractually obligated. She never dreamed she'd be playing Princess Amara for life, but people love Princess Amara, and for better or worse, Princess Amara has Jessica Stone's face. But. it turns out, so does someone else. Imogen Weatherby is just another Starfield fan hitting up ExcelsiCon — except that she happens to look an awful lot like Jessica Stone (and no, you're not the first one to point it out).
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The True Story of a Mouse Who Never Asked for It by Ana Cristina Herreros
Folklorist Ana Cristina Herreros and visionary illustrator Violeta Lopiz spin a deeply feminist retelling of an old Spanish folktale in The True Story of a Mouse Who Never Asked for It. Through rhythmic text, highly conceptual illustrations, and a final visual narrative that is silent but revelatory, this YA picture book builds from deceptive simplicity to an explosive end. The story begins with a mouse, very neat and hard-working, who makes herself a home. In disbelief that she has a house, but isn’t a wife, suitors show up uninvited, each asking for her hand. She turns everyone down … until a pack of tiny kittens arrive, and she agrees to marry the smallest and most defenseless of the bunch. However, it does every mouse well to remember that a kitten always grows up to be a cat.
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The Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl
While investigating the apparent suicide of their best friend, four students at an elite boarding school uncover a series of past murders connected to ancient fairy tale curses, and they fear that their own fates are tied to the stories, dooming them to gruesome deaths unless they can forge their own paths.
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In this adaptation of the fairy tale Snow White, the huntsman follows the queen's order to kill Sophie, but the princess is brought back to life by the seven men of the woods, who, along with other brave friends, help Sophie overcome the story's true villain and reclaim her throne.
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Sea Witch Rising by Sarah Henning
Runa will not let her twin sister die. Alia traded her voice to the Sea Witch for a shot at happiness with a prince who doesn't love her. His rejection will literally kill her unless Runa intervenes. Under the sea, Evie craves her own freedom, but liberation from her role as Sea Witch will require an exchange she may not be willing to make. With their hearts desires at odds, what will Runa and Evie be willing to sacrifice to save their worlds?
Descriptions adapted from the publisher.