English Fairy

A kingdom of shadows. A soldier sworn to protect. A princess silenced by love. Plagued by her mother's matchmaking attempts, Princess Lily, the eldest of 12 sisters and heir to a mighty kingdom, struggles to prove herself worthy of her inheritance while avoiding the attention of unwanted admirers. Tradition forbids marriage with the man she loves, so she would rather rule alone than marry someone who only wants the crown.

Dr. Waycross knows bleeding and blistering, the best scientific medicine of 1822. He arrives in the Georgia mountains to bring his modern methods to the superstitious masses. The local healers, the Winter sisters, claim to treat yellow fever, consumption, and the hell-roarin' trots just as well as he can. Some folks call the sisters herb women; some call them witches. Waycross calls them quacks. But when the threat of rabies - incurable and fatal - comes to town, Dr. Waycross and the Winter sisters must combine their science and superstition in a desperate search for a remedy.

Ferrying tourists around Dublin for the Leprechaun Limo Service makes quite a change after years in the military. Still, Megan Malone is enjoying her life in Ireland. She likes the scenery, the easy pace, the quirky, quick-witted locals. Everything - except having one of her clients drop dead at the statue of fabled fishmonger, Molly Malone. Most restaurant critics notch up their share of enemies. Elizabeth Darr, however, was a well-loved international star. She and her husband, Simon, had just had dinner when Elizabeth collapsed, and spoiled seafood is the first suspect.

After the terrifying events on Mount Raksha, the witches have returned, and River has betrayed Kamzin to regain his dark powers. The witches’ next step: march on the Three Cities and take over the empire - led by River’s brother, Esha. If Kamzin is to save Azmiri and prevent the destruction of the empire, she must find a star that fell in the Ash Mountains to the north. Fallen stars have immense power, and if Kamzin and Lusha can find the star, they can use its magic to protect their homeland.

When Hunter Cassidy plans to infiltrate the Assassin's Legion, posing as an assassin-in-training, she is prepared to encounter danger every step of the way. What she doesn't expect is the ruggedly handsome and relentlessly fierce trainee, Slade Baines. It's hard enough that Hunter is the first female to be accepted to train with the Master Assassin himself. Even when she beats the other candidates, the Master ranks her lowest of all. In the male-dominated Legion, the other trainees see her as a weak link to be driven out of their ranks.

Gwen and her crew must cross Bifrost before the giants invade the human world. After a betrayal and nearly losing one of her stepbrothers, Gwen struggles to keep the group united. At last, they reach Asgard, but the world of the gods is not what they imagined. Torn between staying to complete the mission and returning home to a mother who needs her, Gwen faces her biggest challenges yet.

Phoebe is the fated priestess, a channel for magic, whether she likes it or not. A piece of golden jewelry might hold the key to a plot to suppress the priestess's true magic. Until she can find the secrets, however, she has to stay alive and keep her four guardians in line: Sir Forrest, her grumpy and reluctant but truly devoted protector; Gilbert the bard, who fell in love with the Prince of Gaermon before he discovered his true fate; Niko the Lucky Dragon, an arrogant smuggler who bows to no one but won't make a move without rolling his dice; and one who is her sworn enemy.

Trystan was once the pampered daughter of a wealthy aristocrat, but since his death, she's considered a social pariah. Trapped by her stepmother's malicious web of lies, Trystan is willing to do just about anything to escape - even play a part in a devious plot to disinherit the kingdom's incompetent heir, Prince Ramsey. But what should have been a simple task proves to have sinister implications. The consequences for Trystan's actions become clear in the midst of the glittering royal masque, where two very different princes compete for the hearts of their people.

There's almost nothing Wanda Jefferson wants more than a family to call her own, and she's almost got it all with her husband, Heath, a beautiful home in the suburbs, and her soul-satisfying work with her best friends as part of OOPS-a paranormal crisis hotline. Yet, still, there's a tiny hole in Wanda's heart she longs to fill with a baby. As she and Heath explore adoption, and finally bring home a beautiful baby boy with the support of their friends and family, everything that can go wrong, does.

Dreams of her tormented ancestors calling out to her have haunted her since she was a child, and Andie knows she must answer their call and discover the truth. But she must do so in the magical capital of the world, surrounded by powerful sorcerers determined to uphold the lie at all cost. If they discover that she carries the blood of the dragonborn, death with be swift and her people will never get a chance at redemption.

Slow but steady Turtle exhibits wisdom, perseverance, and cunning in these world folktales. Full of adventure that's sure to captivate young listeners, these tales hold meaning for all ages. Turtle is alive with possibilities. Living on land and in the water and breathing air, Turtle joins these three elements of creation, becoming symbolic of the earth itself. Always clever, always wise, and ever patient, Turtle never fails to find humor in any situation.

Many years ago, the proudest animal in the jungle was not the peacock. The proudest animal was the tiger. In this folktale from Vietnam, we see how Tiger's pride leads him to covet wisdom and, with the help of a wise farmer, earn his stripes. Illustrated by Baird Hoffmire.

In the hills of Appalachia, humor and wisdom are mixed up forever in funny, wise stories that seem to grow more lustrous with each telling. Here are two of the best: "Uncle Frank Invents the Electron Microphone", Appalachian folk wisdom rolled into one of Davis' funniest stories; "Uncle Frank and the Crown Feed Boys", Davis' legendary Uncle Frank teaches a couple of traveling salesmen the lesson of their lives.

"What is your favorite story?" is the question children across the country often ask professional storyteller Pleasant DeSpain. As he attempts to answer, his list grows longer and longer, until he confesses he likes them all. An untiring researcher of oral traditions, DeSpain is known for his concise versions of world folktales specifically crafted for retelling. This new, digital recording of 10 stories is excerpted from DeSpain's 22 Splendid Tales to Tell from Around the World, Volume One.

A classic fable from Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, read by Johnny Morris. Have you ever wondered how and why the animals came to be as they are? In these magical tales, drawn from stories he heard as a child in India as well as on folk traditions he later collected all over the world, Rudyard Kipling gives some wonderfully imaginative explanations.

Did you ever look carefully at a spider's webs? Did you ever wonder what causes thunder and lighting? Why do dogs chase cats? Why does it look like there's a man in the moon? In this delightful recording of tales from around the world, each story explains why an animal, plant, or natural object looks or acts the way it does.

Alan Bennett reads The Owl and the Pussy-Cat and Other Nonsense Rhymes by Edward Lear. The poems and limericks include "The Daddy Long-Legs and the Fly", "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat", "The Duck and the Kangaroo", "The Table and the Chair", "The Broom, the Shovel, the Poker and the Tongs", "Mr and Mrs Discobbolos", "The Nutcrackers and the Sugar Tongs", "The Two Old Bachelors", "The Pobble Who Has No Toes", "The Jumblies", "The Dog with a Luminous Nose", and many more.

Micheline Helsing is a tetrachromat - a girl who sees the auras of the undead in a prismatic spectrum. As one of the last descendants of the Van Helsing lineage, she has trained since childhood to destroy monsters both corporeal and spiritual. The corporeal undead go down by the bullet, the spiritual undead by the lens. With an analog SLR camera as her best weapon, Micheline exorcises ghosts by capturing their spiritual energy on film.

Newly re-mastered for digital formats, this is the definitive recording of Hans Christian Andersen's six best-loved stories. Narrator Diane Wolkstein, the artistic director of the Hans Christian Andersen Center in New York City, tells Andersen stories throughout the world. She is the author of 23 award-winning books of folklore and has been honored by the National Storytelling Network as a recipient of its coveted Circle of Excellence Award, a designation reserved for America's best living storytellers.

Nationally acclaimed storyteller J.J. Reneaux grew up Cajun for true, surrounded by the stories, music, food, and culture of rural communities in southeastern Texas and southern Louisiana. A traditional storyteller who collects by word-of-mouth, Reneaux has developed her repertoire over years of collecting: on front porches, school playgrounds, and her beloved fishing trips, as well as at nursing homes, airports, and at neighborhood fais-dodos.