Fairy Legends

Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle. But once you pass through Coldtown's gates, you can never leave. One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them by going straight to Coldtown's opulent heart.

Kateri, an arrogant warrior princess, has to fight in the arena against her suitors to win her right to rule, and she is desperate to prove to her father that she is strong enough to take over his throne and rule the kingdom. But when she finds out her final opponent, she knows she cannot win. Kateri flees to the desert to train under the enemy she hates the most and the only one who might be able to give her a shot at winning. But what Kateri discovers in the desert twists her world - and her heart - upside-down.

W.C. Jameson tells the secrets of lost army payrolls and smuggled gold scattered about the countryside, nearly forgotten but awaiting discovery. Jameson, a folklorist, musician, and environmentalist, has been on close to two hundred expeditions for lost stashes of gold, silver, or other treasures.

Grandma's house was a magical place, and in this vivid memoir, Donald Davis makes it possible for each of us to go back to our own grandma's kitchen, clutter room, living room, and to that immeasurable bed that seemed to swallow us whole. This selection also contains a traditional story Davis learned from his grandmother, one handed down through his family from generations who once lived in Scotland before coming to the Appalachian mountains, about the time that fortune-seeker named Jack made the king mad.

In the land of moss, magnolias, and bayous, ghost stories suffuse the landscape like mist on a moonlit swamp. Swamp ghosts, hot-tempered villains and tricksters once lived there, and live on today in such blood-chilling stories as the six in this collection.

In rural North Carolina, in 1951, despite parental reassurances, a typhoid shot hurt. It hurt even more when the children saw who would be administering the shot: Miss Winnie, a large, dictatorial nurse who had been "especially built by the nursing school so she would never blow away in a hard wind".

One of America's most beloved storytellers tells of spirits that have nurtured her in these four tales: "The Accidental Angel", "Wilbur Martin: God's Maintenance Man", "The Water Lilies", and "Angels in Disguise". Jackie Torrence, a frequent headliner at the National Storytelling Festival, is known to audiences nationwide as The Story Lady. She has performed at the Kennedy Center, Wolftrap, the International Children's Festival, and Lincoln Center.

Growing up in North Carolina, Donald Davis heard stories that came to America through Scots-Irish immigrants about a fellow named Jack who was so real that young Davis thought he was a distant relative or otherside-of-the-mountain neighbor. Now Davis knows that Jack is a universal legendary figure who, by various names, is found in nearly every culture.

When the Southern Bells brought the telephone to rural North Carolina, it looked like a "big black daffodil". What the telephone company had not counted on in conceiving its eight-party line service was a pair of "past-middle-age, unmarried sisters", the chatty Misses Lucy and Lena Leatherwood. Once the Leatherwood sisters were connected by the Southern Bells, nobody else on that line had a chance!

Mama believed the woman who dies with the most fabric scraps wins. She saved scraps from odd sewing jobs for neighbors. She saved buttons from old winter coats and birthday dresses. Mama had a button from Daddy's first uniform and another from Grandma's cloth coat, and every button in the box came with a story. In her trademark Texas twang, award-winning storyteller Barbara McBride-Smith recounts stories from her family that speak to all of us.

Here are a baker's dozen of Paul Laurence Dunbar's poems brought to life in the medium he always wrote for - the spoken word. As narrated by Bobby Norfolk, these poems evoke the range of moods, from elegy to wonder to celebration, that the poet is remembered for.

In this story from India, a farmer's three lazy sons don't want to work. They sit around dreaming of making a lot of gold. When their mother tells them of gold buried in a field, they ask her how to bring the gold to the surface. Through clever suggestions, their mother explains how to thed the fields as they discover the true riches offered by hard work. Illustrated by Tom Wrenn.

Rex M. Ellis weaves the strands of African folklore, early American history, and contemporary interpretations into the rich quilt that is the African-American experience. His stories spin a thread from the Windward Coast of West Africa to the shores of Jamestown and beyond. He uses storytelling as both a historical teaching tool and a method for dealing with controversial subjects.

Scary stories help children face fear and master it, by portraying the elements of conflict in clear, good-versus-evil terms with good triumphant in the end.

"Years later," Donald Davis remember of his childhood," I came to realize that when you come from a long-dammed-up Scots-Irish gene pool it is an okay thing to wish for something, but it is not an OK thing to get it."

A Cherokee couple spends their days fishing and making cornmeal. When a giant dog steals their cornmeal, the neighbors all gather to help. Find out how this Cherokee legend explains the creation of the Milky Way.

A missing princess. A magic flute. An adventure retold. Prince Tamric Madeus was expecting nothing more than a routine tour of the Spring Court. When an encounter with a dragon disrupts all of his carefully laid plans, his mysterious rescuers tell him the tale of a captive princess held by a powerful enchanter. As a second-born prince with a penchant for scholarship rather than physical prowess, Tamric leaps at the chance to become the hero that he’s always wanted to be. After running away from home, Princess Mina finds herself in a bit of a bind.

The Royal Trials were never meant to be easy, not even for an imposter like Rybet Waise. But nothing could have prepared her for the magical storms, mutated animals, and malicious gods standing in her way. There is no time for tears. Mere hours after being bathed in Prince Alexander’s blood, Rybet must embark on a quest. The second trial dictates she find a missing magical artefact - Queen Ophelia’s crown. Released from the overbearing confines of the royal palace, Rybet competes not only with the other remaining ladies, but also with the land itself.

Ten-year-old Kai is thrilled to be recruited for Poseidon’s Protectors. But when a sea monster threatens his island, Kai doubts he's the right person for the job. Delphi yearns to find where she belongs. But when you're terrified of water, and your only friend is a sea lion, fitting in is not so easy. Join Kai and Delphi as they work together to save Pineapple Cove! The Legend of Pineapple Cove: Complete Series Collection includes: Poseidon's Storm Blaster, A Mermaid's Promise, King of the Sea, and Protector's Pledge.

Rick Yancey’s first gothic suspense tale, The Monstrumologist, earned him a prestigious Michael L. Printz Award. The second installment of this acclaimed series, Curse of the Wendigo, finds young Will Henry on the hunt for a supernatural beast plaguing New England in the late 1800s. Will and his mentor, the domineering Dr. Warthrop, are enlisted to help the doctor’s former fiancée. It seems her husband has been lost in the Canadian wilderness.