Fairy Legends

Do you know that the one-eyed Odin was alcoholic? Or that Loki gave birth to an eight-legged horse? Norse Mythology is complicated, unpredictable, and wonderful. All the stories tell of bravery and strength, loyalty amongst friends and family, and the pursuit of wisdom over power.

Was there really a Headless Horseman? This dramatic story will draw you into the life of Ichabod Crane as you ponder the question.

KLOTHO is an eleven year old girl whose summer vacation to Maine goes... unexpectedly, to say the least. She is semi-willingly kidnapped by a kid she met on the beach, and brought to an island full of monsters, magic, and worst of all, teenagers with powers. Hades has lost his helm, and Klotho is one of four semi-willing volunteers who must go to the underworld to ask the king of the underworld if he might have left it in a different drawer than usual.

September has longed to return to Fairyland after her first adventure there. And when she finally does, she learns that its inhabitants have been losing their shadows - and their magic - to the world of Fairyland-Below. This world has a new ruler: Halloween, the Hollow Queen, who is September’s shadow. And Halloween has no intentions of giving Fairyland’s shadows back. Fans of Valente’s bestselling first Fairyland book will revel in the lush setting, characters, and language of September’s journey.

Orasmyn lives a peaceful life of quiet duty and thoughtful obedience. But a single wrong decision sets in motion an ancient curse that changes Orasmyn's fate forever. Told he will be killed by his own father, he is transformed into a lion on the day of a great hunt. The prince has no choice but to flee beloved Persia and his precious family. Balancing his fading human memories with his new beastly impulses, he makes his way to Europe - where his destiny awaits in the person of a French beauty.

Malini Gupta thought Jacob Lau was her destiny. But after months of failing to decipher how she fits into the Soulkeepers, frustration threatens to tear their relationship apart. And it doesn't help that a new Soulkeeper named Mara is ready to stop time itself to earn Jacob's love. When Malini faces her worst fears, and even death, she learns a funny thing about destiny. Fate is a tapestry of choices, and she has the power to weave hers.

For 17-year-old actress Kelley Winslow, faeries are just something from childhood stories. Then she meets Sonny Flannery, whose steel-gray eyes mask an equally steely determination to protect her. Sonny guards the Samhain Gate, which connects the mortal realm with the Faerie's enchanted, dangerous Otherworld. Usually kept shut by order of icy King Auberon, the Gate stands open but once a year.

As the last child in a family of daughters, 17-year-old Janneke was raised to be the male heir. While her sisters were becoming wives and mothers, she was taught to hunt, track, and fight. On the day her village was burned to the ground, Janneke - as the only survivor - was taken captive by the malicious Lydian and eventually sent to work for his nephew Soren. When the Goblin King’s death ignites an ancient hunt for the next king, Soren senses an opportunity for her to finally fully accept the ways of the brutal Permafrost.

Thirteen-time #1 national bestselling author Glenn Beck realized years ago that somewhere along the way, his four children had become more focused on Santa than the meaning of Christmas. No matter how he tried, he could not redirect their attention away from presents and elves to the manger instead. Glenn didn't want to be the Grinch who spoiled the magic of Kris Kringle, so he had to find a unique way to turn his kids back toward the true meaning of Christmas. He decided the best place to start was by first turning Santa himself back toward Christ.

Safaia, Tero and Garasu are on a collision course, and the clans of Buryoku scramble to brace for the impact. While Safaia is in an uproar, Roy heads into an ancient library in search of the secrets of advancement and the Path to Gray-Belt. What he discovers may change the course of Buryoku's history forevermore.

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.

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.

"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."

The sheriff has an arrow-shooting contest, hoping to catch the best arrow-shooter, Robin Hood. But a strange man in red wins the prize instead.