A Book of Kings and Queens

by Ruth Manning-Sanders, Robin Jacques (Illustrator)

Retells ten traditional tales from several countries about the adventures of a variety of kings and queens.

Selim and the snake queen (Greek isles) --
The queen's children (Russia) --
Dough (Sicily) --
King Eagle (Russia) --
The monster with seven heads (Madagascar) --
King Josef (Czechoslovakia) --
Vanooshka (Russia) --
The two enemy kings (Pomerania) --
What happened to Ivan (Bosnia) --
The teapot spout (Ireland)

Genres: Childrens, Fantasy, Fairy Tales

126 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Ruth Manning-Sanders, youngest daughter of an English minister, describes her childhood as “extraordinarily happy. . . with kind and understanding parents and any amount of freedom.” She read omnivorously, and she and her two sisters wrote and acted their own plays. A Shakespeare scholar at Manchester University, she later married Cornish artist George Manning-Sanders. They began married life in a horse drawn caravan, and traveled to all parts of the British Isles.
Mrs. Manning-Sanders has collected folk and fairy stories from around the world and she published more than 90 books during her lifetime.

Reviews

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairy tales about the world, with country sources (but no more) and nice illustrations, retold for children.

All featuring kings or queens somewhere. But we have one where the main character dreams she will give the king three marvelous sons and so gets to marry him and be queen in the first scenes (much to her stepmother's rage), two where you have an animal monarch, and more.

[Kinn Aquiress · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was 13, the librarian gave me the last copy of this book from the shelves as they need to fill in new titles. This book gave me a glimpse of the medieval life and how people see their society with stories that depicts how they dream of interacting with the important persons just like a neighbor.

I would not understand that feeling as today, everyone thinks that we are all equal. I live in a society that monarchs are just figures of the state and are not existing in my little country.

Great book to enjoy in a day full of no goals to achieve.

[Emmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, I was a little worried that this collection would be a bit dull in comparison to Manning-Sanders's other books because the subject matter didn't deal with monsters or ghosts but with people. Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised, and really enjoyed the book. This is more of the high quality writing that I've come to expect from this author.

"King Eagle" was my favorite in the collection.

[Eleanor Hucklesby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the best, but damn good anyway

I've loved Manning-Sanders' work since I was a kid; this isn't my favourite book of hers, but it still has the enchanting, accessible language that makes Manning-Sanders such a good storyteller.

[Ashley Lambert-Maberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

All her books are splendid, I have no favourites really. The illustrations are perfectly suited, and I appreciate how she pulls her tales from several different cultures. I adored these as a child, and have read them to my children, and they hold up well.

(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

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