Favorite Fairy Tales Told in Greece

Favorite Fairy Tales #14

by Virginia Haviland, Martha Ploetz (Illustrator)

A fairy queen takes a handsome shepard over snow-covered mountains to an enchanted garden; a princess proves her love to the father who impetuously banished her; a clever boy outwits a hungry dragon -- there's magic and mystery in these eight tales from long-ago Greece.

Genres: Childrens, Fairy Tales, Folklore, Fiction, Greece

96 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1970

About the author

Virginia Haviland was for many years the Director of the Children's Literature Center at the Library of Congress and was also author of more than two dozen books. She was graduated from Cornell University, and for her dedication to children's literature, she was awarded the Regina Medal in 1976.

Reviews

[Kirsten Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 12 year old actually picked this one out on a recent trip to a used book store. He's read or listened to a lot of Greek myths, but this caught his eye because he has never heard any Greek fairy tales. We read this together as a buddy read (James is dyslexic, and we often take turns reading a book out loud together), though he found this less daunting than some books, and did most of the reading on this one. 🙂

We really liked that the "Fairy Tales Told In Greece" are not very much like the classic fairy tales you often hear. There's a story about a dragon (who turns out to be not very clever), a king who gives his daughter to a poor man (with unexpected results), a man who discovers his own foolish family are not the only foolish people in the world, and several tales about fairies.

These tales about fairies don't feature the cute little fairies that flit around in some stories - these are mysterious ladies who seem to often live in streams, and might either take someone captive or be tricked themselves into becoming someone's wife.

James and I really loved the non-fairy stories in this book (they were generally quite funny). The stories featuring fairies were a bit more on the sad side, with their fairy wives and fairy children who eventually disappear. We didn't care for those as much, and they represented about half the stories in this volume.

Overall, still 4 stars for us and we will definitely try more of the "Favorite Fairy Tales Told in..." series if we have the chance.

Suitable for all ages, especially as a read aloud!

Content considerations: Dragons, magic/magical creatures, fairy wives and children who leave or disappear under mysterious or magical circumstances.

[Liam Malone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I studied folklore at Penn State and analyzed tales like those presented in this good book. It is full of faeries who are leftovers from ancient mythology. These oreads and naiads and such interact with humans in the mountains, springs, and meadows. I recommend this to any young adult looking for very light reading.

[Debby]

Includes "Constantes and the Dragon", "The Princess who loved her father like salt", "The foolish wife and her three foolish daughters", "The Fairy Wife", "The Wonder of Skoupa", "Fairy Gardens", "The First Day of May", and "Fairy Mother". Nice illustrations, clear writing, simple.