Usborne Illustrated Fables from Around the World

by Sam Baer, Susanna Davidson, Rosie Dickins

An illustrated collection of myths from all over the world, all retold specially for young readers and beautifully illustrated. The Myths included are: The Children of Lir (Celtic), The Fox Maiden (Japanese), The Origin of the Winds (Inuit/Alaskan), Anansi and the Box of Stories (Ghana/Ashanti), The Cowherd and the Princess (Chinese), The Wall of Asgard (Norse), How the Seasons Came to Be (Greek), Thunder and Lightning (Nigerian), Finn MacCool (Irish/Gaelic), The Fish of Maui (Maori), The Missing Goddess (Egyptian), Fire of the Jaguar (South American/Kayapoo), The Greedy Frog (Tiddalik - Aboriginal), The Race of the Animals (Chinese Zodiac), The Demon and the Goddess (Indian), Ishtar and the Land of the Dead (Mesopotamian/Babylonian), The Sun and the Moon (Korean), The Water Spirit's Gift (Native American).

Genres: Mythology, Childrens, Picture Books, Fiction, Fantasy

256 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2016

About the author

Sam Lake, who now goes by Sam Baer, grew up on the tiny island of Jersey before setting off on adventures in not-quite-so-tiny England. Since 2011, he's been writing books about everything from imps and elves to Victorian fashion. It's a dream job - almost as good as being a superhero.

Reviews

[Jocelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I suggest this book if your into fiction legends! I enjoyed it and so did my cousin.

[Maria Ti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Luând în considerare faptul că este o culegere de mituri și legende repovestite pentru copii, nu e o carte rea. Pentru mine, a fost puțin prea modernă repovestirea. Cu toate acestea, m-a stârnit curiozitatea pentru a afla mai multe.

[Andrea Zuvich · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book, full of stories I had not read before (which is always a good thing!). Full review when I get the chance.

[Ville-Markus Nevalainen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful collection of short stories from around the world. While its not perfect, I believe it still stands out as a great collection of bedtime stories that introduces the reader to a world of tales. Sure, there are many stories which I would have hoped to have been longer and elaborate more on the myths and legends of its world, but I still believe the collection holds up as an introduction to all the things you can find all around the world, as there are myths ranging from Egypt to Alaska and from China to New Zealand.

I'll definitely keep this in mind when in search of something to read to others as they are both entertaining and hopefully encourage to learn more about different cultures and histories!

[Megha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun children's book that adults would enjoy reading too! I loved these magical tales from different parts of the world. Some of my favourites were: Anansi and the Box of Stories (from Ghana), The Greedy Frog (from Australia), Fire of the Jaguar (from Brazil), and The Sun and the Moon (from Korea). Beautiful illustrations too!

This is also the first book with mainly text and very few images that my 4-year-old didn't get bored of. She, in fact, really enjoyed the stories :)

[Nightshade · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is such a fun read. It has 18 short myths from a variety of countries, including; Brazil, China, Egypt, Ghana, Greece, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea and North America.
There were a few that I have heard before, but most of them were new to me. It was great to see such a collection from lots of different cultures.

[Katilipops · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great variety of tales. Super hard names to pronounce. 🤣

[Rosanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice collection of stories from many countries and cultures. Pretty illustrations as well.

[aruushi · Rating 2 out of 5]

3.5/10

I truly enjoyed reading the book, and was introduced to many myths and legends I hadn't heard of before; this aspect was very interesting to me. However, I do not find it fair to give credit to the book for stories that existed long before its conception and that it hand no hand in creating.

Instead, I will focus on the delivery of these well loved stories. I was not a fan of the delivery. Of the the stories I was familiar with, glaring inaccuracies or changes had been made to even the most basic versions of the stories. I understand that with stories as old as these, there are bound to be different versions of the story, and I'm more than willing to allow that. However, some of the stories in the book weren't just different versions, but entirely new stories. Even the representation or moral of the story was erased in some cases, making the stories seem entirely meaningless. So, when I read a new story whose purpose I couldn't quite place, I couldn't help but feel like I was missing some vital element.

Regardless, I liked the book's inclusion of a vast variety of myths from all around the world. As an starting point to myths which are less well known in the Western world, the book is a great introduction. I just do not believe it should be treated as an ending point and I really wish it had made a greater effort to stay true to the source material.

[Maria George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful artwork, and such a diverse collection of stories from so many cultures. A great way to expose a child to different world views. The stories are whimsical, but as with many fairy tails, there are some questionable morals.

[Russell Darren · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book holds a nice anthology of writing from all over the world, from the Boabab Tree from Africa to the Magic Pear Tree from China. I started reading these stories with my sister during this quarantine. She found the stories to be very enjoyable and comments that the art was really well made. She especially enjoyed the story of King Midas. I think that this book is good for kids who want to pick up a nice storybook, it is easy enough for them to understand what is going on, and for them to read, whilst not being boring and kinda meaningless.

[Chelsea Carman Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic read for my 5 year-old daughter and I. We read one story (or until she fell asleep) every night at bed time. It diidn't take long to finish. After finishing my daughter began to recognize characters from these stories in other stories (like Anansi the Spider). She was SO excited to have a working knowledge of who Anansi was and where it's story came from. I strongly suggest reading this book with your child!

[JoAnne Styger · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Illustrated Stories from Usborne are my favorite fiction titles that they offer. Fables From Around the World is an excellent addition to the collection. The stories are from all over the world and the illustrations are so beautiful. I highly recommend this book in particular to families lo led for stories from different cultures.

[Carrie Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The idea of a myth stresses out my literal 6 year old which is the exact reason we read this out loud together 😜

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book it is so much fun reading that book

[Susana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed very much the variety of different stories with astonishing illustrations