LISTEN TO THE STORYTELLER

Three original folktales take readers on a journey around the world. Drawn from the Celtic, Afro-Caribbean, and Native American cultures, these short stories deal with universal values. In “The Fiddler and the Dancin’ Witch,” Simeon learns the hard way that he should listen to his elders; in “The Lesson of the Land,” two boys find their spirit vision but the third, for his heedless ways, becomes a snake; in “The Face in the Lake,” Cruel Winter kidnaps his springtime-bearing sister Olwen, keeping her and the world in his icy grasp. Just how the last two stories fit in with the “musical tales” of the subtitle isn’t clear, and Wynton Marsalis’s introduction is generic at best. The text is uneven, but the brightly colored, detailed illustrations will appeal to children. (Folklore. 5-9)