APPLES FROM HEAVEN: Multicultural Folk Tales About Stories and Storytellers

A rich collection of short tales and anecdotes--solemn, silly, romantic, swashbuckling, sly, subtle, broad--in which storytelling itself drives plot or theme. Many of these are undeservedly unfamiliar. Peasants and princes win brides, the dead come back, fools and children learn wisdom, all through the power of stories. Hearing how glib, clever Conal Crovi escapes the King of Erin with not just his life and the lives of his companions, but three of the King's prized stallions as well will have any audience on the edge of its seats; All the Persian's tally of his seemingly bottomless purse, or the Suquamish tale of how clams--inveterate gossipers--came to be forever buried under sand and water, will leave readers or listeners rolling in the aisles. With one surprising omission--there is no version of the title tale of Nancy Schimmel's Just Enough To Make A Story (1992)--the chestnuts are here, too: Once again Anansi buys stories from the sky god, and a peasant lad herds the king's hares while having fun at the royal family's expense. Baltuck (Crazy Gibberish and Other Story Hour Stretches, 1993) draws selections from over two dozen traditions, retelling them in a brisk narrative. This is for all who read, need, or use stories--and who doesn't?