Fairy Legends

Captivating the hearts and minds of kids and adults for generations, Aesop, a former Greek slave, developed simple and meaningful adventures featuring animals or insects to teach a moral standard or lesson for living. The most well-known and well-loved of Aesop's fables are included here.

Peter cares about three things: his family, his friends, and escaping an apprenticeship he hates. He works to appease his parents, but bides his time until he can adventure on his own.

Ever hear of a feller named John Henry? They say he was born with a 10 pound hammer in his hand! As a man, John was the fastest steel drivin' man helpin' to build the railroad. So when a stranger challenged mighty John to take on a steam drill, what do you think that John Henry did? Kick off yer' boots and listen to this fascinatin' tale of John Henry and the steam drill.

A Cherokee couple spends their days fishing and making cornmeal. When a giant dog steals their cornmeal, the neighbors all gather to help. Find out how this Cherokee legend explains the creation of the Milky Way.

One of America's most beloved storytellers tells of spirits that have nurtured her in these four tales: "The Accidental Angel", "Wilbur Martin: God's Maintenance Man", "The Water Lilies", and "Angels in Disguise". Jackie Torrence, a frequent headliner at the National Storytelling Festival, is known to audiences nationwide as The Story Lady. She has performed at the Kennedy Center, Wolftrap, the International Children's Festival, and Lincoln Center.

Award-winning storyteller Barbara McBride-Smith breathes life (albeit a wizened Texan version) into the old Greek myths. With her incurable Texas drawl, she spins the Greek myths as you've never heard them before, rendering them 99% more fun while retaining 100% of their original insights into the crooked ways of the human heart and the no less crooked ways of the ancient Greek gods.

Growing up in North Carolina, Donald Davis heard stories that came to America through Scots-Irish immigrants about a fellow named Jack who was so real that young Davis thought he was a distant relative or otherside-of-the-mountain neighbor. Now Davis knows that Jack is a universal legendary figure who, by various names, is found in nearly every culture.

When the Southern Bells brought the telephone to rural North Carolina, it looked like a "big black daffodil". What the telephone company had not counted on in conceiving its eight-party line service was a pair of "past-middle-age, unmarried sisters", the chatty Misses Lucy and Lena Leatherwood. Once the Leatherwood sisters were connected by the Southern Bells, nobody else on that line had a chance!

Mama believed the woman who dies with the most fabric scraps wins. She saved scraps from odd sewing jobs for neighbors. She saved buttons from old winter coats and birthday dresses. Mama had a button from Daddy's first uniform and another from Grandma's cloth coat, and every button in the box came with a story. In her trademark Texas twang, award-winning storyteller Barbara McBride-Smith recounts stories from her family that speak to all of us.

Here are a baker's dozen of Paul Laurence Dunbar's poems brought to life in the medium he always wrote for - the spoken word. As narrated by Bobby Norfolk, these poems evoke the range of moods, from elegy to wonder to celebration, that the poet is remembered for.

In this story from India, a farmer's three lazy sons don't want to work. They sit around dreaming of making a lot of gold. When their mother tells them of gold buried in a field, they ask her how to bring the gold to the surface. Through clever suggestions, their mother explains how to thed the fields as they discover the true riches offered by hard work. Illustrated by Tom Wrenn.

Rex M. Ellis weaves the strands of African folklore, early American history, and contemporary interpretations into the rich quilt that is the African-American experience. His stories spin a thread from the Windward Coast of West Africa to the shores of Jamestown and beyond. He uses storytelling as both a historical teaching tool and a method for dealing with controversial subjects.

"Years later," Donald Davis remember of his childhood," I came to realize that when you come from a long-dammed-up Scots-Irish gene pool it is an okay thing to wish for something, but it is not an OK thing to get it."

Somehow, we survived. It was supposed to be over. No more curses. No more magic. Just a calm, little life in Brume. For the first time ever, I’m ready for calm. So. Damn. Ready. Just so happens that the girl I love doesn’t like to leave things unfinished. Fine. So our little crew will assemble the Quatrefoil and bring magic back to the world. We’ve already faced death. This can’t be worse. Or can it?

Magic is forbidden in Myrsina, along with various other abominations, such as girls doing maths. This is bad news for Gretel Mudd, mathematician and inventor of helpful contraptions. When the sinister masked huntsmen accuse her of witchcraft, she is forced to flee into the neighbouring Darkwood, where witches and monsters dwell. There, she happens upon Buttercup, a witch who can’t help turning things into food; Jack Trott, who can make plants grow at will; the White Knight with her band of Dwarves; and a talking spider called Trevor.

For fans of Cassandra Clare's City of Bones and Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke & Bone, The Girl at Midnight is the story of a modern girl caught in an ancient war. Beneath the streets of New York City live the Avicen, an ancient race of people with feathers for hair and magic running through their veins. Age-old enchantments keep them hidden from humans. All but one. Echo is a runaway pickpocket who survives by selling stolen treasures on the black market, and the Avicen are the only family she's ever known.

Rick Yancey won the Michael L. Printz Award for the stunning first entry in his Monstrumologist saga. In the series’ third entry, Will Henry is left behind as Dr. Warthrop and his eager new assistant Arkwright embark on a quest to find the “Holy Grail of Monstrumology.” But when Arkwright returns with news of the doctor’s demise, Will sets off on his own quest, to the Isle of Blood, to determine the truth.

Civil war rages in the City of the Dead. The lowest castes have taken up arms in revolt. Blood runs thick on the golden streets of Shalandra. Amidst the uproar, Evren hunts down the leaderless, scattered brutes of the Ybrazhe Syndicate to put an end to their depredations and dispel the riots. Issa and her elite warriors battle rampaging mobs in a desperate fight to restore order.

No story offers a deeper reflection on humanity — or mankind’s endless struggle for power. A bestseller in its first week of release, ranked #4 on Amazon Kindle’s Young Adult Fiction in Ancient Civilisation, The Forgotten Tale of Larsa is an epic of love, loss, and destiny — inspired by history, though forgotten by time. In a ruthless quest to be worshipped as a god, the almighty Assyrian Emperor Jaquzan wages war against a legendary kingdom known only as the Garden of the Gods — a realm so breathtaking it is said to have inspired the creation of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

On the home front in 1944, Kate wants to do her part for the war effort. She'd prefer filling in for the window dressers at the New York department store where she works, but her mother insists on sending her to audition for roles she never gets. When relatives arrive from war-torn Poland with a mysterious steamer trunk and an even more mysterious story, her life is about to hit center stage.