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Swan Lake: Quest for the Kingdoms by Rey Terciero ill. Megan Kearney

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 15 Jun 2022

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“Nonstop adventure and colorfully illustrated panels keep the pages of this Swan Lake reimagining turning, while quieter moments underscore the budding friendships among the three heirs. Odette has light-brown skin and red hair, pale goth Dillie has a prosthetic leg, and Siegfried has dark-brown skin and blue and purple hair. A fun, ballet-inspired hero’s journey, full of heart, trials, and good humor.” KIRKUS

A swashbuckling retelling of Swan Lake:

Odette and Dillie are supposed to be enemies. Their kingdoms have been feuding since before they were born. But when the two princesses meet each other at the lake that separates their castles, it’s clear they were destined to be best friends. Odette-who lives with a curse that magically transforms her into a swan when the sun rises-is happy to find someone who treats her like everyone else. And Dillie has finally met someone who understands her dream of having an adventure instead of sitting on a throne. When they discover that Odette’s curse is the reason for tension between their families, they decide to follow an ancient legend that could lead them to someone who can set everything right. As they travel through enchanted lands, meet new allies, and fight terrible foes, Odette and Dillie are put to the ultimate test. But when the time comes, will they choose their deepest wishes or the fragile fate of their world?

Megan Kearney is a Toronto-based cartoonist with a background in animation.

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A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

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“The novel has the deceptive simplicity of a folk-tale; readers accustomed to the frenetic pace and fickle relationships of much contemporary YA fiction will find themselves in a very different narrative world.” BfK 5-star review
“Tree-ear’s story conveys a time and place far away and long ago, but with a simplicity and immediacy that is both graceful and unpretentious. A timeless jewel.” KIRKUS
“A moving tribute to perseverance and creativity in this finely etched novel set in mid- to late 12th-century Korea.” Publishers Weekly

20th anniversary edition celebrating the 2002 winner of the Newbery Medal.

13-year-old Tree-ear lives in a Korean village famous for its ceramics. He doesn’t have much but he loves to watch master potter Min at work and dreams of learning the craft one day.
Reluctantly Min agrees to let Tree-ear help him. Determined to do whatever it takes to prove himself, Tree-ear embarks on a dangerous journey to present his master’s work to the king, unaware it will change his life forever.

The Best of Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren ill. Mini Grey

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Containing all three classic Pippi Longstocking adventures in one fabulous edition, this book will introduce Pippi’s adventurous spirit to a whole new generation of readers. Pippi is nine years old. She lives in Villa Villekulla with a horse, a monkey, a suitcase full of gold, and no grown-ups to tell her what to do. She loves spending her days arranging wild, exciting adventures to enjoy with her neighbours, Tommy and Annika, or entertaining everyone she meets with her outrageous stories!

Contains the books Pippi Longstocking, Pippi Longstocking Goes Abroad and Pippi Longstocking and the South Seas, all with illustrations by Mini Grey.

 

Tales from Shakespeare (Puffin Clothbound Classics) – Charles & Mary Lamb

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 18 Apr 2022

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First published in 1807, by literary siblings Charles and Mary Lamb, this book has never been out of print, though it seems that Mary did not get her name on the title page till the seventh edition in 1838.

Puffin Clothbound Classics is a series of much-loved stories from classic literature for children and adults, brought together in endurable hardback.

The book contains the following tales:

  1. The Tempest (Mary Lamb)
  2. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Mary Lamb)
  3. The Winter’s Tale (Mary Lamb)
  4. Much Ado About Nothing (Mary Lamb)
  5. As You Like It (Mary Lamb)
  6. Two Gentlemen of Verona (Mary Lamb)
  7. The Merchant of Venice (Mary Lamb)
  8. Cymbeline (Mary Lamb)
  9. King Lear (Charles Lamb)
  10. Macbeth (Charles Lamb)
  11. All’s Well That Ends Well (Mary Lamb)
  12. The Taming of the Shrew (Mary Lamb)
  13. The Comedy of Errors (Mary Lamb)
  14. Measure for Measure (Mary Lamb)
  15. Twelfth Night (Mary Lamb)
  16. Timon of Athens (Charles Lamb)
  17. Romeo and Juliet (Charles Lamb)
  18. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Charles Lamb)
  19. Othello (Charles Lamb)
  20. Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Mary Lamb)

You may also consider Tales from Shakespeare as told by Marcia Williams

or The Complete Collection of 10 Retellings – Michael Morpurgo’s Tales from Shakespeare

The Fearless Little Farm Boy by Astrid Lindgren ill. Marit Toernqvist tr. Polly Lawson (translator)

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 24 Mar 2022

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One beautiful spring day in Sweden, Goran the bull charges furiously out of his stall and into the farmyard. People gather from miles around to see the angry bull, but no one can calm him down. Then Karl, the farm boy, has a brave idea. Can the little boy save the day?

A charming, traditional story from Astrid Lindgren, bestselling author of Pippi Longstocking, with illustrations from  Swedish artist Marit Toernqvist. Her delicate depictions of wooden houses, characterful villagers and silver birch trees wonderfully evoke the spirit of a Swedish farm from long ago.

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The Fairy Tellers: A Journey into the Secret History of Fairy Tales by Nicholas Jubber

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 18 Feb 2022

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“Nicholas Jubber’s The Fairy Tellers is billed as “A Journey into the Secret History of Fairy Tales”. It focuses on half a dozen identifiable individuals who gave us most of the well-known stories. There’s the Neapolitan Gianbattista Basile, who wrote the first western European version of Cinderella in the early 17th century; Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, who wrote Beauty and the Beast in the mid-18th century; Hanna Dyab, the Syrian Maronite from Aleppo who brought Ali Baba and Aladdin to the attention of the French earlier that century; Dortchen Wild, who gave the Grimm brothers Rumpelstiltskin and Hansel and Gretel; Ivan Khudiakov in the 19th century with his story of Baba Yaga; the elusive, unfamiliar Indian storyteller Somadeva from the 11th century; and our old friend, Hans Christian Andersen.” The Times

In this far-ranging quest, award-winning author Nicholas Jubber unearths the lives of the dreamers who made our most beloved fairy tales: inventors, thieves, rebels and forgotten geniuses who gave us classic tales such as ‘Cinderella’, ‘Hansel and Gretel’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘Baba Yaga’. From the Middle Ages to the birth of modern children’s literature, they include a German apothecary’s daughter, a Syrian youth running away from a career in the souk and a Russian dissident embroiled in a plot to kill the tsar.
Following these and other unlikely protagonists, we travel from the steaming cities of Italy and the Levant, under the dark branches of the Black Forest, deep into the tundra of Siberia and across the snowy fells of Lapland. In the process, we discover a fresh perspective on some of our most frequently told stories. Filled with adventure, tragedy and real-world magic, this bewitching book uncovers the stranger lives behind the strangest of tales.

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Yuki-Onna and Other Stories – Arcturus Classics by Lafcadio Hearn

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 16 Feb 2022

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Haunting, mysterious and beautiful, but also possessed of unimaginable power and the capacity for terrifying cruelty, the ghosts of Lafcadio Hearn’s fiction draw their inspiration from the folklore of ancient Japan. These ghoulish beings range from spectral brides to vengeful phantoms and unruly goblins.

This collection includes such  tales as “Ingwa-Banashi”, “The Corpse-Rider” and “Of a Promise Broken”.

Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was born in the Ionian Islands in Greece. As a child he moved first to Ireland and then to the United States where he worked as a journalist. Increasingly disenchanted with western society, he moved to Japan, where he married. There too he became disenchanted and complained about the loss of Japanese culture after the Meiji Restoration. He spent his life attempting to document the culture he loved in both fiction and carefully researched non-fiction studies.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Arcturus Classics series brings together high-quality paperback editions of classics works, presented with contemporary graphic cover designs. Together they make a  collection which is perfect for any home library.

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The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest by Felix Salten tr. and introduced by Jack Zipes ill. by Alenka Sottler

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 8 Feb 2022

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“We hope this translation will lead a new generation of readers to discover Salten’s book. It’s certainly accessible to children, but adults are more likely to fully appreciate the book’s moving and carefully observed depictions of the natural world, the cycle of life and death, and the threat humans pose to animals.” Anne Savarese, publisher
“It is… firmly lodged in the boomer brain as a child’s tale, which is precisely why this new translation from Princeton University Press is so welcome. Because it turns out that “Bambi” is quite remarkable: a meditation on powerlessness and survival told with great economy and sophistication.” New York Times
“Zipes, a professor emeritus of German and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota, who has also translated the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, maintains in his introduction that Chambers [original translator]  got “Bambi” almost as wrong as Disney did. Which raises two questions: How exactly did a tale about the life of a fawn become so contentious, and what is it really about?” New Yorker

Most of us think we know the story of Bambi—but do we?

Listen to an interview with the translator, Jack Zipes:

This new, illustrated translation of a literary classic  presents the story as it was meant to be told. For decades, readers’ images of Bambi have been shaped by the 1942 Walt Disney film—an idealised look at a fawn who represents nature’s innocence—which was based on a 1928 English translation of a novel by the Austrian Jewish write,r Felix Salten. This  new translation gives contemporary readers a fresh perspective on a moving allegorical tale and provides important details about its creator.

Originally published in 1923, Salten’s story is more sombre than the adaptations that followed it. Life in the forest is dangerous and precarious, and Bambi learns important lessons about survival as he grows to become a strong, heroic stag. Jack Zipes’ introduction traces the history of the book’s reception and explores the tensions that Salten experienced in his own life as a hunter who also loved animals, and as an Austrian Jew who sought acceptance in Viennese society even as he faced persecution.

With captivating drawings by award-winning artist Alenka Sottler.

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Illustrated Tales of Dwarfs, Gnomes and Fairy Folk ill. Daniela Drescher ed. Ineke Verschuren

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 14 Jan 2022

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Meet helpful dwarfs, mischievous gnomes and powerful fairy folk in this sumptuously illustrated storybook anthology of classic European folk tales.  Much-loved stories such as ‘Kate Crackernuts’, ‘Tom Tit Tot’ and ‘The Griffin’ take readers on a journey through Europe as they climb snowy mountains, delve deep underground and wonder at beautiful palaces.

This unique collection celebrates the rich folklore tradition of Europe, including dwarfs from Flanders, fairies from Scotland and gnomes from Austria, splendidly illustrated by Daniela Drescher, one of Germany’s best-loved illustrators. A treasure of a book.

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Jack and the Beanstalk: A Little Apple Classic by Gabhor Utomo (illustrator)

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 This compact hardcover is perfectly sized for little hands and big imaginations, and features beautiful, full-color illustrations that bring the story to life.

Also: Goldilocks And The Three Bears

Gabhor Utomo was born in Indonesia and moved to California in 1997 to pursue becoming an artist. Since receiving his degree from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 2003, Utomo has worked as a freelance illustrator for a number of children’s books. Utomo’s work has won numerous awards and recognitions from local and national art organizations. His clients include Harley Davidson, Harper Collins, McGraw Hill Education, Abdo Publishing Company, and many more. Utomo lives with his wife and twin daughters in Portland, Oregon.

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