Saturday, April 25, 2015

A Book of Magic Animals

It's more of a history book to him...

Manning-Sanders, Ruth. A Book of Magic Animals. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc. 1975.

Plot: The title offers a collection of tales featuring magical beasts. Some creatures, such as the small-toothed dog and Elsa's bear are actually enchanted humans. Others, like the dolphin king and Mainu the frog are genuine animals, but with extraordinary abilities. They all assist the protagonists to defeat overwhelming evil, conquer complex challenges, and earn fantastic rewards.

Genre: Animals, Fairy Tales, Folktales

Reading Level: Grades 4-9

Similar Titles: The Dragon Emperor, The Sea King's Daughter, The Seven Chinese Brothers

Personal Thoughts: While the title uses dated diction and has an annoying tendency to bounce between past and present tense, it also offers a pleasant blend of stories, mostly from Europe. A lot of the stories have similar counterparts in modern literature, particularly in the "beauty and the beast"-type of fairy tale. It also manages to offer different, less well known stories and can easily satisfy fans of folk and fairy tales.

No comments:

Post a Comment