Enchantment

This is a collection of fairy tales, ghost stories and tales of wonder from Carnegie Medal winner Crossley-Holland who is the master of retelling traditional tales. In Enchantment he has gone back to original sources for his subject matter but, as ever, brings his fresh look to stories from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Do not expect adaptations of well-known tales, as the author has opted for more obscure stories, with the exception of 'Tom Tit Tot', which will be recognised as 'Rumpelstilskin' by most readers. Crossley-Holland has turned to many Victorian anthologies of folktales for his inspiration and he does an excellent job in writing in a lively way to engage a 21st-century young reader or listener. The audience for this book may turn out to be older than is the case for more popular fairy stories, as there are some nightmarish images and incidents. 'The Changeling' sees a Scottish bairn transformed into a demon whilst the opening tale 'The Cow that Ate the Piper' sees three pipers chopping off the feet of a corpse they stumble across, in order to steal the shoes from its feet. Chichester Clark's unmistakable and truly first class illustrations are suitably sombre and her use of mournful and muted colours for these enchanting tales is superb.