The Lion Book of World Stories

A collection of 39 traditional tales from around the world retold in direct accessible language by Hartman who also includes one of his own stories - 'The Generous Bird'. All the tales are short, can be read aloud in a few minutes, and each embodies - as the compiler says in his introduction - 3Ws: 'warmth, wit and wisdom'. The majority are well known and include renditions of 'The Mouse's Bride' from India, the English 'Silly Jack', the Australian thirsty frog (Tiddalik) the Greek Mouse and Lion fable and half a dozen Rabbit and Tiger stories from Puerto Rico. Poole's watercolour illustrations are jolly enough and visually enliven the pages rather than adding anything to the telling of the tales. A useful resource for the infant classroom or for the occasional assembly story.