Wonder Tales from Around the World (World Storytelling)

This fun retelling of Beauty and the Beast shows that being kind is more important than how someone looks.

Not everyone can turn a near‑disaster into a hilarious story—but Brummett sure can. He can make you laugh about the time he jumped off a thirty‑foot windmill into a water tank that turned out to have only three feet of water in it. He can even make a day that began with three giant scorpion stings sound like something you’d tell around a campfire. And somehow, he can turn the moment his three‑year‑old grandson got tossed off a bull—flying higher than Brummett had ever seen a kid fly—into a tale you can’t help but chuckle at.

People everywhere tell stories. It’s something humans just do. We share stories that make us laugh, make us think, or simply sound wonderful when spoken aloud. Stories seem to pop up wherever people gather, and some are so powerful and meaningful that they travel far beyond the place where they were first told.

Follow three clever pigs as they try to outsmart a tricky red fox in the beautiful mountains. This award-winning book is perfect for children who love folktales and stories about being brave.

What’s the Monster Stick? It’s Paul’s gigantic fishing pole—nine feet long and packed with miles of super‑strong fishing line and shiny, custom‑made sinkers that slide like magic. From the moment Paul gets the Monster Stick, his adventures grow wilder than anything Paul Bunyan ever dreamed up. At one point, he even manages to hook a DC‑10 airplane flown by sneaky smugglers. How he does that… well, that’s part of the fun.

In this anthology of folktales, readers will learn about how different cultures live in harmony with...

Windy Girl is blessed with a vivid imagination. From Uncle she gathers stories of long-ago...

Maybe it’s because his mother was a teacher. Or maybe it’s because he spent so much of his life in classrooms—first as a curious first grader, then as a hopeful college student, later as a seminarian, and now as a visiting writer who travels to schools all over the country. Whatever the reason, school has always been at the heart of Donald Davis’s stories, and this book gathers his very favorite school adventures.

Have you ever played the game “Telephone,” where one person whispers a message and it travels around the circle until it comes back sounding completely different? Stories work the same way. As they’re passed from person to person—and from place to place—they stretch, twist, and grow into new versions. The stories in this book show just how powerful that “story grapevine” can be. Many of these tales have been traveling for hundreds of years. Some appear in different countries all over the world, each with its own special twist. All of them are fun to read aloud, and even more fun to tell in your own voice.

This book is perfect for anyone who adores cats. All around the world, people see cats as special—sometimes magical, sometimes mysterious, always full of personality. The nine stories in this collection show cats at their very best. Some are sweet, some are sneaky, some are brave or stubborn, but every single one is clever.

In Anansí Goes to Lunch, the greedy spider Anansí thinks he is clever when he accepts three different lunch invitations for the same day. He ties a rope around his waist and asks each friend to tug it when the food is ready, but a huge surprise awaits him when all three meals are served at once.

A long, twisty highway. Kids squabbling in the back seat. Parents trying every trick they know to keep the peace. It sounds like an ordinary family road trip—but Donald Davis turns it into an adventure no one forgets.