The Barefoot Book of Father and Son Tales (Barefoot Books)
Gr 3-6Each of these attractive volumes contains 10 well-documented folktales. Father and Son features Daedalus and Icarus (Greek), The Kings Vine (Serbian), and The Prodigal Son (Biblical), while Mother and Son includes Snot-Nose (French), The Boy and the Seedpod Canoe (Maori), and The Magical Sweetgrass Doll (Wabanaki). Each one is told in a straightforward voice that relates the details of the culture from which the story comes, but lacks distinctiveness. Endnotes give further information about the stories, especially how they relate to certain themes (Fathers as Kings, Symbols of the Masculine, The Mother-Son Bond, Recurring Symbols, etc.), as well as sources. All of the retellings are faithful to the original versions. The presentation is inviting, with plenty of white space for easy reading, bottom borders that depict cultural icons, and watercolor illustrations that add to the drama of the tales. Again, although the art contains the proper images for each culture, the paintings have a generic style and do little to convey the flavor of the country or period. These scholarly volumes would be useful additions to large folklore collections.Karen K. Radtke, Milwaukee Public LibraryCopyright 1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc.