Lonely Planet Kids A Treasury of Traditional Tales and A Brush with Magic

Lonely Planet Kids A Treasury of Traditional Tales
October 22, 2024 by Lonely Planet
Copy provided by the publisher

Our sixth grade used to do a massive folk and fairy tale project that involved students reading a story from one specific culture, then choosing a country from a completely different continent, and retelling the tale with details from the new country. I vividly remember my younger daughter retelling the German tale of Clever Gretchen, but setting in India. The language arts standards have changed, but I still have a collection of global tales, and this will certainly be one that students enjoy. 

Lonely Planet, which publishes a lot of travel books, does a great job of grouping the stories by continent, and each one lists the specific country or culture of origin. While there isn't a large map at the beginning of the book (they have conditioned me to always look for a map!), there is a smaller inset of the continent with the location highlighted for each tale. There is also a brief introduction for each tale. 

The thing that really amazed me about this collection was that I wasn't familiar with any of these stories! The sixth grade project went on for a long time, so I have a pretty good knowledge of what's out there, but these were all new to me. There are only so many versions of Cinderella that I need to read, or different variations on Tales of the Brothers Grimm that I need in my collection. This is a fresh crop of intriguing tales, and the colorful illustrations make it even more appealing. 

This collection of retold traditional tales boasts quite the array of authors. I've read books by David Bowles, Anita Ganeri, and Shirley Marr, and am glad to have other authors to investigate. There are thumbnail drawing of the authors with short biographies at the end of the book, which might have been my favorite part. 

Ahn, Flora. A Brush with Magic

October 22, 2024 by Quirk Books

Copy provided by the publisher

Yumi is excited to go visit her Harabujee (grandfather) in Seoul, Korea, especially since she is going with her sixteen year old sister, Minji. Minji hasn't wanted much to do with her younger sister, and unfortunately, is more interested in hanging out with her cousins Jia, Jiwoo, and Woojin, who are closer to her own age. Yumi does enjoy learning to paint with Harabujee, who introduces her to the joys of ink sticks and mulberry paper. When her grandfather has an appointment and Minji is out shopping, Yumi spends a morning painting, but runs out of ink. Unable to locate more in the attic, she heads to a local store called the Goblin's Treasure. She finds an interesting paintbrush, and the shop owner sells it to her, even though he doesn't remember having it in stock. The brush turns out to be in habited by a dokkaebi, who can take Yumi's pictures and bring them to life. This doesn't work well with food, since it still tastes like ink and paper, but that's not too big of a problem since Yumi and Dodo (the name the two pick) spend a lot of time traveling around Seoul enjoying the local cuisine. Dodo can take the shape of a little girl, sometimes looking exactly like Yumi, so Yumi even introduces Dodo to Harabujee. For a while, the two spend a lot of time together, seeing local sites, but after Dodo plays several rather nasty tricks on Minji (having birds poop on her and having a rooster attack her and her purchases), Yumi steps away. By this time, Dodo has developed fairly strong powers, and is unwilling to go back to staying trapped by the paintbrush. When a link to Harabujee's past is revealed, will Yumi be able to cut her ties with Dodo, re establish a relationship with Minji, and enjoy her time in Seoul with her extended family? 
Strengths: Fans of this author's A Spoonful of Time will be glad to see this new book that has some of the same family connections and magic! I feel a little like I have spent some time in Seoul, being forced to eat breakfast by Harabujee and being able to traipse around to local parks and sites while having tasty snacks. There's plenty of local color, Korean folklore, and slightly suspicious magic. Dodo starts out as a much needed friend to Yumi, and while the dokkaebi becomes increasingly mischievous, there's nothing too scary about the pranks pulled. There's some nice sibling drama, and touching moments when Harabujee shares his love of painting with his granddaughter. This is best read with a snack of yakgwa or kkwabaegi nearby. 
Weaknesses: I was expecting the dokkaebi to become really evil and take over Yumi's life, but I should have known from the cover that this was a bit happier. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoy magic with some cultural connections, like Baptiste's Moko Magic or Young's Heroes of the Water Monster. It reminds me very much of  Jane Louise Curry's 2002 The Egyptian Box with Korean rather than Egyptian folklore.