Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A wronged snake, toads good and bad, a stubborn girl wearing a copper pot on her head, and a one-eyed dragon are just a few of the memorable characters that appear in this volume of 23 traditional Swiss folktales. The illustrations, created by 19 Swiss artists, are by turns dreamily realistic ("Donat in the Fairy Grotto"), painterly and eerie ("The Woodcutter's Good Soul"), amusingly folkloric ("The Love Potion"), and bracingly cartoonish ("The Kindhearted Dwarfs"). Drawn from all four language regions of Switzerland and rooted in the local landscapes, the stories are related in a plainspoken style: "There once was a brave farmer who lived in Muotatal." Morals (be kind to animals; "The Revenge of the Black Cat"), cautionary tales (don't stare at the neighbors; "The Spalentier"), and legends about particular places ("The Devil's Bridge") mix to offer a winsome introduction to classic Swiss stories. Ages 4--8. (Oct.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 2--5--Broadly representing the whole country of Switzerland, these 23 tales each begin with naming the place from which they come. For example, "The Goblin Who Wanted to Get Married" opens with the line, "By nature goblins are shy creatures, but not in the canton of Zug." Sometimes these unfamiliar names make a halting start for U.S. readers in this country. Billed as myths, these are really local legends featuring ghosts, fairies, the Devil, and other assorted folktale creatures and tropes. The wicked stepmother gets her just deserts, and some curious or greedy folks will disappear in various ways. Honed a bit to make them sound contemporary and smoothly narrated in this translation, the stories each play out in three to five pages of text. They aren't very dramatic or scary. Still, there's fun and familiarity, too, in some of them. The maiden the goblin plans to marry escapes by guessing his name. An old billy goat gets rid of the Devil, and cats, snakes, and fireflies are among the animal players. In parallel to the distinct locations, each tale has been illustrated in color by a different artist. All have one or more small views and at least one that fills a page while several include handsome spreads. In addition to an Editor's Epilogue, there's a concluding set of artist profiles. VERDICT Switzerland has not been heavily represented in folktale collections. Fairy tale fans and storytellers will find new possibilities in this attractive, well-constructed new material for many collections. --Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Traditional tales and myths from the different regions of Switzerland.In this collection, originally published in German, not all the stories are stories in the traditional sense, involving conflict and resolution. Many are simple folk explanations of natural phenomena that typically involve some mythical being, such as the existence of "two gigantic perpendicular rocks linked together by a stone roof" in a forest of the Aargau region, which was once "the entrance to an underground cave. In this cave lived the goblins." In another, a devil gets the credit for a rock that sits near a bridge over the River Reuss. In the different accounts, goblins, ghosts, devils, fairies, dwarfs, and other mythical beings interact with humans, usually to the detriment of one or the other. And all have a delightful folksy edge. There are 23 stories in all, representing most of the Swiss cantons, but more importantly, they cover the four language regions of Switzerland, thus capturing the diverse perspectives of the country. Nineteen different illustrators were tasked with illustrating the tales, and their aesthetic sensibilities and approaches are as varied as the stories themselves. Nevertheless, the book maintains a satisfying and attractive cohesiveness.A welcome addition to the folklore bookshelf. (epilogue, artist bios) (Folklore. 5-9) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
