Bestselling Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths Books for 12 Year Olds

Who cut off Medusa’s head? Who was raised by a she-bear? Who tamed Pegasus? It takes a demigod to know, and Percy Jackson can fill you in on the all the daring deeds of Perseus, Atalanta, Bellerophon, and the rest of the major Greek heroes. Told in the funny, irreverent style readers have come to expect from Percy,

(I’ve had some bad experiences in my time, but the heroes I’m going to tell you about were the original old school hard luck cases. They boldly screwed up where no one had screwed up before. . .) and enhanced with vibrant artwork by Caldecott Honoree John Rocco, this story collection will become the new must-have classic for Rick Riordan’s legions of devoted fans–and for anyone who needs a hero.

So get your flaming spear. Put on your lion skin cape. Polish your shield and make sure you’ve got arrows in your quiver. We’re going back about four thousand years to decapitate monsters, save some kingdoms, shoot a few gods in the butt, raid the Underworld, and steal loot from evil people.

Then, for dessert, we’ll die painful tragic deaths.

Ready? Sweet. Let’s do this.

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What’s it really like to be a student at Ever After High? Enroll in hexcellent courses like General Villiany, Science and Sorcery, and Hero Training and spend some time with your best friends forever after–Duchess Swan, Lizzie Hearts, Ginger Breadhouse, and the Charming siblings, plus so many more–as they face their destinies, tackle thronework, and figure out which spelltacular path will lead to their Happily Ever After.

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The fifth hexciting book in Suzanne Selfors’ Ever After High: A School Story series.

Holly and Poppy O’Hair are twins, but it’s always been easy to tell these sisters apart. Because she is destined to be the next Rapunzel, Holly has always had the longest locks at Ever After High, while Poppy, whose fairytale destiny is up in the air, wears her hair short to express her individuality. But when Poppy’s hair begins growing longer and longer, while Holly’s hair gets shorter and shorter, it seems as if the sisters might have to reveal the secret they’ve been keeping about their destinies. Can they turn this bad hair day around, or will their fairytale ending be a fairy-fail?

© 2016 Mattel. All Rights Reserved.

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A bold re-envisioning of The Odyssey, told with simplicity and style — perfect for fans of graphic retellings and mythology enthusiasts alike.

Odysseus faces storm and shipwreck, a terrifying man-eating Cyclops, the alluring but deadly Sirens, and the fury of the sea-god Poseidon as he makes his ten-year journey home from the Trojan War. While Odysseus struggles to make it home, his wife, Penelope, fights a different kind of battle as her palace is invaded by forceful, greedy men who tell her that Odysseus is dead and she must choose a new husband. Will Odysseus reach her in time? Homer’s epic, age-old story is powerfully told by Carnegie Medalist Gillian Cross and stunningly illustrated by rising talent Neil Packer.

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This magnificent collection gathers 160 tales from 80 tribal gathers to offer a rich and lively panorama of the Native American mythic heritage. From all across the continent come tales of creation and love, of heroes and war, of animals, tricksters, and the end of the world. Alfonso Ortiz, an eminent anthropologist, and Richard Erdoes, an artist and master storyteller, Indian voices in the best folkloric sources of the nineteenth century to make this the most comprehensive and authentic volume of American Indian myths available anywhere.

With black-and-white drawings throughout
Part of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library

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Learn Japanese and enjoy folktales at the same time with this whimsically illustrated multicultural children’s book!

This bilingual edition of A Treasury of Japanese Folktales—presented in both English and Japanese—contains 12 of the best Japanese legends and fairy tales, told to generation after generation of Japanese children. Originally written in English by Yuri Yasuda, based on her interpretations of traditional Japanese tales, these charming stories of rich imagination are now accompanied by Japanese text by Yumi Matsunari and Yumi Yamaguchi. The Japanese text includes basic kanji accompanied by furigana to help beginning learners to recognize and learn the characters.

Adventures carry us, on turtle-back, to the splendors of the underwater palace of the dragon princess, to the beautiful hills where Kintaro plays with his animal friends, and to a temple where we discover a “tea kettle” that is really a cunning badger in disguise.

Executed with great skill and imagination, the 98 color illustrations bring to life the charming characters of these heart-warming tales of old Japan, which include:

• Shitakiri Suzume, the Tongue-Cut Sparrow
• Kintaro, the Strong Boy
• Kaguya Hime, the Luminous Princess
• Momotaro, the Peach Boy
• Bunbuku Chagama, the Lucky Cauldron

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This colorfully illustrated multicultural children’s book presents Philippine fairy tales and other folk stories—providing insight into a rich oral culture.

Filipino Children’s Favorite Stories presents thirteen well-loved myths and tales from the Philippines. These stories will enchant six to ten year old readers around the world with their wit and charm. Many of the tales have been transmitted from mother to child over centuries, and cover classic childhood themes—such as the forces of good triumphing over evil, children rebelling against adults and the weak prevailing over the strong.

Narrated with an international audience in mind and illustrated with whimsical watercolors by award-winning artist Joanne de Leon, this is a must-have collection of tales for anyone interested in the Philippines.

Featured Filipino stories include:

• Why Mosquitoes Buzz Around Our Ears
• The Magic Lake>
• The Deer and the Snail
• Why the Cock Crows
• The Prince’s Bride

The Children’s Favorite Stories series was created to share the folktales and legends most beloved by children in the East with young readers of all backgrounds in the West. Other multicultural children’s books in this series include: Asian Children’s Favorite Stories, Indian Children’s Favorite Stories, Indonesian Children’s Favorite Stories, Japanese Children’s Favorite Stories, Singapore Children’s Favorite Stories, Favorite Children’s Stories from China & Tibet, Chinese Children’s Favorite Stories, Korean Children’s Favorite Stories, Balinese Children’s Favorite Stories, and Vietnamese Children’s Favorite Stories.

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This colorfully illustrated multicultural children’s book presents Indian fairy tales and other folk stories—providing insight into a rich literary culture.

Indian Children’s Favorite Stories is a charming selection of eight Indian tales that provide an insight into traditional Indian culture. Retold for an international audience, the beautifully illustrated stories will give children of all ages a glimpse into the fables and folklore of India including tales of how the Lord Krishna escapes the evil Kamsa’s repeated attempts to kill him, and how the elephant keeper’s daughter, Rani, humbles an unwise and unjust king by emptying his storehouses of rice.

Featured Indian stories include:

• Munna and the Grain of Rice
• T he Birth of Krishna
• No Ordinary Lad
• The Story of Rama
• Sukhu and Dukhu
• Tenali Raman
• Journey to Heaven
• The Foolish Man

A glossary is also included to clarify Indian words. The Children’s Favorite Stories series was created to share the folktales and legends most beloved by children in the East with young readers of all backgrounds in the West. Other multicultural children’s books in this series include: Asian Children’s Favorite Stories, Indonesian Children’s Favorite Stories, Japanese Children’s Favorite Stories, Singapore Children’s Favorite Stories, Filipino Favorite Children’s Stories, Favorite Children’s Stories from China & Tibet, Chinese Children’s Favorite Stories, Korean Children’s Favorite Stories, Balinese Children’s Favorite Stories, and Vietnamese Children’s Favorite Stories.

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Here between two covers you will find an inexhaustible source of delight for children and adults alike: the world’s best folktales, chosen by the internationally known storyteller Jane Yolen. Over 150 tales are compiled from Iceland to Syria, Cuba to Papua.

Part of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library

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It started with a mother’s love… Fleeing from a forest fire, a mother bear urges her two cubs into the watery shelter of a vast body of water. Though it will be difficult, she knows if they can swim across to the opposite shore, they will be safe. With calls of encouragement and steadfast love, Mother Bear guides her cubs across the great lake, Lake Michigan. And the story of what happens once Mother Bear reaches the far shore becomes the legend behind the natural wonder known as Sleeping Bear Dune. In 1998 writer Kathy-jo Wargin and nature artist Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen combined their talents to bring The Legend of Sleeping Bear to life. Published to wide acclaim, the book was soon named the Official Children’s Book of Michigan. More than ten years later, this story of enduring maternal love continues to resonate with readers young and old. In celebration of the initial release of The Legend of Sleeping Bear, we are pleased to announce a new, limited edition of the book, accompanied with a free animated DVD narrated by Jeff Daniels.

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Long a treasure in Norway, the folktales collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe have been acclaimed for their richness of humor, fullness of life, and depth of understanding since they first appeared in translation more than a hundred years ago. The Norwegian folktales, said Jacob Grimm, “surpass nearly all others.”
 
Within these captivating tales we meet witches, trolls, and ogres; sly foxes and great, mysterious bears; beautiful princesses and country-lads-turned-heroes. Collected here in a sparkling contemporary translation by Pat Shaw Iversen and Carl Norman, these tales brim with the matchless vitality and power of their original telling. Included also are the wonderfully evocative original illustrations of Erik Werenskiold and Theodor Kittelsen.

With black-and-white drawings throughout
Part of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library 

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“Lush, romantic, and exquisitely written . . . a rare, glittering jewel of a novel.”—Sarah J. Maas, author of the New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series

“This is Aladdin like you’ve never imagined.”—Renée Ahdieh, author of The Wrath and the Dawn

She is the most powerful Jinni of all. He is a boy from the streets. Their love will shake the world. . . .
 
When Aladdin discovers Zahra’s jinni lamp, Zahra is thrust back into a world she hasn’t seen in hundreds of years—a world where magic is forbidden and Zahra’s very existence is illegal. She must disguise herself to stay alive, using ancient shape-shifting magic, until her new master has selected his three wishes. ??
 
But when the King of the Jinn offers Zahra a chance to be free of her lamp forever, she seizes the opportunity—only to discover she is falling in love with Aladdin. When saving herself means betraying him, Zahra must decide once and for all: is winning her freedom worth losing her heart?
 
As time unravels and her enemies close in, Zahra finds herself suspended between danger and desire in this dazzling retelling of the Aladdin story from acclaimed author Jessica Khoury.

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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children’s novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of both the popular 1902 Broadway musical and the well-known 1939 film adaptation. The story chronicles the adventures of a young girl named Dorothy Gale in the Land of Oz, after being swept away from her Kansas farm home in a cyclone. The novel is one of the best-known stories in American popular culture and has been widely translated. Its initial success, and the success of the 1902 Broadway musical which Baum adapted from his original story, led to Baum’s writing thirteen additional Oz books.

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From the bestselling author of Tenth of December comes a splendid new edition of his acclaimed collaboration with the illustrator behind The Stinky Cheese Man and James and the Giant Peach! Featuring fifty-two haunting and hilarious images, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip is a modern fable for people of all ages that touches on the power of kindness, generosity, compassion, and community.
 
In the seaside village of Frip live three families: the Romos, the Ronsens, and a little girl named Capable and her father. The economy of Frip is based solely on goat’s milk, and this is a problem because the village is plagued by gappers: bright orange, many-eyed creatures the size of softballs that love to attach themselves to goats. When a gapper gets near a goat, it lets out a high-pitched shriek of joy that puts the goats off giving milk, which means that every few hours the children of Frip have to go outside, brush the gappers off their goats, and toss them into the sea. The gappers have always been everyone’s problem, until one day they get a little smarter, and instead of spreading out, they gang up: on Capable’s goats. Free at last of the tyranny of the gappers, will her neighbors rally to help her? Or will they turn their backs, forcing Capable to bear the misfortune alone?
 
Featuring fifty-two haunting and hilarious illustrations by Lane Smith and a brilliant story by George Saunders that explores universal themes of community and kindness, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip is a rich and resonant story for those that have all and those that have not.
 
Praise for George Saunders
 
“No one writes more powerfully than George Saunders.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
 
“Saunders makes you feel as though you are reading fiction for the first time.”—Khaled Hosseini
 
“George Saunders is a complete original. . . . There is no one better, no one more essential to our national sense of self and sanity.”—Dave Eggers
 
“Few people cut as hard or deep as Saunders does.”—Junot Díaz
 
“Not since Twain has America produced a satirist this funny.”—Zadie Smith
 
Praise for The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip
 
“In a perfect world, every child would own a copy of this profound, funny fable. . . . Every adult would own a copy too, and would marvel at how this smart, subversive little book is even deeper and more hilarious than any child could know.”—Entertainment Weekly
 
“Saunders’s idiosyncratic voice makes an almost perfect accompaniment to children’s book illustrator Smith’s heightened characterizations and slightly surreal backdrops.”—Publishers Weekly
 
“A riveting, funny, and sly new fairy tale.”—Miami Herald

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Norse, of Course! The Great Void to Asgard is an illustrated story for children. Read along as Heimdall tells the beginning story – the evolution of the Norse ancestors, and about Ymir the frost giant, a jealous adversary. Learn about the Aesir-Vanir war, the formation of Asgard, and how the Norse people began.

The Norse, of Course! book series for children is Norse mythology retold as historical fiction in this original fully illustrated series. The stories are based on the Eddas and Sagas. Modernized in fun rhyme with whimsical pictures, each book in the series features the Norse ancestors and their evolution.

Norhalla, LLC is organized for the preservation and education about Norse and Germanic culture, mythology, belief and history through art and literature.

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**Winner of the 2014 Aesop Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature**

**Winner of the 2013 Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Award for Fables, Folklore & Fairytales**

**2014 Creative Child Magazine Book of the Year Award Winner**

For thousands of years, Chinese storytellers have delighted listeners with stories about the value of virtues like honesty, respect, courage and self-reliance. Chinese Fables collects nineteen of these wonderful tales, some of them dating back to the third century BCE, and retells them in contemporary English for a modern audience.

Each of these stories offers a nugget of ancient folk wisdom and shares aspects of Chinese culture and lore. All of the tales express the foibles and wisdom of human experience with great humor and affection. And although the lessons are universal, the wit and flavor are uniquely Chinese.

Beautifully illustrated by a master Chinese artist using a patchwork of ancient tones and textures, with a deft touch of humor, this book will give great joy to children and adults alike.

Chinese children’s stories include:

• The Practical Bride
• Stealing the Bell
• Kwan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy
• Cooking the Duck
• Scaring the Tigers
• The Dragon Slayer

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From the acclaimed and popular illustrator of the New York Times bestseller Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Snow White, comes a unique and visually stunning spin on Cinderella—published to coincide with the release of the major-motion picture from Walt Disney directed by Kenneth Branagh and featuring an all-star cast.

Charles Perrault’s story of a sweet-tempered young girl, forced into servitude by her evil stepmother and stepsisters, who finds true love with a handsome prince (with the help of a fairy godmother), has enchanted readers for more than 300 years. In this lavishly illustrated retelling of the classic fairytale, Camille Rose Garcia reimagines Cinderella through her distinctive visual aesthetic. Hers is a Cinderella for the twenty-first century: dark, compelling, vibrant, and enthralling. 

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A collection of over 200 folk and fairy tales from all over the world, this is the only edition that encompasses all cultures. Arranged geographically by region, this book also includes category index groups that list the stories by plot and character.

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Nearly 100 stories from over 40 tribe-related myths of creation, tales of epic deeds, ghost stories and tales set in both the animal and human realms.

Part of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library

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Mysterious selkies, bad-tempered giants, devious fairies, and even Loch Ness’s most famous resident, these are the mythical beasts of Scottish folklore. In the highly anticipated companion volume to the much-loved “Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales,” award-winning children’s author Theresa Breslin gathers a stunning collection of tales from across Scotland. Alternately humorous, poignant, and thrilling, each story is brought to life with exquisite illustrations by Scottish fine artist Kate Leiper, whose exquisite illustrations brim with otherworldly beauty. A wonderful gift, this is a truly stunning book to be treasured for a lifetime, It will be enjoyed by children, as well as by parents and grandparents.

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Greek Mythology Books for Kids encourages the love and learning of Greek Mythology. Be captivated by 3 stories: Arachne and Athena, Pandora’s Box, & Phaeton and Helios. Then, learn a little about 20 important figures that have influenced stories, art, and intrigued the imagination of the world!

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Show description from ABC:

“From the inventive minds of Lost executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, the show is a bold new imagining of the world where fairy tales and the modern world collide: 28-year-old Emma Swan is shocked when Henry, the son she gave up, shows up on her doorstep after 10 years in desperate need of her help. He believes she actually comes from an alternate world and is Snow White and Prince Charming’s missing daughter. According to his book of fairytales, they sent Emma away to protect her from the Evil Queen’s curse, which trapped the fairy tale world frozen in time and brought them into our modern world. Emma is skeptical, but when she brings Henry back to his hometown of Storybrook, she is drawn to this boy and his strange story, soon suspecting that the town is more than it seems. It’s a place where magic has been forgotten, but is still powerfully close; where fairytale characters are alive, even though they don’t remember who they once were. The epic battle for the future of all worlds is beginning, but for good to win, Emma will have to accept her destiny and join the fight.”

Once Upon a Time has a full 22-episode order that will run through mid-May 2012. It airs on Sunday nights at 8pm and is the #1 new drama.

The book itself will be small and gift-sized, and will feature original illustrations by a fantastic artist named Kevin Tong. Tong worked as an artist on LOST’s art campaign and currently does amazing concert posters. His aesthetic is dark and edgy, and lines up nicely with that of the show-exactly what we’re going for with these illustrations. For our book, he’ll illustrate the cover, six full-page interior pieces to go with the tales featured in both the book and the show (Snow White, Cinderella, Rumplestiltskin, Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty), and a combination of small, decorative images and borders to adorn the interior pages.

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