Product Description

Did you know that when you go trick-or-treating on Halloween you are taking part in an ancient Celtic festival? This intriguing collection of tales takes us back to the origins of many festivals which are celebrated throughout the world and traces some of the stories that are connected to them. Each of the tales in this anthology has an introduction which explains its origins and its significance for the people who celebrate it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #794212 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 80 pages

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 5-Legends and folktales associated with eight different festivals from around the world are arranged in chronological order. Each story is introduced by a single page of background. Holi is represented by "How Krishna Stole the Butter." "The Life of the Buddha" is the story for Vesak, while the tale of "The Oxherd and the Weaving Maiden" accompanies the Japanese festival of Tanabata. The tale of Jamie Freel, here called "The Halloween Changeling," is the selection for Halloween. Kwanzaa is represented by a Caribbean story, "How the Warau People Come Down to Earth." Finally, the Russian "Father Frost" rewards a poor girl and destroys her greedy, rude stepsister in an offering for the New Year. The retellings are fluent and readable, and could be used for storytelling. This handsome book has detailed watercolor illustrations on every page. Sources for the stories are given at the back. Louisa Campbell's A World of Holidays (Silver Moon, 1993) includes celebrations in Japan, Pakistan, Namibia, Canada, and Mexico, but the stories deal with contemporary children. A good addition to folklore and holiday sections, and especially valuable for the less-familiar festivals included.
Pam Gosner, formerly at Maplewood Memorial Library, NJ
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Ages 8^-12. Bright greeting-card colors and patterned borders set the tone for this compendium of celebrations that covers the year from Jewish Purim in early March to the Russian Frost King/Snow Maiden in December. "How Krishna Stole the Butter" and the life of the Buddha lead into the Chinese and Japanese legend "The Oxherd and the Weaving Maiden" and the changeling Halloween tale from the west of Ireland. The tales are lively in the retelling, although they hold no sense of the sacred. The text is straightforward--the Christian Christmas story comes straight from the New Testament Gospels--and a fair number of sentences seem to end in a breathless exclamation point. Useful for looking at the many ways cultures seek to find an answer to why things are the way they are and for tracing the universal human impulse toward celebration. Sources appended. GraceAnne A. DeCandido

Review
This book is both informative and entertaining, as well as being full of colour - as festivals should be. The choice of festivals is varied and fascinating; it is particularly interesting to learn about a festival of such recent origin as Kwanzaa (introduced in 1966), or to read a story about a festival that is familiar - New Year - and yet has a different resonance in another country.' --Monterssori International

Customer Reviews

A World of Celebrations
This is a wonderful book with a story for each festival. There are 8 stories and a short description of how each festival is celebrated, and it's history. It is a multicultural-multi-religion book, including Purim (Jewish), Holi (Hindu), Vesak (Buddhist), Tanabata (Japanese), Halloween (Celtic), Christmas (Christian), Kwanzaa (Carribean) and New Year (Russian). Obviously this book isn't meant to be the "last word" on any of these festivals, but to give a bit more background to festivals you might celebrate, and increase knowledge of those you don't. There are full color pictures and edgings done in the style of the country involved for each story. Although the reading level is listed at 8-12, children much younger will be happy to sit and listen. My 5 yo loves it, and I expect many children as young as 4 will enjoy it.

Seems nice...
... this is a great book for kids who are doing a project on different kind of festivities or to sit down and talk about cultural things with your kids, however this isn't really an interesting read for the average reader.

erasing me
i was excited about the title of this book as both a parent and a montessori directress...until i realized there was no mention of muslim festivals or holidays. how does one write a book like this and ignore the religion of ...what is it? one fourth of the world's population?