Nature Tales – at a glance
The School Reading Lists’ five word review: Global, fables, nature, animals, folk tales.
Children’s book title: Nature Tales: An Anthology of Seasonal Stories from Around the World.
Children’s author: Dawn Casey.
Children’s illustrator: Anja Sušanj.
Genre: Short stories.
Published by: Templar Books.
ISBN: 9781800785083.
Recommended for children aged: 7+ year-olds.
First published: Hardback September 2024.
This children’s book is ideal for: Animal lovers.
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Our review:
Facts are easy to forget, but stories touch the heart, speak to the spirit, fire the imagination.
Nature Tales is a collection of 19 short stories that celebrate the natural world and all who share it with us. This is a truly global collection, including tales from Mexico, Finland, Ukraine, Morocco, and many more. Highlights include:
- The Nettle Queen – Denmark: An exiled princess saves her six brothers, who have been turned into swans, by making them each a nettle shirt, even at the risk of her own safety.
- Hare’s Ears – Siberia: Hare covets Great Elk’s majestic antlers, but when he is given a pair of his own, he finds them too cumbersome in the dense forests and realises that large ears, which allow him to hear better, are a more useful feature.
- Badger Boy – Ireland: A baby boy is abandoned in the woods and raised by a family of badgers. When he grows up, he teaches the nearby villagers how to live in tune with nature, following the lessons his badger family taught him as a child.
Author Dawn Casey explains how, even while growing up in inner-city London, she sought out patches of nature to explore and celebrate. Her research into global fables brought her “stories that affirmed what children already know: that the Earth is alive, the world is magic.”
Casey prefaces each of her stories with a short introduction to the animal or plant featured in the tale, explaining their origins, habits, and history. A pronunciation guide is included at the end of some of the stories, and a full list of sources is provided at the end of the book for those who want to delve deeper into the origin of the tales.
Anja Sušanj’s colourful and intricate illustrations enhance the lyrical text, bringing the animals and plants to life for the readers. Each story in Nature Tales is around 4–6 pages long, making them ideal for reading aloud in classroom or library storytime sessions. Even better – try reading them outside, in the very nature they celebrate.
Nature Tales: An Anthology of Seasonal Stories from Around the World is a beautifully presented collection of fables that will appeal to young nature lovers.
Many thanks to Templar Books for the review copy.
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