Illustration of "Lin Haiyin's Grandmother Tells fables".
For most of human history, children's intellectual lives, in addition to their lives in the family, have come from myths, folklore and fairy tales. In The Charm of Fairy Tales, psychologist Bruno Bettelheim highly affirms the unparalleled value of fairy tales for children. He believes that fairy tales always concisely and concisely represent the dilemma of human existence and the conflict of characters in the dilemma, guiding children to choose between good and evil, so as to discover the call of self and heart.
Fairy tales are full of fantasy elements, and under the narration of generations, many basic plots have evolved into different stories around the world, and most of them follow a similar framework, beginning with "Once Upon a Time...", then the protagonist encounters difficulties and obstacles, and finally rains and sunny days and lives a happy life. At present, the folk fairy tales known to the public are mainly Grimm's fairy tales, in fact, the writers who sort out and relay folk fairy tales are not only the Grimm brothers, but also the later Calvino, Pushkin, Thompson, Angela Carter, etc., who have made the stories more colorful, and are not limited to the love of princes and princesses.
From a worldwide perspective, whether it is a fairy or a fairy, their definition varies greatly from culture to culture. Many stories read like a smorgasbord, mixed with a variety of historical and distant fragments, after being tinkered with by the writers, in addition to retaining a strong local color, but also in the subtle description and imagination of the extension of the writer's own creative style.
In the second part of the summer book list, we selected a group of fairy tale books that are suitable for parents to accompany or primary and secondary school students to read independently, and are mainly text-based. Because most cultures do not have clear boundaries to distinguish between myths, folktales, and fairy tales, our book list also includes these three types of story forms. Most of them are re-creations by writers on oral legends or ancient records, and have taken on a new look through the planning of different publishing houses at home and abroad.
According to the title, the book list is divided into writers and national chapters, arranged in the order of reading from easy to difficult. "Writer's Chapter" is a retelling of folk fairy tales by famous writers. The "National Chapter" is a collection of fairy tales based on the classification of fairy tales from different countries. Due to the limited length of the book list, there are many famous story collections, such as "Briggs Goose Mother Nursery Rhyme Golden Classic", "Nils Riding goose travel", "Haugh fairy tale", "Greek mythology" and "Bello's Fairy Tales" that predates Perot's fairy tales, etc. are not included in the book list, and readers can continue to search for this list if they are interested.
Part.1 Writers
"Grandma Lin Haiyin Tells Fables" (4 volumes), Lin Haiyin/ Editor Zhang Shiming / Painting, Dandelion Children's Bookstore | Guizhou People's Publishing House, January 2013
This set of books is composed of more than 50 fables told by the famous writer Mr. Lin Haiyin (1918-2001) for children, and illustrated by the famous painter Mr. Zhang Shiming. Among them, there are the children's familiar "Finishing Touch", "Carving Boats and Seeking Swords", "Poor Donkey Skills", "Ye Gong Good Dragon", "Xanadu", "Wangmei Quenching Thirst", "Cup Bow Snake Shadow", "Foolish Man Moving Mountains", "Blind Man Touching Elephants", and so on. The story is concise and vivid, the paintings are also very Chinese, and each picture is a beautiful work.
"New Fairy Tales", [French] Countess Ségur / by Huang Jing / Translation, Li Bingjie / Painting, Translation Forest Publishing House, October 2020.
Countess Séguire (1799-1874), born in Tsarist Russia and later settled in Paris, was the founder of French children's literature, about a century after Charles Perro. In 1856, at the age of 57, countess Ségur entered the literary world with her debut novel "New Fairy Tale", mostly inspired by her childhood, and her works were later translated into many languages and widely circulated. Her fairy tales are mainly written for her grandchildren, and after the New Fairy Tale, she published works such as "Sophie's Troubles", "Little Lady" and "Sophie's Holiday", which are also loved by children.
This "New Fairy Tale" follows the narrative techniques of many traditional fairy tales, including five long stories of "Blonde Princess, Good Doe and Handsome Cat", "Good Boy Little Henry", "Little Rose Princess", "Little Gray Mouse" and "Bear Boy". Compared with the fairy tales of Perot and Grimm, the story of Countess Ségur is more abundant, with relatively many characters and scenes appearing, and the plot is more intricate. The repeated use of rhetorical techniques such as repetition, exaggeration, and contrast makes the story more dramatic and contagious.
The story of the Countess of Séguiul is also a projection of the booming urbanization and popular culture of France in the mid-to-late 19th century, with many delicate depictions of everyday life and customs. For example, in the story of Little Henry, Little Henry is a child of a poor family, who cut wheat, harvest grapes, hunt, and fish on the way to find the grass of life, so that young readers have a specific understanding of labor and all walks of life.
However, her story is also like Perot's fairy tale, with a clear intention of moral education, aiming to help children retain the qualities of kindness, bravery, honesty, etc., and reject the dark side of evil, insidiousness, cruelty and other human nature.
Selected Fairy Tales of Pushkin, [Russia] Pushkin/Author, [Russia] Natalia Goncharova [French] Edmund Dulac/E, Sima Tianyi Li Heren/Translation, Wave Blossom | Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House, February 2021.
This is one of the "Big Writers for Kids" series by LangHuaduo, which contains two stories written by Pushkin (1799-1837): The Prince and the Swan Princess and the Golden Rooster. Pushkin was known for writing fairy tale poems, but these two stories were translated and published in French and changed the original poetic form. Among them, "The Prince and the Swan Princess" is Pushkin's fairy tale poem "The Story of Tsar Sartan, His Son, the mighty warrior Grand Duke Jidong and the beautiful Swan Princess". The Golden Rooster is the last of Pushkin's six fairy tale poems, first published in 1835.
Pushkin was born into a declining aristocratic family and grew up in the care of a nursing mother and nanny. The nanny was Pushkin's enlightenment teacher and told him many fairy tales, which later became the inspiration for Pushkin's creations. Pushkin pioneered the creation of fairy tale poetry, and paid special attention to the setting and characterization of fairy tale characters. His creation is not only of great significance to the history of Russian fairy tales, but also an important embodiment of Russian cultural thought in the nineteenth century. In addition to the two stories included in the book, Pushkin's other fairy tale poems include "The Story of the Fisherman and the Goldfish", "The Story of the Mother Bear", "The Story of the Priest and His Long Worker Barda", and "The Story of the Dead Princess and the Seven Warriors".
Uncle Remus Tells a Story: The Clever Rabbit and the Silly Fox, by Joel Chandler Harris/,[Russia]M.A. Gorszova/Adaptation,[Russia]Igor Oreynikov/E.E. Wang Yinan/Translation, Dandelion Children's Bookstore | Guizhou People's Publishing House, June 2022.
Uncle Remus is a collection of animal stories, ballads, and oral folklore of black people in the Southern United States by Joel Chandler Harris (1848–1908), and Uncle Remus is the fictional narrator of these stories. They were published in 1881 as a book, seven of which were published. The story revolves around Brother Rabbit, Brother Fox, and Brother Bear, much like Aesop's Fables and La Fontaine's Fables.
The book selects 12 stories from the "Uncle Remus" series, reinforcing the story's sense of humor. In the book, Uncle Remus will tell these stories to a boy named Joel, interspersed with Joel's questions and Uncle Remus's answers, which feels very kind.
In the story, wolves and foxes have been trying to eat rabbits, but as many traps as they can set, there are as many ways for rabbits to escape, and they can also make wolves and foxes ugly. The illustrator of the illustration, Igor Orenikov, born in Moscow in 1953, is a well-known Russian artist and winner of the 2018 International Hans Christian Andersen Prize for Illustrator.
"Calvino Italian Fairy Tales" (3 sets in total), [Italian] Italo Calvino / Editor, Mao Mengsha Peng Qian / Translation, Wave Flower Blossom | Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House, August 2021.
Italo Calvino (1923-1985) was an Italian writer whose representative works include The Baron in the Tree and The Viscount in Half. He meticulously collected and sifted through 200 folktales scattered throughout Italy over the centuries, compiled in 1956 into Italian Fairy Tales.
His aim was to organize popular Italian fairy tales for readers, following the example of the Italian writer Strapaola, the original narrator of the story "The Cat in the Boots". In writing he also pointed out the origin of each story and annotated the changes. The stories were first translated into English in 1962 and are the first collection of Italian folktales.
The three sets of books were selected from more than 60 stories and divided into three series, each of which has 5 volumes. 13 illustrators were invited and more than 1400 illustrations were drawn. Compared with Grimm's fairy tales, Calvino's Italian fairy tales are a little less obscure and gloomy, full of simple rural atmosphere, but also with Calvino's personal style.
"Thompson's Golden Dictionary of World Folk Tales: 100 Stories of Mankind", [Beauty] St. Thompson / Editor, Ma Yiming, Hu Jinye / Translation Fool Gongzi / Painting, Lefu Culture | Beijing United Publishing Company June 2021.
Published in English in 1968, the book is a collection of folktales selected by the American folklorist Stith Thompson (1885–1970). Thompson has written and translated a large number of books and articles related to folklore, but his most famous achievement is in the classification of folktale themes.
The stories in this book are selected from 17 countries and regions around the world. Each story is not too long. Thompson's criteria for selecting are: First, it represents a recognized form of story; Second, this kind of story was the most well-known to people at that time; Third, the story should be wonderful.
Therefore, the stories in the book are not based on local or historical traditions, nor do they focus on anecdotes or simple animal stories (including written literary works and oral legends), but only those that have been polished over time and have a recognizable plot and are the most popular. We can also see the original appearance of many familiar stories from this book, such as "Hensel and Gretel" and "Sleeping Beauty". The illustrations in the book are drawn by the Foolish Prince.
Angela Carter's Strange Tales, ed. Angela Carter, translated by Zheng Ranran, Nanjing University Press, September 2011.
Angela Carter (1940-1992), born in Eastbourne, England, is one of Britain's most original writers, writing in a style that mixes magic realism, Gothic and feminism.
The book is a compilation of two anthologies of stories edited by Angela Carter, namely the Hummer Tales in 1990 and the Hummer Tales Volume II in 1992. These stories come from continental Europe, the Caribbean, the United States, the Arctic, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, but they all have one thing in common, and that is that they all revolve around a certain heroine, whether she is intelligent, brave, kind, ignorant, cruel, sinister, and no matter how unfortunate she is, she is the center of the story.
Through these stories, Angela Carter wanted to illustrate how colorful femininity manifests itself in "unofficial" cultures, such as her schemes, her schemes, and her hard work.
Part.2 Country chapters
"The Strange Story of China", eds. Che Xilun and Sun Shuying, Nanjing University Press, May 2021.
This set of books is divided into two books, carefully compiled by well-known folk opera and folklore researchers, collecting and sorting out nearly 300 strange stories of Chinese folk, and the upper left corner of each article indicates its circulation area. It also included more than a hundred rare folk paper cuts from the late Qing Dynasty.
Chinese folklore often appears in many "elves". From the perspective of modern science, the elves naturally do not exist, but the enduring writing of the elves has its own unique cultural significance. People in the past used to express an unattainable wish and a moral idea. The formation of the elves is often closely related to the natural scenery, such as the story of the snail girl we are familiar with. This story originally circulated in Houguan County, where there is the Luo River, which is said to be a variation of the shell of the Tianluo girl, perhaps because the mouth of the river is open and resembles a snail shell, which is associated with the Tianluo girl. This connection between the elves and the mountains and rivers also allows people in modern industrial society to pin idyllic nostalgia in the stories of the elves.
In "The Story of Chinese Elves", animals, plants and trees can become spirits, and there is a love-hate entanglement with humans. The storytellers of the story come from all over China, carrying abundant collective memory and folk vitality, which is touching. Their stories will eventually become older as the years go by. In the story, the cultural identity of the nation is awakened, and epics and myths are born.
The Princess Who Saved the Prince: A Fairy Tale of a Woman Who Awakened the World, [Beauty] Alan B. Zhi Nian / Shu Wei Ding Suping / Translation, Magic Elephant | Guangxi Normal University Press, May 2017.
Unlike other books on the list, this book is divided into popular psychology books. Author Allen has selected 12 from a wide collection of fairy tales featuring women, some of which are familiar to people, such as Beauty and the Beast, and some of which are relatively unfamiliar, thus highlighting the breadth and depth of women's fairy tales with stories from different cultures. After each story is told, he evaluates it from a psychological and feminist point of view.
These 12 stories reverse the plot of the teenage fairy tale, and now it is the king who is in a deep sleep, and it is the queen who must awaken him, and only the queen can free their kingdom from a spell. These stories pass from grandmother to granddaughter, and for women they contain challenges and hopes, telling women how to reinvigorate their wisdom and strength. Allen also analyzes five characteristics of the female fairy tale, arguing that they provide a new paradigm for society beyond the patriarchal tradition.
In addition to this book, Allen also wrote "The History of Male Evolution in Fairy Tales", "From Now On - Fairy Tales and the Second Half of Human Life" and "Adult Psychological Fairy Tales", which also choose fairy tales from different angles for interpretation.
The series "Stories Told 1 Million Times", Lefu Culture | Beijing United Publishing Company.
This is a set of world story collections planned and published by Lefu Culture in 2020, with 9 volumes, 14 volumes, about 1,000 classic stories, involving more than 20 countries and regions, and bringing together many outstanding authors and compilers.
In 2021, a new "Japanese Past Tales" was added, using the three-volume "Japan の昔ばなし" compiled by Mr. Guan Jingwu, a disciple of Kunio Yanagida and a famous folklorist (Iwanami Shoten, 1956-1957). Stories are traditional folk tales that have been passed down from ancient times to Japan and told from generation to generation for the old men and women in the village, from which we can find the roots of many Japanese literature and even the source of the story type in Japanese manga works.
The Norwegian volume, originally written by Asbedorn ensen, is the only nearly complete translation from Norwegian to date. The russian volume, the original edition is Alfanassiyev's "Russian Fairy Tales", which is a masterpiece of Russian literature, and famous Russian writers such as Tolstoy have been influenced by this collection of fairy tales.
The African volume not only compiled a large number of documents, but the compiler, Mr. Dong Tianqi, also recorded more than fifty oral stories in the Congo (Brazzaville). Finnish volumes, from the famous Finnish fairy tale writer and fairy tale master Raul Loynay, who selected and recreated a large collection of Finnish fairy tales from the large collection of fairy tale materials collected by the Finnish Literary Association. The compiler of the German and Nordic volumes was the German translator cao Naiyun, a famous German translator and the theorist of children's literature. The compilers of the Indian volumes were Liu Xicheng and Ma Changyi. Dong Tianqi, one of the compilers of the African and French volumes, taught for two years each at the University of Brazzaville in the Congo and the University of Paris VII in France.
Edited by Shen Chan
Proofreading Liu Baoqing