When Cinderella's mouse friend Gus picks roses from Lady Tremaine's garden for his dear Cinderelly, Cinderella gets in a lot of trouble. She takes Gus into town to replace the rosebush, but forgets that it's the day of the big village fair. Gus gets so excited that he accidentally knocks over a giant cake prepared for the King!
The author draws from a variety of folk traditions to put together this version of Cinderella, including elements from Mexico, Iran, Korea, Russia, Appalachia, and more.
Magic, Monsters, and Make-Believe Heroes looks at fantasy film, television, and participative culture as evidence of our ongoing need for a mythic vision—for stories larger than ourselves into which we write ourselves and through which we can become the heroes of our own story. Why do we tell and retell the same stories over and over when we know they can’t possibly be true? Contrary to popular belief, it’s not because pop culture has run out of good ideas. Rather, it is precisely because these stories are so fantastic, some resonating so deeply that we elevate them to the status of religion. Illuminating everything from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Dungeons and Dragons, and from Drunken Master to Mad Max, Douglas E. Cowan offers a modern manifesto for why and how mythology remains a vital force today.
The heroic romance is one of the West's most enduring narratives, found everywhere, from religion and myth to blockbuster films and young adult literature. Within this story, adolescent girls are not, and cannot be, the heroes. They are, at best, the hero's bride, a prize he wins for slaying monsters. Crucially, although the girl's exclusion from heroic selfhood affects all girls, it does not do so equally- whiteness and able-bodiedness are taken as markers of heightened, fantasy femininity. Female Heroes in Young Adult Fantasy Fiction explores how the young female-heroes of mythopoeic YA, a Tolkienian-inspired genre drawing on myth's world-creating power and YA's liminal potential, disrupt the conventional heroic narrative. These heroes, such as Tamora Pierce's Alanna the Lioness, Daine the Wildmage, and Marissa Meyer's Cinder and Iko, offer a model of being-hero, an embodied way of living and being in this world that disrupts the typical hero's violent hierarchy, isolating individuality, and erasure of difference. In doing so, they push the boundaries of what it means to be a hero, a girl, and even human.
Here is a treasury of favorite and little known tales from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, Australia, and Oceania, gracefully retold and accompanied by fascinating, detailed information of their historic and cultural backgrounds. The introduction provides an informative overview of folklore, its purpose in world cultures and in contemporary society and popular culture. Following this, the main sections of the book are arranged by tale type, covering wonder tales, hero tales, tales of kindness repaid and hope and redemption, and finally tales of fools and wise people. Each section begins by comparing the tales cross-culturally, explaining similarities and differences in the folkloric narratives. Tales from diverse cultures are then presented, introduced, and retold in a highly readable fashion.
This comprehensive collection of folk hero tales builds on the success of the first edition by providing readers with expanded contextual information on story characters from the Americas to Zanzibar. Despite the tremendous differences between cultures and ethnicities across the world, all of them have folk heroes and heroines—real and imagined—that have been represented in tales, legends, songs, and verse. These stories persist through time and space, over generations, even through migrations to new countries and languages. This encyclopedia is a one-stop source for broad coverage of the world's folk hero tales. Geared toward high school and early college readers, the book opens with an overview of folk heroes and heroines that provides invaluable context and then presents a chronology. The book is divided into two main sections: the first provides entries on the major types and themes; the second addresses specific folk tale characters organized by continent with folk hero entries organized alphabetically. Each entry provides cross references as well as a list of further readings. Continent sections include a bibliography for additional research. The book concludes with an alphabetical list of heroes and an index of hero types.
Kamrada's study analyses three narratives concerning the greatest heroic figures of the biblical tradition: Jephthah's daughter, Samson and Saul, and includes a consideration of texts about King David. All three characters are portrayed as the greatest and most typical and exemplary heroes of the heroic era. All three heroes have an exceptionally close relationship with the deity all die a traditionally heroic, tragic death. Kamrada argues that within the Book of Judges and the biblical heroic tradition, Jephthah's daughter and Samson represent the pinnacle of female and male heroism respectively, and that they achieve super-human status by offering their lives to the deity, thus entering the sphere of holiness. Saul's trajectory, by contrast, exemplifies downfall of a great hero in his final, irreversible separation from God, and it also signals the decline of the heroic era. David, however, is shown as an astute hero who founds a lasting dynasty, thus conclusively bringing the heroic era in the Deuteronomistic history to a close.
In the darkest of times... they shone brighter than the stars. Many are the stories of that mysterious land of Russia. Stories of heroes who gave their lives for God, Tsar, and country, and who left legacies that many a young child aspired to. Of course, so many of those stories are legends, a lifeline for people who had lost everything, and who preferred to remember a semi-fictional history that left out some of the more disturbing details. But in spite of history's dark reality, you still have bright lights appearing in unexpected places—heroes and heroines whose lives read like adventure tales, whose fates are sometimes stranger than fiction. This little book is a glimpse into the world of that Russia— a world filled with complex characters living out difficult lives in sometimes impossible circumstances. But more often than not, these heroes and heroines rose above all difficulties to become truly inspiring. In our own chaotic time, their stories are worthy of being retold again and again. If you want to be inspired by stories of true heroism in dark times, buy Heroes for All Time today!
This collection of new essays seeks to define the unique qualities of female heroism in literary fantasy from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in the 1950s through the present. Building upon traditional definitions of the hero in myth and folklore as the root genres of modern fantasy, the essays provide a multi-faceted view of an important fantasy character type who begins to demonstrate a significant presence only in the latter 20th century. The essays contribute to the empowerment and development of the female hero as an archetype in her own right.
Exploring Values Through Multimedia, Literature and Literacy Events was written by teachers and educational researchers for classrooms and schools interested in developing learning communities that develop critical and compassionate future citizens. Through the use of specific multimedia, literature and literacy events, this book presents numerous ways for classroom teachers and schools to promote respectful, responsible, caring, and sharing students in a democratic society. Beginning with Plato’s message that we cannot let the formation of good citizens to chance, Exploring Values Through Multimedia, Literature and Literacy Events takes the reader through a brief history of character education and moral development and a summary of multimedia’s impact on our lives. The chapters that follow are devoted to teacher tested classroom and school programs, activities, and resources for the understanding of diverse human perspectives. Included in several chapters are the unique ways classes might analyze how and why information is presented in the media. Due to the constant media bombardment on our lives, the goal if this volume is to support our students as they discern the meanings of truth and justice.
