What do you think?
Rate this book
A Book of Monsters
Twelve folktales from around the world featuring monsters, both friendly and fearsome
128 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 1975
2 people are currently reading
86 people want to read
About the author
Ruth Manning-Sanders
95 books42 followersRuth Manning-Sanders, youngest daughter of an English minister, describes her childhood as “extraordinarily happy. . . with kind and understanding parents and any amount of freedom.” She read omnivorously, and she and her two sisters wrote and acted their own plays. A Shakespeare scholar at Manchester University, she later married Cornish artist George Manning-Sanders. They began married life in a horse drawn caravan, and traveled to all parts of the British Isles.
Mrs. Manning-Sanders has collected folk and fairy stories from around the world and she published more than 90 books during her lifetime.
Mrs. Manning-Sanders has collected folk and fairy stories from around the world and she published more than 90 books during her lifetime.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 1, 2024
Ever since I was a kid, I loved folk and fairy tales. And I read a lot of them. In fact, another title by Ruth Manning-Sanders was a personal favorite of mine, so I thought it might be fun to go back and read the other books in her "A Book of..." series.
The stories are excellent (I think there was one I had heard before, but most were new to me--which was a plus!) and the illustrations are always top-notch! I appreciate, too, that Manning-Sanders tells you what country each story comes from. It's not necessary, but fun to learn. And it really makes a huge difference when you're reading a story if you can imagine where it is taking place, like in Africa instead of say, Spain. The story is the same, but the setting, the culture, all of it adds a different flavor to the tale.
Highly recommended for older juvenile readers (4th or 5th grade and up) and to adults. Some of the stories might be fun to read to younger children, but I leave that to the discretion of the reader. Still, it's an excellent collection, and might be my favorite by this author so far!
The stories are excellent (I think there was one I had heard before, but most were new to me--which was a plus!) and the illustrations are always top-notch! I appreciate, too, that Manning-Sanders tells you what country each story comes from. It's not necessary, but fun to learn. And it really makes a huge difference when you're reading a story if you can imagine where it is taking place, like in Africa instead of say, Spain. The story is the same, but the setting, the culture, all of it adds a different flavor to the tale.
Highly recommended for older juvenile readers (4th or 5th grade and up) and to adults. Some of the stories might be fun to read to younger children, but I leave that to the discretion of the reader. Still, it's an excellent collection, and might be my favorite by this author so far!
July 7, 2016
Fairy tales about the world, with country sources (but no more) and nice illustrations, retold for children.
All ugly, some evil, some not, some just enchanted humans. A wolf that threatens to eat the hero when, it turns out they are brothers in law, a tale where the heroine's father picks a singing leaf, waiting up to greet a guest, and more.
All ugly, some evil, some not, some just enchanted humans. A wolf that threatens to eat the hero when, it turns out they are brothers in law, a tale where the heroine's father picks a singing leaf, waiting up to greet a guest, and more.
September 22, 2016
That was a nice surprise! A great selection of fairy-tales, all but one and a half I'd never heard of.
Read
October 26, 2017Twelve folktales from around the world featuring monsters, both friendly and fearsome.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews