Stories for a Fragile Planet: Traditional Tales About Caring for the Earth

by Kenneth Steven, Jane E. Ray (Illustrations)

An author and poet, welcomed for his reflective and thought-provoking style, retells 10 stories from different cultures - from around the world and through the ages - which each highlight the importance of taking care of the world. These stories - from ancient Greece, the Far East, the Celts, Africa, Greenland, Russia, China, Japan, South America and ancient Israel - afford wonderful opportunities for Jane Ray's paradisiacal paintings of trees and flowers, animals and birds... in short, all creation.

Genres: Childrens

48 pages, Paperback

First published September 24, 2010

About the author

Kenneth Steven is a translator, writer, and poet. His longest translation, The Half Brother, was long-listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and short-listed for the international IMPAC Award. He often completes work for NORLA (Norwegian Literature Abroad).

He lives in Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland.

Reviews

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted."
Beautiful, almost dreamy, poetic, illustrations
Great book for read-aloud 5th grade and above in Science curriculum and/or world geography.
Starting with a retelling of Persephone from Greek mythology and concluding with a retailing about the Biblical Tower of Babel. the stories explore the Far East, Celtic, Africa, Greenland, Russia, China, Japan, South America and Thailand.
My favorite was A Fishy Tale.

[Fern · Rating 3 out of 5]

A timely yet timeless collection of tales from around the world. Caring for our beautiful planet is important now more than ever and this message rings clear throughout each story.

[Tamara Zann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good built up of stories but they ended to abruptly.

[Catherine Mayo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, designed for early chapter book readers, with frequent full page illustrations in a naïve art style, opens with “How the Seasons came to Be” – a retelling of the Persephone myth - and finishes with “The Story of the Tower”, which describes the building and abandonment of the Tower of Babel through a child’s eyes. The folk tales in between are from all over the world, usually told in a neutral time setting rather than an overtly historical one. They are all familiar, and have been given an ecological twist.
The style is also neutral, and slightly solemn with a mythological flavour. Each story is c.800 words long.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

China: The Panda's Tale

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful stories with minimal illustrations from around the world, many from various religious traditions. I enjoyed them very much and they seemed to hold Alice's attention.