AMERICAN FAIRY TALES

A collection of American tales for adolescents, adults and all serious students of children's literature, this medley of stories progresses chronologically across a century, from Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" to Carl Sandburg's "How They Broke Away to Go to the Rootabaga Country." From the maleficent witch, Mother Rigby, in Hawthorne's "Feathertop" to the ethereal fairy in "The Lad and Luck's House," the characters in each story are made individuals by Taylor Mali. Appealing musical interludes are employed to separate the dramatically rendered stories from the subsequent commentary. However, the lengthy introduction, read by Professor Alison Lurie, and the ponderous afterword, combined with the discussions of each story and its place in children's literature, will appeal primarily to the mature listener rather than to children. T.B. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 98]