HOME SCHOOL BOOK REVIEW
Book: Fairy Tales from Brazil: How and Why Tales from Brazilian Folk-Lore
Author: Elsie Spicer Eells
Publisher: Dodo Press, republished in 2008
ISBN-13: 9781409910053
ISBN-10: 1409910059
Language level: 1 (nothing objectionable)
Reading level: Probably most interesting to children ages 5-10 but can be enjoyed by anyone
Rating: 4 stars (GOOD)
Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker
For more information e-mail homeschoolbookreview@gmail.com
Eells, Elsie Spicer. Fairy Tales from Brazil: How and Why Tales from Brazilian Folk-Lore (published in 1917 by Dodd, Mead and Company Inc.; republished by Cadmus Books, an imprint of E. M. Hale and Company, Chicago, IL). The author apparently lived for a while as a girl in Brazil, where her Brazilian nursemaid, Theresa, told her folk stories about how the rabbit lost his tail, how the toad got his bruises, how the tiger got his stripes, why the lamb is meek, how the hen got speckles, how the monkey became a trickster, why the sea moans, how the Brazilian beetles got their gorgeous coats, and others. Evidently, she published them in various magazines such as Little Folks, Kindergarten-Primary Magazine, Everyland, Mayflower, and Story Tellers’ Magazine, and then collected them into this book. Unfortunately, a Barnes and Noble search turned up nothing on either the title or the author. A used book search turned up seven titles by this author, including one copy of this book (for $32.81!). I picked up mine from a free table at a used curriculum sale, but if you ever see it in a used book store (for a reasonable price), I suggest that you get it because these Uncle Remus and Rudyard Kipling like stories are very interesting and enjoyable.
