North/Central Europe—Fiction
Children who took part in my annual summer reading game outdid themselves last year. Twenty-two children read a total of 1,990 books! In my last column, I talked about non-fiction books set in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Austria, and the Baltics. In this one, I’ll deal with fiction.
Grimms’ Fairy Tales
A large number of books consisted of fairy tales from the collections of the Brothers Grimm. There are all the usual ones, like “Snow White” and “Hansel and Gretel,” but also ones I was less familiar with. As Luck Would Have It, adapted by Robert D. San Souci, tells of a brother and sister who are left to take care of their home and a treasure. They make many foolish mistakes, but eventually, with luck, are able to set things right. In Mother Holly, adapted by Bernadette Watts, there are two sisters—one hard-working, the other lazy. The hard-working one enters another world and works for Mother Holly. When she returns home, she is covered with gold. Her lazy sister tries to do the same thing, but she is not willing to work and returns covered in tar.
Because I often have several versions of the common Grimm tales, I asked kids to put stars by the versions they liked best. The most popular were The Magic Fish, adapted by Freya Littledale; The Goose and the Golden Coins, retold by Lorinda Bryan Cauley; and two books retold and illustrated (in lovely, full-page color) by Paul O. Zelinsky: Rumpelstiltskin and Rapunzel. Many versions of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” were starred. Particularly lovely ones are illustrated by Errol Le Cain and K. Y. Craft (the latter retold by Marianna Mayer).
Holland
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Kathie Johnson has always had a love for children's books. She collected many as a teacher and began sharing them with other teachers. In 1986, she opened a children's library in her home, and it has continued to expand over the years. Many home-schooled and schooled children borrow books from it, and she takes great pleasure in finding the "right" book for a child. She attends First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley.
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