A collection of her lesser known work, "Flower Fables" contains wildly imaginative stories that grew out of Alcott's experience as a storyteller to the children of her Concord, Connecticut, neighbors. Through these enticing encounters with fairies, elves, and animals, the author creates a foundation for young people based on the themes of love, kindness, and responsibility. Color illustrations.
Flower Fables
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From Publishers Weekly
Written for Ralph Waldo Emerson's daughter, Ellen, when Alcott was 16, and first published in 1855, these six prosy fairy tales were chosen from a 1992 collection, Louisa May Alcott's Fairy Tales and Fantasy Stories, edited by Daniel Shealy; Shealy provides an informative afterword here. Readers meet a cast of elves, fairies, brownies and sprites with such Shakespearean names as Willy Wisp, Moonbeam and Thistledown, and the children who occasionally dally with them. Thinly disguised morality lessons told in an over-upholstered style, they instruct the audience in the importance of various virtues. In "The Frost King," for example, elves resolve to conquer the ice-hearted ruler of winter through peaceable means ("Let us teach you how beautiful sunshine and love and happy work can make you"). More than a little dated, the stories grow tedious with lofty homilies (e.g., "little Annie dwelt like a sunbeam in her home, each day growing richer in the love of others and happier in herself"). Preiss's (The Pig's Alphabet) garish artwork further hampers an emotional connection to the stories. The lack of tonal subtlety is aggravated by a self-consciously multicultural-esque grouping of fairy folk with oversize but misshapen eyes and bizarrely pointed ears and chins. Even the typeface, which has distractingly flowery ligatures, is overdone. All but the most die-hard Alcott fans can skip this one. Ages 5-12.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From the Inside Flap
For nearly 150 years, children around the world have cherished the stories and novels of Louisa May Alcott, including, of course, that most beloved classic Little Women. Surprisingly, there is a body of work by this American master not known to the general public, as it has not been widely published since her lifetime -- her fairy tales and fables.
These stories grew out of Alcott's experience, starting at the age of sixteen, as a teacher and storyteller to the children of her Concord, Massachusetts neighbors, among them Ralph Waldo Emerson. Alcott's imagination was nurtured by woodland walks with her friend Henry David Thoreau, including visits to his cabin on Walden Pond, and by the Transcendentalist philosophies of her father, Bronson Alcott. In this atmosphere she fashioned highly imaginative tales for her students. Encouraged by their spirited response, Alcott published six of her fairy tales under the title Flower Fables in 1854, marking the inception of her life as a pioneer in American fantasy fiction.
Indeed, it seemed a natural extension of Alcott's intellectual curiosity and love of nature to create a vibrant environment of possibility for children. Through these marvelously enticing encounters with fairies, elves, and animals, Alcott laid a foundation for young people based on the essential themes of love, kindness and responsibility.
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First Sentence
THE summer moon shone brightly down upon the sleeping earth, while far away from mortal eyes danced the Fairy folk. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
THE summer moon shone brightly down upon the sleeping earth, while far away from mortal eyes danced the Fairy folk. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
This was the most enchanting book I think that I have ever read. Such beautiful illustrations.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars
8 reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A beautifully illustrated compilation of fables.
Jun 24 1998
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
This discovery of unpublished fables by Louisa May Alcott should be read by children during their important impressionable years. The illustrations are beautiful and complimentary to the text. While classics of Louisa May Alcott, Little Women and Little Men, are for the early teens, these fables for the preteens tease the imagination in a magical way. This sort of alternative to the upbringing of children by the video media is sorely needed and provided by Flower Fables.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Many versions vary in illustration quality
Dec 2 2009
By Brian Villanueva
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
The stories in Flower Fables are excellent. However, for young children (age 3-5), you really need to include some type of picture on each page. Amazon sells about a dozen versions of the hardback of this book, and color pictures are sadly lacking in most of them. I checked out at least 3 versions from the library before settling on the one I am buying.
If you're going to purchase Flower Fables, my recommendation is the version published in 1998 and illustated by Leah Palmer Preiss. She features full page color illustrations every 3-4 pages, and nearly every page includes some type of color. The introduction is abridged to fit on one page, but the text of the fables appears intact.
Note that Amazon's "Look Inside" feature shows the same book interior regardless of which printing you are ordering.
If you're going to purchase Flower Fables, my recommendation is the version published in 1998 and illustated by Leah Palmer Preiss. She features full page color illustrations every 3-4 pages, and nearly every page includes some type of color. The introduction is abridged to fit on one page, but the text of the fables appears intact.
Note that Amazon's "Look Inside" feature shows the same book interior regardless of which printing you are ordering.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Flower Fables
Dec 8 2002
By A Customer
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
This was the most enchanting book I think that I have ever read. Such beautiful illustrations.
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Go to Amazon.com to see all 8 reviews
4.2 out of 5 stars
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