Myths For Children

Honesty is the best policy. Beware a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Look before you leap. A bird in the hand. These and countless other everyday expressions originated centuries ago with Aesop, the slave and storyteller of ancient Greece. With humor, irony, and commonsense philosophy, Aesop’s Fables illuminates the follies, frailties, and resilience of humankind to this day.

You know the tale of poor Little Red Riding-hood, that the Wolf deceived and devoured, with her cake, her little butter can, and her grandmother? Well, the true story happened quite differently, as we now know. First of all, the little girl was called and is still called Little Golden-hood; secondly, it was not she, nor the good grand-dame, but the wicked Wolf who was, in the end, caught and devoured.

When people die, do they leave part of themselves behind? Throughout history, people have heard and seen ghostly evidence of a world beyond the grave. Learn about a doomed English queen, a creepy talking doll, and a shape-shifting wolf. Then whistle past the graveyard if you dare.

Gilly wouldn't call herself wicked, exactly... but when you have five little brothers and sisters and live in a run-down boot, you have to get creative to make ends meet. Gilly's a pretty good thief (if she does say so herself). Until she gets caught.

"Don't you know anything?" Animals try to outsmart the vicious tiger so that they won't get eaten.

Filled with bold decisions and wise leadership, this set of tales shows how intelligence always wins the day.

Ava Baldwin has always tried to keep her anger in check, just like her mom taught her. But when know-it-all classmate Owen King tries to speak over her yet again, Ava explodes . . . and Owen freezes, becoming totally unresponsive. Although Owen recovers, Ava's parents whisk her off to her mother’s alma mater, the Accademia del Forte, a mysterious international boarding school in Venice.

Who cut off Medusa's head? Who was raised by a she-bear? Who tamed Pegasus? And whatever happened to that Golden Fleece? It takes a demigod to know the answers, and Percy Jackson can fill you in on all the daring deeds of Perseus, Atalanta, Bellerophon, and the rest of the major Greek heroes.

Quillan is a territory on the verge of destruction. The people have lost control of their own future and must struggle simply to survive. The only chance they have of finding a better life is by playing the Quillan Games. Hosted by a strange pair of game masters, Veego and LaBerge, the games are a mix of sport and combat.

1242. On a dark night, travelers from across France cross paths at an inn and begin to tell stories of three children: William, an oblate on a mission from his monastery; Jacob, a Jewish boy who has fled his burning village; and Jeanne, a peasant girl who hides her prophetic visions. They are accompanied by Jeanne’s loyal greyhound, Gwenforte...recently brought back from the dead. As the narrator collects their tales, the story of these three unlikely allies begins to come together.

Thor's hammer is missing again. The thunder god has a disturbing habit of misplacing his weapon - the mightiest force in the Nine Worlds. But this time the hammer isn't just lost; it has fallen into enemy hands. If Magnus Chase and his friends can't retrieve the hammer quickly, the mortal worlds will be defenseless against an onslaught of giants. Ragnarok will begin.

Anansi the spider used to be handsome, but his never-ending appetite eventually cost him his hair.

¡¿A quién le gustan las cucarachas?! Pues esta cucarachita, ¡les va a encantar! Esta tierna historia musical nos enseña que cultivar la paciencia nos premiará con el regalo del verdadero amor y la amistad.

“All children grow up. All except one.” That special child is Peter Pan, and since making his debut on the stage in 1904, this eternal youth has carried boys and girls off to magical, marvelous Neverland. It’s a trip that all kids want to make, and with this easy-to-understand version of the classic, everyone can fly “second to the right, and straight on till morning” with Peter. Along with Wendy, John, and Michael Darling, they’ll meet the fairy Tinkerbell, the Lost Boys, and the menacing Captain Hook.

Granny warns Tukama not be tricked by the duppies—or ghosts—of their Caribbean island.

The rain hasn't stopped for a week, and the 12 guests of the Blue Vein Tavern are trapped by flooded roads and the rising Skidwrack River. Among them are a ship's captain, tattooed twins, a musician, and a young girl traveling on her own. To pass the time, they begin to tell stories - each a different type of folklore - that eventually reveal more about their own secrets than they intended. As the rain continues to pour down - an uncanny, unnatural amount of rain - the guests begin to realize that the entire city is in danger, and not just from the flood.

My friend Robin and I were going to have the best sleepover ever. We'd stay up late, eat s'mores, share secrets - and not knock on my magic mirror. I was not getting pulled into another fairy tale. But the mirror still ends up pulling me and my brother, Jonah, into Sleeping Beauty's story - and this time, Robin comes with us, too! When Robin pricks her finger on the spindle, I know we're in trouble.

All Momo wants for her twelfth birthday is an ordinary life—like everyone else's. At home, she has to take care of her absentminded widowed mother. At school, kids ridicule her for mixing up reality with the magical stories her mother used to tell her. But then Momo’s mother falls gravely ill, and a death hag straight out of those childhood stories attacks Momo at the mall, where she’s rescued by a talking fox . . . and “ordinary” goes out the window. It turns out that Momo's mother is a banished Shinto goddess who used to protect a passageway to the land of the dead.

Thirteen-year-old Anna Ballinkay has never been normal. Her family uses their psychic abilities to help run the Ravenfall Inn, a magical B&B between the human world and the Otherworld. But it’s hard to contribute when your only power is foreseeing death. So when fourteen-year-old Colin Pierce arrives at Ravenfall searching for his missing older brother, Anna jumps at the chance to help. But the mysteries tied to Colin go much deeper than either of them expects...

Hansel and Gretel walk out of their own story and into eight other classic Grimm (and Grimm-inspired) fairy tales. An irreverent, witty narrator leads us through encounters with witches, warlocks, dragons, and the devil himself. As the siblings roam a forest brimming with menacing foes, they learn the true story behind the famous tales, as well as how to take charge of their destinies and create their own happily ever after. Because once upon a time, fairy tales were awesome.