D'Aulaires' Book of Trolls

As someone who is trying to cultivate a love of literature AND a lengthy attention span in my homeschooled children, I *did* purchase this for my pre-schooler and he sat happily through the entire book (3 evenings worth of reading for us). The d'Aulaire illustrations were, as always, engaging, soft, and encouraging to the child's imagination. Detailed without taking over the telling of the tales. Basically, it covered all of my criteria to be purchased: well written and if it has illustrations they need to be worthy of the story and worth looking at. The down side to this book is that it is in some ways a long treatise on trolls that happens to include some stories as examples. This means that your child ends the book having been exposed to a lot of the folk beliefs of Scandinavian trolls, with a limited number of stories, and that it doesn't simple cut-off points for bedtime reading. On the other hand, it means it is a book worth revisiting as a child grows older; in our case so our children will be versed in the folklore and belief of their ancestors. A simpler bedtime book with lovely woodblock illustrations would be Lise Lunge-Larsen's "The Troll with No Heart in His Body." It is a collection of the stories with very brief intros that can be included or omitted according to the moment (at bedtime with my pre-schooler I tend to leave them out; when reading during the day I am more likely to include them). I'm not really suggesting one book over the other. In a search for either cultural literacy or multiculturalism, both have their place and are both well told, well illustrated and will add to your child's imaginative landscape.

My grandsons loved this book. The illustrations are beautiful and the tales are quaint. We will be certain to treasure this book for years.

This book has become a family classic in our home. I enjoyed it in hardback when I was a young boy and now my children are too. This book draws you in with its unique and mysterious stories of folklore long ago. You can picture these stories actually taking place in the areas of the world where they originated. The illustrations are curious and strange in a way that helps add to the book's tales. I am constantly asked to read this title at our bedtime. I can not think of a book that has been enjoyed more by my children and myself over the years. I give it my highest recommendation. Shawn C. Osting ([email protected] or [email protected]