Folklore

The fearsome Chupacabra stalks the desert valley, while a grandson wanders far from the ranch. The woman who’s just moved to the neighborhood wears strange sunglasses after dark. What could be behind them? A man picks up a hitchhiker—only to discover that his passenger is not human. Kids of all ages will find chills and thrills in these tales of the weird, the macabre, and the mysterious, all collected from the lore and legends of the Lone Star State. In addition to “Skinwalker,” the authors’ most requested school concert story, this new volume adds spine-tingling twists on the account of La Llorona, the weeping woman, said to be the world’s best-known ghost; the classic tale “The Money’s Paw”; the story of “The Screaming Banshee Cattle of the Night Swamp,” and seven others. Told with humor and lively modern-day detail, these renderings by veteran storytellers not only please and entertain but...

A beady-eyed varmint crawls through the floor of a lonely old man’s cabin. A boy spends the night in a haunted house, complete with a grinning skeleton in the chimney. A girl foolishly taunts a giant owl-woman. A young man’s prom date has a spooky secret. The Hairy Man will catch you—unless you can fool him three times. Graveyard ghosts and creatures from swamps and riverbanks slink through ten creepy tales presented by master storytellers Tim Tingle and Doc Moore. Guaranteed to send shivers down the spines of younger readers, each of these stories comes with its own eerie illustrations. Some humorous, some haunting, these tales guarantee thrills and chills for youngsters from any state.

Some humorous, some haunting, and some just late-night terrifying, these stories, gathered by two favorite Texas tellers, span a rich cultural heritage from the earliest Spanish explorers to the present, from La Llorona (the Weeping Woman) to the vanishing hitchhiker. With two appendixes addressing selection, learning, and telling of stories as well as sources and scholarship, Texas Ghost Stories is a full-service compendium for tellers, teachers, readers, and collectors. Celebrating both the blending and the diversity of Texan cultures through the timeless stories we love to be scared by, it is a treasury for all.

The tradition of storytelling and folklore reaches deeply into the American notion of national identity, and among the more prominent emblems of American culture stands the cowboy. Despite the attempts...

Eighty narratives alive with the voice and animation of the original storyteller.

Every country has its folk hero—real or legendary, and in Turkey he goes by the name of Nasreddin Hoca, pronounced Nahz-red'-din Hoe'-djah. He lived several years ago and he served as a religious...

Winner of the New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book Award and the 1990 New York Public Library's list of 100 Best Books for Children. Here are eleven beautifully illustrated tales of magical characters learning the value of courage, grace, honesty, and other virtues in the great circle of life. Included is an exstensive Nigerian glossary of words and names.