Review: Little Tales by Raymond Pyke

About the Book

Little Tales by Raymond Pyke

Independently Published on January 8, 2019

Amazon Description

A collection of short stories which will whisk you away to a world of pure imagination. There are tales of magic and fantasy; stories involving animals and nature; cracking adventure yarns; and unusual fables about fairies and giants. Although written from the viewpoint of a young girl, the stories will appeal to readers of any age group or gender. Actual names are avoided within the stories so that the reader can better identify with the main characters.

My Thoughts

This middle grade book felt like a treasury of short stories to teach morals to small children.  The tales were easy to follow and quite whimsical.  As a teacher, I see the importance of repetition and story on the development of the individual.  This collection expertly provides both of these things!  I have already made plans to tell some of these stories to my future children.

I am excited that Pyke included stories from a variety of cultures.  There are stories for each child to relate to.  This is made especially wonderful by his choice not to use any specific names.  I love that this allows each child to insert himself/herself into the story.  I would have loved to see more stories with male protagonists, however.

 My largest complaint about it is that several words were used that the targeted age group would not understand.  Unfortunately, many of these words are important to understand what is happening in the tale.  This encourages children to expand their vocabulary, but takes away from the flow and comprehension of the story.  I think that this is one case where Pyke should have considered what is more important-vocabulary expansion or moral growth.

Overall, I am incredibly excited about this piece! I was fortunate enough to be able to listen to the audiobook and the reader definitely brought the stories to life.  I look forward to reading much more from Pyke in the future!

My Rating

Review: Hansel and Gretel

Title: Hansel and Gretel
Author: Mike Klaasen
Publisher: BookBaby
Publication Date: June 8, 2016
Genre: Fairy Tale Retelling
Rating: 4/5 "I liked it!"

I received an eARC from the publisher in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

GoodReads Description
A famine decimates a magical realm, and the family of ten-year-old Hansel and his little sister face starvation. Their parents decide that the best hope for all of them against almost certain death is to abandon the children deep in the forest, but Hansel leads Gretel home by following a trail of pebbles that glow in the moonlight. Still desperate, their parents prevent Hansel from finding more pebbles, and then they abandon the children even deeper into the forest, where they become thoroughly lost. Hansel and Gretel follow a white bird to a shack in the woods and fall captive to Petra, an evil witch, who fattens Hansel for slaughter. Hansel tricks Petra into thinking he isn't fattening, then pushes her into the oven—only to discover that they may not yet be out of danger.

My Thoughts

What a wonderful read!  I truly enjoyed making my way through these forty four pages.

I loved that Klaasen was willing to put this novella into words that modern day students would understand;.  Too often, I find that the books we are encouraged to read in school have antiquated language that students drudge through.  This novella would be a wonderful starting point for any student who is interested in fairy tales!  Additionally, Klaasen includes the original tale at the end of the piece.  This provides a wonderful opportunity for teachers to work on comparison/contrast text structures with their students.  That's right, teachers, two methods for comprehension improvement are readily available in this novella!

Another wonderful assistance to students is that this book has very few errors.  Therefore, students will be able to practice their grammar skills with the sentences in this book.  

While I don't believe that this book would be suited toward my older students, I can definitely see my seventh and eighth grade classes having a ball!  If I am able to get a few more copies, I would love to use it for creative writing pieces!

About the Author

Mike Klaassen is the author of the series "Klaassen's Classic Folktales," which so far includes two of the Brothers Grimm tales retold a novellas:
"The Frog Prince" and "Hansel and Gretel." Mike has also written "Backlash: A War of 1812 Novel," and two young-adult novels: "Cracks" and "The Brute." He has published two nonfiction books: "Fiction-Writing Modes: Eleven Essential Tools for Bringing Your Story to Life" and "Scenes and Sequels: How to Write Page-Turning Fiction." Mike publishes "For Fiction Writers," a free, monthly, online newsletter about the craft of writing fiction. For more, see www.mikeklaassen.com.