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nakedsushi's review against another edition
4.0
When a Pulitzer Prize winner personally recommends that you read a book, you'd better heed it.
Fantastical, lyrical, and poetic. I wish I had read these as a child.
Fantastical, lyrical, and poetic. I wish I had read these as a child.
brownek's review against another edition
3.0
I got this book as a Goodreads giveaway.
I love fairy tales and was excited to read Carl Sandburg's collection of American fairy tales. However, I found that they lacked the charm of European fairy tales. They were often without a strong narrative or satisfying conclusion. I enjoyed the stories where you got to know a character and follow their journey.
I love fairy tales and was excited to read Carl Sandburg's collection of American fairy tales. However, I found that they lacked the charm of European fairy tales. They were often without a strong narrative or satisfying conclusion. I enjoyed the stories where you got to know a character and follow their journey.
kailey_luminouslibro's review against another edition
1.0
"I hear you talking but it is like a dream talking."
That one line from the second set of short stories perfectly describes this book. It's like a strange dream world with no structure.
There is no character development, no plot, no story line that moves anywhere. There is no tension and no resolution. It's a stream of random ideas, fragments of characters, and odd places. There is a lot of repetition of long phrases in the writing. I didn't even think it was that imaginative or original.
It has some of the same type of whimsical elements as Alice in Wonderland or Wizard of Oz, but without the story structure or development. It also has a fairy tale aspect in the writing, but without the classic moral lesson or struggle between good and evil.
I was very disappointed in this book. It hurt my brain to read it. Punctuation died in this book.
That one line from the second set of short stories perfectly describes this book. It's like a strange dream world with no structure.
There is no character development, no plot, no story line that moves anywhere. There is no tension and no resolution. It's a stream of random ideas, fragments of characters, and odd places. There is a lot of repetition of long phrases in the writing. I didn't even think it was that imaginative or original.
It has some of the same type of whimsical elements as Alice in Wonderland or Wizard of Oz, but without the story structure or development. It also has a fairy tale aspect in the writing, but without the classic moral lesson or struggle between good and evil.
I was very disappointed in this book. It hurt my brain to read it. Punctuation died in this book.
rebeccalilian0's review against another edition
5.0
these were some of my favorite whimsical stories growing up and I think about and reference them often
djrmelvin's review against another edition
4.0
This is a set of stories that belongs on every "read aloud" shelf, right next to all the Dr. Suess books and the Brothers Grimm and all those Little Golden Book collections. Sandburg's prose begs to be heard - reading it to yourself is loses the rhythm and alliteration and all those other poetry tricks that he was a master of. Sandberg wrote these for his children, wanting them to have fairy tales that related to their very American upbringing, and these stories do ring with commerce and expansion and industrialism, but in a way that makes them admirable traits, not something to apologize for.
The two book set I read was beautifully illustrated by [a:Michael Hague|6378|Hans Christian Andersen|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1183230200p2/6378.jpg], a perfect match of author to artist.
The two book set I read was beautifully illustrated by [a:Michael Hague|6378|Hans Christian Andersen|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1183230200p2/6378.jpg], a perfect match of author to artist.
willworm's review
5.0
!! Reminded me at times of the Jabberwocky, at times of the Pied Piper, at times of all the folk stories I’ve read. It’s a beautiful book of American stories that feels at times like poetry and at times like nonsense poetry and all with beautiful art and story-telling and a sense of a place that doesn’t exist but could, and might, somewhere where the railroads zig zag.
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