A collection of fifteen traditional tales from various parts of the world, with the main character of each being a fearless, strong, heroic, and resourceful woman.

In 1963 Jane Yolen released a book called PIRATES IN PETTICOATS, because the idea of women as pirates fascinated her--but there wasn't much information about these women who made their livelihoods plundering on the high seas. Scholars have dug up a bounty of new information since then, and Jane, still fascinated, revisits the ladies who loot. Discover such great pirates as Artemisia, the Admiral Queen of Persia who sailed the seas from 500 to 480 BC. At one point there was a 10,000 drachma prize for anyone who could capture her. There was Rachel Wall, who ran away from her strict upbringing and became a murderous pirate terrorizing the waters of the Atlantic coastline of America. She was hanged for her deeds. Possibly the most famous woman pirate of all was Grania O'Malley, daughter of an Irish chieftain. She plagued the English and was arrested several times, always gaining her freedom to pirate some more. Meet ten other female pirates on their ships, in battle, and in disguise in this intriguing look at the wayward women of the waves. Christine Joy Pratt's pen-and-ink illustrations are alive with action and excitement. Here be a true and accurate account of the most low-down, scurviest--but the prettiest--black-hearted pirates you'll ever love to read about.

We must equip our children with story in order to keep them linked with the past and ready for the future. "Our children are growing up without their birthright: the myths, fairy tales, fantasies and folklore that are their proper legacy." The essays in Touch Magic, Jane Yolen's classic call-to-arms advocating the use of fantasy and folklore in children's literature, echo that statement. Yolen argues persuasively that fantasy, folklore, and the realm of story provide children with the necessary tools for facing the world, understanding its ways and capriciousness, indeed, becoming truly human. “I believe that culture begins in the cradle,” she writes. “To do without tales and stories and books is to lose humanity's past, is to have no star map for our future.” August House now offers a richly expanded version of this seminal volume. With six new essays that tender fresh perspectives on the morality of fairy tales, time travel, the definition of story, and, of course, why such themes are essential to the development of today's children, Touch Magic heralds a new millennium of fantasy, myth, and storytelling. “Story is our wall against the dark,” Yolen contends, and as adults, we must equip our children with story in order to keep them linked with the past and ready for the future. Touch magic, and pass it on.

Why are cats and mice enemies? Why do cats always land on their feet? Are cats as smart as they seem? Here's a story behind each of these feline traits. For centuries, people everywhere, from Tibet to Oman to Scotland to the United States, have been fascinated with cats and their intriguing personalities. In this captivating collection, New York Times best-selling author Jane Yolen has gathered and adapted cat stories, sayings, and nursery rhymes from around the world. The glowing jewel-like illustrations of cats galore in their native homes have been lavishly painted by Hala Wittwer.

A collection of poems by such writers as Robert Graves, William Shakespeare, and Walter de la Mare and tales from around the world about fairies in all their forms.

Mermen? Yes. Long before mermaids emerged to people our inner seas, long before they established their restless, inviting niche in human fantasy, there was the merman. Born of the human need to dominate the great fruitful oceans, to control the vast destructive seas, to regulate the healing rains, to understand the tides, the merman emerged. The merman was water personified. The imposing water gods could be wheedled, cozened, implored, but―in the end―they were never fooled. How often were Poseidon or Neptune, Lir, Njord and the rest pictured riding the waves along inhospitable shores, shaking their magical tridents or spears or fists at the weak, imploring humans on land? The sea gods called up storms or quieted waves. They flooded the lands. They drowned the unwary. Yet despite the importance of early fish-tailed gods such as Ea-Enki and Dagon; despite the preponderance of mermen in the mythologies of Babylon, Greece, the British Isles, the Scandinavian peninsula, Germany; despite the mermen ranging along Slavic shores and inland seas; despite the mermen found in Chinese and Japanese lakes, along Polynesian island coasts, and in the lore and literature of the Middle East, the merman has become Legend’s Forgotten Man. With its 27 stories from around the world, this volume reconstructs the unnatural history of the Merman.