Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World

Kathleen Ragan first set out to gather folktales that featured heroines rather than heroes when she realized there was a lack of female protagonists in children's literature. She first discovered the disparity when reading to her young daughter from Dr. Seuss books. Ragan searched many of his books only to find minor female characters. Further investigation revealed this was not an anomaly. 90% of the protagonists in children's fairy tales were male. The result was Ragan's tireless effort to search out traditional literature from around the world that featured heroines rather than heroes. This anthology contains over 100 different folktales. The author apologizes that many of the tales come from countries with British or American show more influence due to the mere fact that those stories were written down in English. However, there are tales with Native American, European, Asian, Middle Eastern and African origins as well. The language of these stories is as magical as oral tradition allows and young readers will be swept away in the fantastical lands described. There are legends of vengeful daughters, fairy tales about clever mothers and funny stories about tricky wives. Older children will love the cleverness of the tales as well as the various ways good overcomes evil. They are perfect tales for reading aloud. The variety stories means the anthology can be for a short quick read or indulgent longer sessions. Parents who wish to encourage a portrayal of girls and women as strong and powerful role models will appreciate this book. show less

I collect books on folk and fairy tales and this book filled a large gap in collecting stories with female protagonists from around the world. Ragan did a heroic job haunting dusty libraries and obscure collections looking for folktales that showed women in a positive light. As you might expect, they were few and far between, but Ragan gives us over 100 stories from six continents. Kudos for the effort and applause for the result. Recommended for any parent of girls or boys or folks who like a good yarn. Isn't that everyone?

"One hundred great folk tales and fairy tales from all over the world about strong, smart, brave heroines. A definitive sourcebook of folktales and fairytales and the first of its kind to feature a variety of multicultural heroines."

It took me almost two weeks to read Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World and I even skipped several tales that I'd read or heard before -- that's how chock full o' goodies it is.

In her introduction, Kathleen Ragan stated that she read over 30,000 stories and used sources that "were as close to the oral literature as possible." The tales collected in Fearless Girls were organized within six geographic locations: Europe, North and South America, Asia, the show more Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa, and North Africa and the Middle East. Based on my personal research and reading, I felt South America and Africa may have been slightly underrepresented; the Middle East as well, but since she had limited herself to American libraries and available English translations, perhaps that pool was shallow to begin with? Ragan added her thoughts to the end of each tale -- sometimes those were interesting/ helpful/ useful, other times, meh. Each story had additional information and bibliographical details in "Notes" at the end of the book.

This anthology plus the "Notes" plus the "Further Reading" are a goldmine for those studying or researching female heroes in folklore and fairy tales. I'm definitely gonna pick up a used copy for my personal collection so I"ll have a permanent home for all the sticky notes I wrote and inserted reading the library's copy.

For the casual reader of fairy and folktales, Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters will certainly keep you busy for a few weeks.

4.5 stars

From the foreword written by Jane Yolen, "Anthologist Kathleen Ragan, has, with the publication of this book, become an important figure in the restoration of the feminine aspect of the hero. She gives us here the broadest selection of female hero stories than has been published before. Her finds come from all corners of the globe; her female heroes are all ages and in all stages of life. These women save villages, ride into battle, figure out riddles and rituals, rescue themselves from ogres, make predictions, call down storms...The stories were always there. Only we were not." show less

This is a really great and interesting read! I loved the diversity of ethnicities, ages and positions and so many of the stories were enjoyable and interesting! I especially liked how each story had a sort of mini lesson attached at the end, so parents/teachers can give a quick explanation of important lessons learned from the story to young children.

A very enjoyable book, if you like folktales. Ragan (why do all the webpages list Jane Yolen as the editor, when she only wrote the introduction?) collected folktales from around the world that specifically feature a heroine. By this, she means a female is the protagonist of the story, not just a character, and that the girl takes action. In addition, the majority of the pieces she included are told from a woman's perspective. Ragan makes the point that when a man tells the story, even if it has a female protagonist, the woman's efforts are often belittled or overlooked. She does include a couple stories told by the man's perspective to illustrate this point. After every 2-3 page tale, Ragan writes a small summation, analyzing the show more story, generally from a feminist's perspective.

There are some great stories in here, variants of famous fairy tales like "Red Riding Hood" and "Rumpelstiltskin", great brag stories that this time feature impressive women, trickster tales, and a variety of others. My favorites generally came from the Asian stories and the Middle Eastern tales, although I liked the European tales, not surprisingly, since I'm most familiar with those. Of course, those were just my favorites; I thought all the folktales were fun to read.

This book is easy to pick up for small moments of reading, since it is composed of a multitude of small stories. Perfect for a new mom who has a four month baby claiming her attention. On the other hand, it also meant that it took a long time to read. Well worth the wait. show less

Loved this collection of folktales featuring heroines from around the world. Well done! A welcome addition to the folk tale canon.

Book Description: W.W. NORTON & COMPANY LTD 2000 UK. new Paperback NEW ED A multicultural collection of folktales and fairytales celebrating strong heroines. Foreword by Jane Yolen.

Book Description: New Paperback. Published by W.W. NORTON & CO. (paper). . New, not a used item. Multiple copies may be available.