I think I requested this from interlibrary loan because of Wrede's contribution, which really entices me to find the full book. I was very disappointed in most of the other stories. Most were chapters from longer books written for middle school children, not adults, and I don't think many in the current generation would enjoy them. Adventure stories with children as main characters, with the author's being as creatively (but not necessarily interestingly) weird as they want.
I might give Kipling's "Puck of Pook Hill" a try, because the selection was historical fiction. Briggs & Langley at least wrote intelligently. Yolen's story was interesting but pointless. Aiken's short story was pretty good. ( )

I enjoyed this book. It felt nostalgic having excerpts from books I loved as a child. It also had some stories I hadn't read before. There were a few stories I found a bit boring, and some I really liked. I would recommend this for any child interested in fantasy. ( )

Very few of these selections were standalone short stories. Most were excerpts from books that DID NOT stand on their own very well. Taken out of context, only one of them made me at all interested in the longer story it belonged to.


Ps I've read and loved the Silver Chair but reading "the House of Harfang" chapter would not have inspired me to read it.

"What the Cat Told Me" by DWJ is one of her best but you can find it in other, better collections. ( )

Very few of these selections were standalone short stories. Most were excerpts from books that DID NOT stand on their own very well. Taken out of context, only one of them made me at all interested in the longer story it belonged to.


Ps I've read and loved the Silver Chair but reading "the House of Harfang" chapter would not have inspired me to read it.

"What the Cat Told Me" by DWJ is one of her best but you can find it in other, better collections. ( )

A collection of selections from Jones's favorite fantasy stories. Nearly all of these are excerpts from much longer works, and the unfamiliarity works against their charm. The other big problem is that these are almost exclusively old stories, with all the accompanying gender essentialism and thoughtless orientalism (for example, the selection from Langley's [b:The Land of Green Ginger|1749940|The Land of Green Ginger|Noel Langley|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347956970s/1749940.jpg|1747725] features names like Sulkpot Ben Nagnag, Rubdub Ben Thud, Tintac Ping Foo, Kublai Snoo, and my personal favorite, Chu-Chin-Chow Laundry Man) and a very large helping of twee capitalization. The only story I really enjoyed was Jane Yolen's short story "Boris Chernevsky's Hands," in which a bad juggler tries to get adroit hands from Baba Yaga. ( )