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Understanding Genres in Children's Literature: Folktales

This guide is intended to help users understand the different genres in children's literature

What are folktales, fairy tales, & fables?

Folktale Read Aloud

Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale   Click on the image to view this title in the ECU catalog

Author: Carmen Agra Deedy 

Grade Level: K - 4

Call Number: 398.2 D3605M.A

Description: In this humorous retelling of a Cuban folktale, a cockroach interviews her suitors in order to decide whom to marry.

Example Folktale Titles in the TRC Collection

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: a West African tale

Call Number: 398.2 AA72W.A

Description: West African legend of why the mosquito has a guilty conscience for all the trouble she caused by telling a lie.

Beautiful Blackbird

Call Number: 398.2 B84B

Description: In a story of the Ila people, the colorful birds of Africa ask Blackbird, whom they think is the most beautiful of birds, to decorate them with some of his "blackening brew".

One Grain of Rice: a mathmatical folktale

One Grain of Rice: a mathmatical folktale

Call Number: 398.2 D395O

Description: A reward of one grain of rice doubles day by day into millions of grains of rice when a selfish raja is outwitted by a clever village girl. 

Raven: a trickster tale from Pacific Northwest

Raven: a trickster tale from Pacific Northwest

Call Number: 398.2 M143R

Description: Raven, a Pacific Coast Indian trickster, sets out to find the sun.

The Adeventures of Molly Whuppie and other Appalachian folktales

The Adventures of Molly Whuppie and other Appalachian folktales

Call Number: 398.2097 SH431A

Description: Retells fourteen folktales that star the famous Appalachian character of Molly Whuppie.

The Dragon Slayer: folktales from Latin America

Call Number: 398.2098 H4305D

Description: Guided by the classic works of F. Isabel Campoy and Alma Flor Ada, Hernandez’s first book for young readers brings the sights and stories of Latin America to a new generation of graphic-novel fans around the world.

The Green Gourd: a North Carolina folktale

The Green Gourd: a North Carolina folktale

Call Number: 398.22 H916G

Description: An old woman in need of a water dipper defies the old caution not to pick green gourds before they're ripe and soon regrets it.

Borreguita and the Coyote: a tale from Ayutla, Mexico

Call Number: 398.24 AA72B

Description: A little lamb uses her clever wiles to keep a coyote from eating her up. Includes glossary.

Tony's Bread: an Italian folktale

Tony's Bread: an Italian folktale

Call Number: E D44TON

Description: A baker loses his daughter but gains a bakery in the grand city of Milano after meeting a determined nobleman and baking a unique loaf of bread.

The Skull: a Tyrolean folktale

Call Number: E K6665S

Description: In a big abandoned house lives a skull. A brave girl named Otilla escapes from terrible danger and runs away. When she gets lost in the dark forest she finds her way to the lonely house. The skull is afraid of something too, it comes every night. Can brave Otilla save them both?

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