Tales for Great Grandchildren by John Jackson and Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini
| Tales for Great Grandchildren by John Jackson and Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Jill Murphy
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| Summary: Beautiful book produced in a traditional luxury format. It's sheer pleasure to read and even simply to touch. Corresponding apps bring the traditional stories to the digital age. And the stories themselves? Vivid, imaginative, and absorbing. John Jackson popped into Bookbag Towers to chat to us. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 127 | Date: October 2011 |
| Publisher: JJ Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 095692123X | |
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I love old folk tales and fables. The treasure chest of myth and legend contains universal stories, as relevant today as they were in the ancient communities in which they were first told. They speak of love, loss, jealousy, courage, cowardice and grief. They wonder about the world in which we live. They offer explanations, some magical, some plain common sense. They're joyful. They're sad. And sometimes they're frightening. They have all the light and shade that adds up to the human experience.
In Tales for Great Grandchildren, John Jackson revives some of the folk tales of ancient India and Nepal. They're everything you could want - told in accurate and elegant but lively prose and with a great sense of timing for the twist in the tale. Animals feature heavily; there's a flying turtle, a magic goat, and a delightful rabbit called Vijaya. Nobody will forget Vijaya in a hurry! Beautifully illustrated by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini in rich colours and with glorious detail, these are timeless stories you'll return to again and again.
The book itself is absolutely gorgeous. It's bound in buckram with a beautiful cover illustration. It's block printed and looks gorgeous. Inside, the paper is high quality, the print large and clear and the illustrations remind me of Arthur Rackham. And yet, it feels luxurious, not old-fashioned. And it smells wonderful!
Physical production aside, this book is out on Kindle and app. I can't speak for either as my greedy little mitts are in possession of the beautiful book. But I'm quite excited by the app. A great deal of thought has gone into it. The illustrations are animated. You can listen to a narration or read alone. And you can find out some background on the stories and the writing of them. Traditional publishers have been very slow with high quality linking of books and apps, but I see the attraction very clearly, especially with Tales for Great Grandchildren. I see parents sharing bedtime stories with a lovely book that is such a luxury it feels like precious treasure. But when it's not bedtime, I see children enjoying the app by themselves. You can find the apps for iBook and iPad here and here. And if you look at the video on the right-hand side of this page, you can see what it looks like. Good, huh?
Christmas is coming up and if you have a child for whom you'd like to buy something wonderful and traditional but that won't be dismissed as boring or too old-fashioned, I can't think of a better choice than Tales for Great Grandchildren.
If wonderful tellings of traditional tales are your thing, then don't forget the Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling. Another book of fables with production beautiful enough for an heirloom gift is The Thousand Nights and One Night by David Walser and Jan Pienkowski.
You can find our more about John Jackson here.
John Jackson was kind enough to be interviewed by Bookbag.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Tales for Great Grandchildren by John Jackson and Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Tales for Great Grandchildren by John Jackson and Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini at Amazon.com.
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