This whimsical collection of tales is based on the Buddhist collection of Jātaka tales. However, the author confesses to ‘ruthlessly’ altering them for the amusement of children and occasionally borrowing a ‘phrase or a versicle’. He opens the book with a warning; “To this work I refer all scholars, folklorists and scientific persons generally: warning them that if they plunge deeper into these page, they will be horribly shocked.” These wonderful tales are accompanied by many beautiful and intricate black and white illustrations by W. Heath Robinson. An English cartoonist and illustrator, best known for drawings of ridiculously complicated machines – for achieving deceptively simple objectives. Such was (and is) his fame, that the term ‘Heath Robinson’ entered the English language during the First World War, as a description of any unnecessarily complex and implausible contrivance. Originally published in 1897, we are now republishing it here as part of our ‘Pook Press’ imprint, celebrating the golden age of illustration in children’s literature.

This enchanting volume is a new collection of W. Heath Robinson’s fantastical fairy tale art and children’s book illustrations, produced across a 50-year career during the Golden Age of Illustration. “Your absurd, beautiful drawings . . . give me a particular pleasure of the mind like nothing else in the world” —H. G. Wells, 1914 In honour of W. Heath Robinson’s 150th birthday, this brand new collection features the pioneering artist’s classic fairy tale illustrations. This carefully curated volume presents 100 black and white illustrations and 54 full-colour fairy tale artworks. Each image is presented as a full-page plate and is accompanied by its original caption and publication details. The artist is much-loved for his innovative cartoons of bizarre machinery, and his fairy tale work also displays elements of the fantastical. Robinson’s children’s drawings juxtapose his machinery cartoons. His fairy tale illustrations veer away from the absurd and explore themes of magic and romanticism. The contents of this fairy tale treasury include illustrations from some of the most-adored children's storybooks such as: The Giant Crab (1897), Arabian Nights (1899), The Adventures of Uncle Lubin (1902), Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales (1913), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1914) and many more. Proudly published in a new collection by Pook Press, these wonderful Golden Age illustrations have been collated in a celebration of Robinson’s timeless work. This beautiful volume is not to be missed by fans of W. Heath Robinson and is the perfect gift for fairy tale lovers.

Herein are 29 uniquely Finnish children’s stories and fairy tales retold by Parker Fillmore and illustrated by Jay van Everen. Stories like The True Bride, The Three Chests, Log, The Little Sister, The Forest Bride, The Enchanted Grouse, The Terrible Olli, The Devil’s Hide and, of course, The Mighty Mikko himself. In case you’re wondering, Mikko is a fox. These stories are dramatic and picturesque, and even though they have been translated into English, are told with a wealth of charming detail which is essentially Finnish. The Three Chests, so characteristic in feeling of a country famous for its lakes and marshes, is the variant of a German story which Grimm gives as Fitcher’s Bird. Of The Forest Bride, there are variants in the folklore of many lands. Even so these stories have all been indelibly stamped with the Finnish culture. In addition to the 13 Finnish Folk and Fairy Tales ther are a further 16 adventures of Mikko with his forest friends Osmo, the Bear and Pekka, the Wolf. The Mikko stories are akin to the North American stories of Coyote, the Southern African stories of Jackal and the French tales of Reynard the Fox. These animal stories have been used to teach children morals and the stories of life. It would be untrue to pretend that these stories are not full of local color. So much so that we have taken the black and white illustrations from this book and created The Mighty Mikko Coloring Book. Now you can get your hands on the stories AND the children’s activity book so that small children, and big children can add their interpretation of the color the story has. The coloring book is on sale in most online bookstores under ISBN: 9788826482224. Just type this ISBN in the search line and click GO! NOTE: For English readers, liberty has been taken with the spelling of some Finnish words and names. For example: Syöjätär has been transliterated into Suyettar etc.

Prepared by Elizabeth' Gordon and illustrated by M.T. Ross you can use this excellent little book to teach your children the names of over 80 flowers which can be found in local gardens throughout the year. This book contains over 80 color illustrations of cherubs draped in the petals and foliage of the flower to make them more fun to learn. Each is accompanied by a catchy 4 line rhyme which tells children of what to look for to identify the flower and what time of year they should be looking for them. Herein you will find flowers like Crocus, Trailing Arbutus, Daffodil, Hyacinth, Tulips, Lily-Of-The-Valley, Dandelion, Wind-flower, Trillium, Pansies and a host more. A flower, a child, and a mother’s heart These three are never so far apart. A child, a flower, and a mother’s love This world’s best gifts from the world above. In preparing this book the author and the artist have attempted to show the kinship of children and flowers—and it is their hope that the little ones into whose hands this volume comes will find herein the proof that their knowledge of what flowers really are is true and that their love for the friendly blossoms is returned many-fold. ALL children are flowers in the garden of God’s love. A flower is the mystical counterpart of a child. To the understanding heart a child is a flower and a flower is a child. God made flowers on the day that He made the world beautiful. Then He gave the world children to play amid the flowers. God has implanted in the breasts of children a natural love for flowers—and no one who keeps that love in his heart has entirely forsaken the land of childhood. To you, then, little child-flowers, this book is lovingly offered as an expression of thankfulness to children for the joy and sweetness with which they have filled my life. —ELIZABETH GORDON

Celebrates the stories told by Denmark's perfect wizard and re-envisions Andersen as a writer who casts his spell on both children and adults. It will captivate readers with annotations that exlore the rich social and cultural dimensions of the 19th century.

William Heath Robinson remains one of Britain's best-loved illustrators and has embedded himself into English vernacular, inspiring the phrase ' it's all a bit Heath Robinson' to describe any precarious or unnecessarily complex contraption. Born in London, he originally had ambitions to be a landscape painter, but would establish his artistic reputation as a book illustrator during the genre's so-called golden age. It was his association with weekly illustrated magazine The Sketch that was to launch and cement his legacy as a humorous artist. Combining a distinctive draughtsmanship with a curious and ingenious mind, the advent of the First World War inspired Heath Robinson to dream up a series of increasingly outlandish and bizarre military inventions with which the opposing armies would try to outwit each other. From the kaiser's campaigning car or a suggestion for an armoured bayonet curler, to post-war 'unbullying' of beef, his cartoons are a fantastically absurd take on wartime technology and home-front life. Sadly, his inventions were rejected by a (fictitious) 'Inventions Board', but the charm and eccentricity of his ideas was loved by the public and he remains to this day one of the finest exponents of humorous British art.

A richly entertaining and informative collection of Hans Christian Andersen's stories, annotated by one of America's leading folklore scholars. In her most ambitious annotated work to date, Maria Tatar celebrates the stories told by Denmark's "perfect wizard" and re-envisions Hans Christian Andersen as a writer who casts his spell on both children and adults. Andersen's most beloved tales, such as "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Ugly Duckling," and "The Little Mermaid," are now joined by "The Shadow" and "Story of a Mother," mature stories that reveal his literary range and depth. Tatar captures the tales' unrivaled dramatic and visual power, showing exactly how Andersen became one of the world's ten most translated authors, along with Shakespeare, Dickens, and Marx. Lushly illustrated with more than one hundred fifty rare images, many in full color, by artists such as Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac, The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen will captivate readers with annotations that explore the rich social and cultural dimensions of the nineteenth century and construct a compelling portrait of a writer whose stories still fascinate us today.