Mother and Son Tales. Josephine Evetts-Secker (reteller). Illustrated by Helen Cann. Markham, ON: Scholastic Canada, 1998. 80 pp., cloth, $21.99. ISBN 0-590-03872-9. Subject Heading: Mothers and sons-Folklore tales. Grades 4 and up / Ages 9 and up. Review by Val Nielsen. *** /4

Father and Son Tales. Josephine Evetts-Secker (reteller). Illustrated by Helen Cann. Markham, ON: Scholastic Canada, 1998. 80 pp., cloth, $21.99. ISBN 0-590-03873-7. Subject Heading: Fathers and sons-Folklore tales. Grades 4 and up / Ages 9 and up. Review by Val Nielsen. *** /4

With Mother and Son Tales, and Father and Son Tales, folklorist Josephine Evetts-Secker has completed her quartet of fairy tale collections. (Mother and Daughter Tales was published in 1996, closely followed by Father and Daughter Tales in 1997.) The ten tales in her latest two richly-illustrated volumes are drawn from traditional cultures all over the world. In Mother and Son Tales, the mother figures include a giantess, a queen, a goddess, a widow and a beggarwoman. Each son, whether ordinary or extraordinary, gifted or not, must find a way to separate from his mother and succeed in the larger world. The journey each son takes toward independence is fraught with danger and laced with magic. Some sons, like the Nepalese boy in "The Goddess of Luck," are eager to set out on their journey, while others, like the young hero of the Greek story "Cinderello," must be bribed by his mother to leave home. Father and Son Tales explores the nature of the father-son relationship by presenting a richly varied selection of traditional stories. While the collector includes such familiar favorites as "Daedalus and Icarus" and "The Prodigal Son," she branches out with her re-tellings of "The King's Vine," a Serbian tale, "Maui-of-a-Thousand Tricks" from Polynesia, and a Scottish story entitled "The Smith and the Faeries." Fathers, be they kings, merchants or peasants, have a powerful influence in the development of their sons. Often, it is they who set the tasks to be completed as their sons move toward wisdom and independence. Both Mother and Son Tales and Father and Son Tales are beautifully illustrated by artist Helen Cann. Her paintings suggest the art of each culture from which the story is drawn, and every page is decorated with a colourful border of symbols representing the tale being told.
    Evetts-Secker, a Jungian analyst and a teacher of English literature, has put together a remarkable section at the end of each volume in which she highlights the themes and symbols found in the stories she has collected. For a teacher or parent wishing to stimulate discussion after reading the stories aloud, these notes could be very useful. For older readers, the notes will provide insight into the structure and symbolism of fairy tales generally. A list of resources appearing on the last page in each book demonstrates the careful research done by the compiler and may be useful for librarians wishing to expand their folk tale collections.

Recommended.

Valerie Nielsen is a retired teacher-librarian who lives in Winnipeg, MB.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

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Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - December 1, 2000.

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