Charles J. Finger (1869–1941)

I enjoyed the tales that Finger collected, but I would have been more comfortable with more formal source notes as a supplement to Finger's occasional brief explanations that would open a tale explaining how he came across it. I know this was published before source notes were a standard practice, but it really does muddy the waters as to what parts really happened to the author and what he created for the purpose of the tale. I also thought the tales could have been better organized within the book - the trio of tales about the three giants was split up and I didn't understand why at all. This could be used as a source for storytellers looking for multicultural tales, but I think most kids won't be interested in reading it anymore. The only audiences I see are kids who are obsessed with fairy tales and folktales (read all of Andrew Lang's stuff and want more like it, for example) or those obsessed with the Newbery.… (meer)