American Fairy Tales

By: L. Frank Baum

Narrated by: Samantha Worthen

A great listen for children! American Fairy Tales by L. Frank Baum includes classic stories that will keep your child riveted. In fact, it will keep the average adult entranced! The story lines and scenery created by the author are a thing of beauty. Vivid conversations between characters create an imaginary paradise your son or daughter can wander through for ages to come.

Includes "The Box of Robbers", "The Glass Dog", "The Queen of Quok", "The Dummy That Lived", "The Wonderful Pump", "The Magic Bon Bons", "The Laughing Hippopotamus", and "The Mandarin and the Butterfly".

Public Domain (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Mostly charming, but dated

L. Frank Baum wrote the dozen stories in this collection in 1901, the year after publishing "The Wizard of Oz." Unlike the classic Wizard of Oz, these stories were aimed more at adults, being serialized in several newspapers before being published as a children's book. The stories run more to sly tongue-in-cheek humor but less to magical fantasy, or adventure. The stories are:
1. The Box of Robbers
2. The Glass Dog
3. The Queen of Quok
4. The Girl Who Owned a Bear
5. The Enchanted Types
6. The Laughing Hippopotamus
7. The Magic Bon Bons
8. The Capture of Father Time
9. The Wonderful Pump
10. The Dummy That Lived
11. The King of the Polar Bears
12. The Mandarin and the Butterfly

The general theme runs to cautionary tales about carelessness, greed, arrogance, and foolishness. The most widely reprinted story was "The Magic Bon Bons", where enchanted candies are accidentally eaten by respectable citizens at a dinner party, leading to chaos. My personal favorite of the bunch was "The Wonderful Pump", which starts as a very traditional fairy tale of a poor farmer's wife, whose kindness to an animal in distress is magically rewarded. It takes a turn though, when the poor couple doesn't understand the limitations of their reward, and there is surprisingly deep thinking from a minister and from the animal himself, advising the couple on the nature of wealth and abundance.

There are many dated stereotypes, none particularly offensive except for reinforcing negative racial stereotypes. For instance, "The Box of Robbers" has a trio of Italian bandits who are bewildered to find themselves in America, but nonetheless feel obligated to rob and plunder as is their nature. The Laughing Hippopotamus is set in Africa, with primitive natives, and the last story has an obnoxious Chinese villain who meets his just reward.

I am fond of L. Frank Baum's writing style, his deadpan jokes, absurdist satire, and philosophical musings, soI I found this book rather charming on the whole. I would not recommend it for young children though, as some of the stories are rather gruesome by modern standards, and most are set in a turn-of-the-19th-century America that today's kids won't relate to.

The narrator, sadly, is merely adequate, and does dreadful voices for most of the male characters. There is also an odd technical glitch in "The Dummy That Lived." The story opens describing a store window manikin who is holding an advertising card, and the narrator jumps past the words on the card. Here is what the book says:

The wax lady was beautifully dressed, and extended in her stiff left hand was a card bearing the words:
"RARE BARGAIN!
This Stylish Costume
(Imported from Paris)
Former Price, $20,
REDUCED TO ONLY $19.98."

Now that's the kind of L. Frank Baum humor I enjoy.

Read much?

Fun stories by one of my favorite authors. But what is up with the reader? It sounds like she can’t see the words correctly, and keeps making very odd emphasis.

Hard to Finish

I was excited to consume something new by L. Frank Baum, but I was not able to complete this title; the narrator's performance really made this hard to finish. The cadance and tone are deeply reminiscent of Microsoft Mary. Presumably in an attempt to make this title more accessible to children, this performance has sacrificed the consideration of adult audiences.

Interesting

Interesting to hear his other works besides the big one. A little deep in places and scary for a fairytale but interesting nonetheless.

I was surprised ❗️

I found these stories very interesting and well told. The narrator was quite good. A lot of them I’d never heard before. I enjoyed listening to this book and will listen to it again.

Fairy tales, some unusual.

Fairy tales, some of unusual or of a different nature, makes one wonder when these were written originally. Short stories are convenient for stopping and starting. 1 narrator playing (speaking) all the roles gets confusing and sometimes boring.

He’s no Grimm

I was excited to see a book about American fairytales. But obviously these are just the authors fairytales. Details are without character. Performance is 20

Not for me

The narrator's really ruined this for me. It's perhaps that I'm picky, but they sound like a bad acting class.

TRULY AWFUL NARRATION

II was interested to learn more of the work of the famous creator of 0z, but after the 3rd story I just gave up. Give a book with good stories (the first two although coming with a rather outdated ... 'moral of the story is' at the end were good stories for children) to a narrator with no voice talents and you end up with a squeak. I'm afraid Ms Worthen thinks that all little girls speak in voices pitched at least 1 octave higher than her own. At least this is a plus title so you won't have wasted a precious credit if the narration isn't up to your standards either!!!