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Rating: 
Summary: An excellent collection
Review: Cole's collection of folktales was published originally in 1982. It's ability to stay in print is a testament to is great depth and array of fairy tales from around the world. The tales are organized by region in the table of contents and are grouped by topic and themes in the index. This is a great standard collection of fairy tales for any library.
Rating:
Summary: Great for short or long reading sessions!
Review: Nearly 800 pages of adventure, humor, and thought abound in this wonderful collection! Included are the tales everyone knows like Rumplestiltskin, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, and others we loved as children. But this book also includes wonderful imgainative fantasy that won't appear in every children's fairy tale book. Did you know about the giant who had no heart in his body? How about the mean spirited half-chicken who eventually became a weather vane? This book contains 200 stories from all parts of the world, more varied than the "Small World" ride at disneyland, and just as enjoyable for those who love to read!Sit down with this book and open a page at random, and guaranteed it will be difficult to put down! Each imaginitive story can be read in only a few minutes, but there are so many of them that it will be difficult to remember them all, and the stories themselves make for great conversation pieces, or to tell to children (which was their original intent after all.) A must read for those who love ancient fantasy!
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating anthology with a story from every culture.
Review: This rich, nearly 800-page long volume contains two hundred carefully-selected folk and fairy tales from all over the world that include adventure, mystery, romance, humor, drama, fantasy and horror. You will find this book difficult to put down whether you enjoy it on your own while recapturing the sense of wonder you experienced when you read the stories for the first time, or you read from it to your children in family gatherings or at bedtime.
Organized by geographic region, from Europe to the Middle East to Asia, Africa and America, this wide-ranging collection includes some well-known stories like "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "Beauty and the Beast", and not so known, but equally charming ones like "The Forest Bride" and "The Fire on the Mountain".
Moreover, the wonderful introduction of this volume explains the considerations that went into selecting the tales, commenting on the origins, evolution, lore, collection and study of the world's folktales, analyzing their motifs, and even presenting interesting comparisons between them.
As a bonus, this book includes a category index at the back to help you choose the tales according to their topic, including tales of Wise Men and Judges, tales of Giants, Ogres and Male Monsters, and tales of Ghosts and the Supernatural, among others. A thorough index of titles is also available.
Overall, this is the best collection of fairy tales and folktales available in a single volume.
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