A World Full of Winter Stories - Angela McAllister - ★★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Angela McAllister

ILLUSTRATOR: Olga Baumert

GENRE: Children's Fiction

RATING: 4.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: A charming illustrated anthology of fairy tales and folk tales related to winter, taken from across the world. I continue to be a fan of Angela McAllister’s children’s story collections.

This book has fifty stories themed around winter, each ranging from 1-4 pages. The tales have been distributed across six sections: Birds and Beasts, Tricks and Troubles, Ice and Snow, Quests and Journeys, Spirits and Magic, and Christmas.

As this is my fourth collection by Angela McAllister, I knew what I could expect from this themed work. And the book didn’t disappoint! In Mumbai, ‘October heat’ has begun, with the end of the monsoons resulting in the return of clammy days. So reading a bunch of winter stories somewhat helped in cooling me, at least virtually. The writing style reminded me of the storybooks I read in my childhood, so the collection also ended up making me feel quite nostalgic.

Every story is either a folk tale or a local legend from a specific region or culture, which is mentioned next to the title. The stories have been gathered from all over the world. Almost every human-populated continent (Australia being the sole exception!) is represented in the book. The countries are as varied as Argentina and Sweden, Mongolia and even Jamaica. It’s good to see such diverse countries represented in this anthology. There are many stories from the indigenous tribes of North America as well. (I appreciate how the credit for these tales mentions the tribe’s name rather than ‘USA’.)

Each of the tales is delightful as it contains an old-world kind of charm that is so typical of folk tales. The way in which winter plays a role in the plots varies. Some stories are merely set in the cold season, while some others have winter-based characters such as frost fairies and snow witches. The Jamaican and the Finnish stories in the last section had no direct elements of winter except that they were set during Christmas.

A children’s book, no matter how great in content, needs attractive illustrations as well. The sketches in this book match the requirements of the stories perfectly. Each graphic goes well with the region and theme of the tale, and adds the perfect flurry of cold elements to suit the winter theme. Every single story has at least one illustration, and some of the sketches are even full page ones.

Though a few of the tales were already known to me, I still enjoyed rereading them. I must mention the story ‘Alexander Jones’ from Scotland, which was hilariously frustrating. I simultaneously laughed and went ‘Aargh!’ at the end. 😄

Definitely recommend this collection. Almost every story being set either in snowy times or in snowy climes makes it a perfect addition to your winter reads. The official target group is ages 5-8, but I think the language and the writing style makes the book suitable for readers aged 7+.

Not to be read in one go but savoured a few tales at a time.

My thanks to Quarto Publishing Group and Edelweiss+ for the DRC of “A World Full of Winter Stories”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.