Super Great Kids' Stories: From storytellers around the world - Kim Normanton - ★★★★★

COMPILER: Kim Normanton

GENRE: Children's Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: September 11, 2025

RATING: 5 super-great stars! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

In a Nutshell: Believe the title! This is a collection of “Super Great Kids’ Stories”, taken from folktales and fables around the world. Great stories and morals. Excellent narrative technique, making it apt for readalouds. Thoroughly entertaining. Much, much recommended!

Not being a podcast person (all my listening time is devoted to audiobooks and music), I was totally clueless about the award-winning podcast ‘Super Great Kids’ Stories’. Reading this book assures me that the podcast must be award-winning for a valid reason. What a brilliant collection and presentation!

The book begins with a beautiful intro by the podcast hosts who have curated this collection. They offer a background to their podcast as well as explain the structure of the book.

The main content comprises thirty “traditional tales” taken from around the world. The stories are grouped in six sections based on continent of origin: Africa, North America, South America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. Each entry is just two-four pages long, ensuring that little readers get just the right amount of storytelling before bedtime. I usually include my favourite story from each section in my review. I won't be able to do that this time as I simply couldn’t decide which story was my favourite; I loved almost all of them!

The back-blurb states that the stories are “bursting with magic, mischief, and merriment”, and this claim is 100% accurate. Every single tale feels uniquely magical, even when it doesn’t contain magic. They resemble folktales or fables in tone, containing several of the key ingredients that make such tales memorable for kids: animals, magic, rewards and punishments, and good life lessons without being preachy.

The stories have been retold by expert storytellers from around the world. (Their bios at the end of the book confirm that they truly are from ‘around the world’!) As their writing style tends towards narrational than merely descriptive, every tale is penned in a way that makes it excellent to read aloud. Onomatopoeia and repetition are put to good use, enhancing the impact of the text. Every story also contains a special section called “Story Owl Facts”, which has either some trivia connected to that tale or special tips on how to narrate it better.

Each section has been illustrated by a human illustrator hailing from that region by ethnic background. I liked most of the illustrations, but the graphics in Oceania (except for one story: ‘How the Kiwi Lost its Wings’), though visually impactful, were a bit too abstract for my liking; I prefer children’s books to have visuals more directly connected to scenes from the story.

Whenever I read such collections, I find at least a few stories that I’m familiar with, thanks to the myriad story/folktale/fable collections I’ve read since childhood. Not this time though. Only one story in this entire book – ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker’ – was known to me.

The book ends with three special end-notes: ‘Meet the Storytellers’ (giving an introduction of every storyteller who has contributed to this collection; love that the book includes OwnVoices indigenous raconteurs), ‘Meet the Illustrators’ (letting us know the artists behind the visuals; all OwnVoices!), and ‘Where the Stories Came From’ (containing a brief snippet from the storyteller about how they discovered that story; awesome to read, but might have been even more impactful at the end of their respective tale instead of clumped together at the end of the book.)

In short, this is one rare case where the title is based in reality rather than exaggeration. These stories are indeed “super great kids' stories from storytellers around the world”.

Definitely recommended as a must-read for every little story lover. It will work great as a bedtime companion as well as in classrooms for discussions on life lessons as well as international cultures and the art of storytelling. Given the fabulous cover art, it would also be a wonderful gifting option during the upcoming festive season. The ideal target audience would be readers between 5-8 years of age.

My thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) for providing the DRC of “Super Great Kids' Stories” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.