For years a leading consultant in the field of children's literature, Effie Power collected in this book 63 stories that have come to be considered a classic compilation of the best-known, best-liked children's material. From all over the world, from times ancient and modern, from all cultural levels, these stories have been read aloud or told aloud to children by generations of fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, teachers, and children's librarians. Part of man's cultural heritage, the tales, ballads, epics, myths, etc. introduce children to the great varieties of the world's literature in a form that insures maximum enjoyment.

The stories have been arranged in sections corresponding to different geographic areas, age levels, or story types; each is prefaced by an introduction giving a brief description of the general nature of the stories in that section and the best way to tell them. Each is followed by a bibliography listing further sources, both original and adapted. Sections include: Stories for Little Children (Old Mother Hubbard, Chicken-Licken, the Three Little Pigs, Wee Robin's Yule Song, The Princess on the Pea, etc.), Folk Tales and Fables (The Elves and the Shoemaker, The Squire's Bride, Sleeping Beauty, Phoebus and Boreas, Cinderella, The Hare and the Tortoise, etc.), Greek Myths and Epics (Ceres and Prosperine, How Perseus Slew the Gorgon, How Odysseus met the Princess Nausicaa, the Cyclops, etc.), Northern Myths, Sagas and Epic of Beowulf (The Apples of Youth, How Thor's Hammer was Lost and Found, How Beowulf came to Daneland, etc.), Tales of Chivalry (How Arthur proved his Kingship, Roland's Youth, etc.), Irish Hero Tales (Cuchulain's Wooing), Persian Hero Tales (Zal, the White-Haired), Ballads (The Silver Arrow, Forester Etin, Get Up and Bar the Door, etc.), and Fanciful Stories and Family Books (Ole Shut-Eye, The Lepracaun, Christian and Hopeful in Doubting Castle, etc.). 

From the book