12 Latvian fairy tales selected by Inga Karlsberga, anotated and with comments by researcher and folklore expert Guntis Pakalns, and translated into English by Kaija Straumanis. Great added values of this book include its original illustrations and book design made by Gita Treice, nominated by IBBY Latvia for H. C. Andersen Award 2020.
This book is a collection of typical, popular and widely known Latvian fairy tales. However, some non-standard variants of these tales that are not usually included in collections were chosen in order to keep it more interesting. It may seem that the world of fairy tales -- harsh, and filled with ancient myths and echoes of epics -- may not be entirely suited to, or understandable by, children. There is only one story in this collection in which someone doesn’t meet his death, and three stories with, essentially, walking dead or with a corpse under a spell, and in the rest of the tales the heroes ruthlessly hack off the many heads of dragons and devils, giants and witches.