Additional information
by Margaret Read MacDonald (Author)
What could be more timely than a book about kindness in today's divided and often hostile world? Kindness Tales is the long-awaited third book in a trilogy that includes Peace Tales and Earth Care from award-winning author and highly-respected folklorist, Margaret Read MacDonald. Margaret has curated a collection of her favorite stories that celebrate the timeless power of kindness to make our world a gentler, safer, and more loving place. Kindness Tales contains more than forty folktales that illustrate the transformative power of kindness through leading, sharing and caring for one another. These stories share a common theme of using thoughtful and sometimes generous acts of kindness to make the world better. In addition, these stories demonstrate how taking personal responsibility can help other people in unexpected ways.Due to Margaret's careful curation, these stories can be shared with groups of all ages. Some of these tales easily engage preschool and primary school-aged children, while other stories are more thought-provoking and engaging for teenagers. These timeless tales from the world's great oral traditions are a delight to tell, read aloud with a group, or simply enjoy as a quiet reading experience. This book can also be used as a personal meditation for reflecting more deeply on the impact of quiet acts of kindness.This diverse collection of folktales from around the world is supplemented by generous reference notes, source information, and suggestions for further reading on the topic of kindness. Margaret Read MacDonald is well known for her lively retellings of folktales. Drawing on her extensive background in folklore (Ph.D. Indiana University Folklore Institute) and her many travels throughout the world, MacDonald searches out unusual tales from the world's folk literature and oral traditions. She has a unique gift for telling these stories in her performances so they appeal to children and adults alike. Margaret is a prolific writer having published over 55 books.
Author Biography
Margaret Read MacDonald is a highly respected, award-winning author of more than 55 books. She is a very popular storyteller and performer who shares her lively retellings of folktales for schools and audiences around the globe. Drawing on her background in folklore (Ph.D. Indiana University Folklore Institute) and her extensive travels throughout the world, MacDonald searches out unusual tales from the world's folk literature and oral traditions. She has a gift for retelling these stories so they appeal to children and adults alike. MacDonald teaches storytelling courses for the University of Washington School of Information Science and for Lesley University. As a Children's Librarian for the King County Library System, MacDonald kept finding gaps in her library collection. So she wrote books to fill these needs. On her travels, she collected a number of timeless folktales that she adapted into award-winning picture books, resource books and folktale collections from many cultures. She recently received her third Anne Izard Storytelling Award for her resource book: Teaching with Story and the National Storytelling Network recognized her with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Her award-winning LittleFolk picture book, Go to Sleep Gecko was selected by the Prime Minister of Singapore to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of kidsREAD, a program sponsored by the National Library Board to encourage children to read more and to promote good reading habits. Margaret retired recently from working as a children's librarian in order to spend more time on the road sharing her love for stories and giving workshops. Recent trips have found her telling stories in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Spain, and Singapore and of course in Hong Kong where Nathaniel and Jen Whitman, her collaborators for Teaching with Story, live and teach with their daughter.
