Stories from the Ballads, Told to the Children

The old minstrels knew something we've forgotten: that children hunger for wonder. In this charming volume, Mary Esther Miller MacGregor gathers the great ballads of England and Scotland and reshapes them for young ears, preserving the wild magic and rolling rhythms that once echoed across castles and cottages alike. Here are tales of fairies who steal mortal children, of brave knights and stolen brides, of ghosts who weep by moonlit gravestones and lovers separated by death. The stern, sweet songs of the wandering singers live again in language simple enough for children yet rich enough to stir something ancient in the imagination. Whether your young listener is ready for fairy mischief or the harder edges of tragedy, these stories offer a door into a world where the invisible folk still dance just out of sight.