"The Folk Tales of Scotland: The Well at the World's End and Other Stories" by William and Norah Montgomerie

I grew up having all sorts of books read to me: Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, Little Women, Treasure Island, just to name a very, very few. But the books I devoured when I was first beginning to love reading were collections of folk and fairy tales. To be perfectly clear, these stories were not retellings or fluffed-up, Disney-fied versions of a much darker original. I loved the originals. The Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, with their dry, unelaborate narratives were just the way I liked it.

My best friend knows this about me and has suffered my particular obsession with Thumbelina (thank you, Don Bluth, for the most perfect film version). When she came home from Scotland, she brought with her this collection of folk tales from Scotland. I was, of course, very excited. It is coming on a year since she gave them to me and I tore through the collection in a matter of six days.

I find it hilarious that reviewers on StoryGraph (my preferred app over something like Goodreads) complained that the adaptation was done without flair, that the stories bled together, and that they did not make you think deeply or even make sense at all. In my opinion folk tales cannot really be rated or appraised. They are a product of history and culture and deserve respect and openness as a result. These stories are a part of a long history of writers collecting oral tellings and getting them on paper. The way we tell stories aloud is not the way we write them. They are meant to be simple, silly,

entertaining, and maybe possess a small grain of truth (usually that you should follow directions, eat the small Bannock with the blessing, and be prepared for celebrations to last a year and a day).