A Treasury of Witches and Wizards
David Bennet, editor
Kingfisher
Fiction, YA Fantasy/Anthology
**
DESCRIPTION: This treasury contains many short stories about magic-workers, from fairy tales to more modern encounters.
REVIEW: I wavered on this book's rating for some time, but finally came down on the side of Bad. The majority of these stories are old fairy-tales, with warty evil witches cursing people. Call me crazy, but I consider that an extremely outdated and poor image to project, not to mention a flimsy stereotypes; yes, I understand that was how it was "back then," but this is a modern collection aimed at modern children. The fairy-tales and folk stories make less sense out of context (at least, to a 21st-century American) than they might with a bit of explanation. Of them all, only about three tales stand out in my memory as being good, with a few more being merely confusing and the rest wandering and/or poor. If you want a good anthology of fantasy tales, or even a good collection of fairy-tales and folk stories, you can do better elsewhere.
You might also enjoy:
Bruce Coville's anthologies (Bruce Coville, editor and author, YA Fiction - Fantasy/sci-fi anthologies on various themes)
Fantasy Stories (Diana Wynne Jones, editor, YA Fiction - Fantasy stories and story excerpts)
The Book of Enchantments (Patricia Wrede, YA Fiction - A fantasy anthology)
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