''Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales'' is a 1995 collection of nineteen stories by Black women, retold by

Virginia Hamilton Virginia Esther Hamilton (March 12, 1936 – February 19, 2002) was an American children's books author. She wrote 41 books, including '' M. C. Higgins, the Great'' (1974), for which she won the U.S. National Book Award in category Children's Bo ...

and illustrated by

Leo and Diane Dillon Leo Dillon (March 2, 1933 – May 26, 2012) and Diane Dillon (''née'' Sorber; born March 13, 1933) were American illustrators of children's books and adult paperback book and magazine covers. One obituary of Leo called the work of the husba ...

. They include

animal tale An animal tale or beast fable generally consists of a short story or poem in which animals talk. They may exhibit other anthropomorphic qualities as well, such as living in a human-like society. It is a traditional form of allegorical writing. An ...

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...

s (including a version of

Cinderella "Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...

, "Catskinella"), and three biographical profiles of real Black women. All the stories feature comments on their sources from Hamilton.

Publication history

* 1995, The Blue Sky Press, , hardback

Reception

A review by ''

The Manhattan Mercury The Manhattan Mercury is the local newspaper for Manhattan, Kansas. The ''Mercury'' is a daily newspaper published in the afternoon five days a week, and in the morning on Sunday. No Saturday edition is issued. The newspaper is physically printe ...

'' called ''Her Stories'' "an uplifting book to enjoy and savor for the color and verve of both its language and pictures," drawing particular attention to Leo and Diane Dillons' "stunning and graceful illustrations." ''

The Des Moines Register ''The Des Moines Register'' is the daily morning newspaper of Des Moines, Iowa. History Early period The first newspaper in Des Moines was the ''Iowa Star''. In July 1849, Barlow Granger began the paper in an abandoned log cabin by the junctio ...

'' praised the collection of tales, noting that they all "vibrate with story-teller spirit" and are "all of a length for perfect bedtime reading."

Awards

''Her Stories'' has received two awards: * 1995

Laura Ingalls Wilder Award The Children's Literature Legacy Award (known as the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal until 2018) is a prize awarded by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to writers or illustrat ...

winner * 1996

Coretta Scott King Award The Coretta Scott King Award is an annual award presented by the Ethnic & Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table, part of the American Library Association (ALA). Named for Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr., this award rec ...

author winner

References

1995 short story collections 1995 children's books American short story collections Children's short story collections Literature by African-American women Children's books about African-American history Collections of fairy tales Coretta Scott King Award-winning works {{1990s-story-collection-stub