"In this magical collection, an award-winning author and folklorist joins ranks with her daughter to celebrate the old and new ways of reading stories about mothers and daughters. Jane Yolen and Heidi Stemple have selected forty folk and fairy stories from all over the world that pay tribute to mothers (good and bad) and their relations (for better or worse) with their daughters.

We meet strong mothers, doting mothers, ambivalent mothers, obsessive mothers, even the quintessential wicked stepmother - and the daughters they raise. Such familiar stories as "Cinderella" and the Greek myth of Persephone come together with less well known tales from Sudan, Palestine, Italy, Africa, India, Russia, China, Japan, and the Americas. You can rediscover an old favorite like "Snow White," from Germany, and then other versions from Armenia and Portugal.".

"Stemple and Yolen provide a running dialogue that was born in their own reactions as they selected these stories. Their commentaries touch on folklore, family history, psychology, morality and literature - echoing the kinds of interactions mothers and daughters might have as they read this book together."--BOOK JACKET.