From East to West and Back Again

This is a project that I have been thinking of for a long time. My vision is to create a series of stories that are very loosely based on folk tales from around the globe. 

I say very loosely because I felt no desire to write the traditional “Once upon a time,” or, in Japanese “むかしむかし“ type of story. It just seemed too staid and not the type of story modern children would be interested in hearing or reading. 

So, I have tried to make the stories more dynamic by exercising an authors’ creative license. Thus, you may see stories here that seem slightly similar to those you heard when you were a child (that is if you grew up in Nigeria or China etc.) but they may have different characters, events and entirely different endings. 

What I have tried to do is be faithful to the culture and to transport readers to a variety of locations and experiences that hopefully will ignite the spark of curiosity in the larger world around us. 

By the way, while most stories have a true connection to a real place, just for fun, there are a few stories that are completely made up and fictional. Can you guess which ones?