The Rainbow Book - Tales of Fun & Fancy for Children

Book excerpt: “THE RAINBOW BOOK” is a wonderful collection of children’s tales of fun and fancy penned by Mabel Henriette Spielmann (1862–1938). It includes the tales of: ‘Adventures in Wizard Land’ (illustrated by Arthur Rackham), ‘The Little Picture Girl’ (Hugh Thomson), ‘The Sleeping Beauty’s Dream’ (Bernard Partridge), ‘The Gamekeeper’s Daughter’ (Lewis Baumer), ‘Cedric’s Unaccountable Adventure’ (Harry Rountree), ‘Father Christmas at Home’ (Arthur Rackham) and many more. This book contains a selection of illustrations from some of the greatest artists from the Golden Age of Illustration. It showcases the drawings of Arthur Rackham, Hugh Thompson, Bernard Partridge, Lewis Baumer, Harry Rountree and C. Wilhelm. Although all fine artists in their own right, Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) is by far the most famous – whose work is quite simply, unparalleled The little Fairy-people are the favourite children of Fancy, for they can do magical things. They were born into this serious world of ages to help brighten it, and also to make it more graceful, dainty and prettily romantic than it is. We have found the little-people of Folk-lore were learned people with the wisdom of ages and whose learnings were all topsy-turvy, for it dealt with toads, and storms, and diseases, and what strange things would happen if you mixed any or all of them up together - how a vampire would flee if you held up a clove of garlic, and how a tempest would suddenly stop if you sprinkled a few drops of vinegar in front of it. No doubt, since then thousands of people have sprinkled tens of thousands of gallons of good vinegar before advancing tempests, and although tempests pay far less attention to the liquid than troubled waters do to a pint of oil, the sprinklers and their descendants have gone on believing with a touching faith, which is pretty, if not totally impractical. But what is pretty and practical too, is that all of us should sometimes let our fancy and our imaginations roam, and that we should laugh a lot more as well, over Fairy-stories and about life in general, no matter what hand it deals us. Remember every dark cloud has a silver lining. 10% of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities. =============== TAGS/KEYWORDS: The Rainbow book, tales, children’s stories, fun and fancy, laughter, mirth, little people, folklore, fairytales, myths, legends, fables, children’s book, Adventures, Wizard-land, wizardland, wizard, Arthur Rackham, Knock, Red Door, Bird-Fairy, Lost Cat’s-eye, Fish-King, Realm, Mystery of the Crab, Magic Bracelets, The Spell, Old-Fangled Father, New-Fangled Sons, Little Picture Girl, Illustrated, illustrations, Hugh Thomson, Sleeping Beauty, Dream, Bernard Partridge, Gamekeeper, Daughter, Lewis Baumer, Fifth of November, Father Christmas, Birthday Story, Little Starry, Cedric, Unaccountable Adventure, Harry Rountree, Rosella, Cuckoo, Live, Clock-House, Christmas, Court, King Jorum, Queen, Hugh Thomson, One April Day, Storm, Teapot, Brew, Monica the Moon Child, C. Wilhelm, Fish-king, Dog-Fish, glorious Ride, stout Beadle, invitation to Dance, Youth of my Dreams, Pheasant, peasant, Presents, long Ladder, two Reindeer, audacious Plot, Majesty, Key, Mountains, Craters, Caverns, poor Creatures, Children, Jewelled Circlets, Satchel, Quaint Creature, Groan of Pain, shattered Invention, trespassing, soar into the Night, Tiny Figure, Monica's Doll, beautiful Roses, Face, hidden in gloom