Scheherazade's Cat

A 115-page, hard cover book features nine fables mixed with beautiful full-color illustrations. A lush and vivid collection of tales, this book will enchant both children and their parents. It's an intriguing way of introducing your children to new ways of telling stories. The fables are collected from Arabia, Peru, South Africa, Hawaii, China, Egypt, Zaire, India and Native America. The stories are as exotic as the tapestries that illustrate them. The title story is a retelling of the Thousand and One Nights tale, in which Scheherazade's cat devises the storytelling scheme that saves her mistress's life. The remaining folktales are from Asia, Africa, and North and South America. Strong heroines appear throughout. In a version of the Egyptian Cinderella, ""The Turquoise Sandals,"" Rhodopis is a knowledge-hungry young woman who longs to be valued for her soul and intelligence rather than for her beauty. Children who step to a different drummer will relate to ""The Chameleon"" from Zaire. Other than the country of origin, no sources are provided. In the Native-American tale, ""Sister Bear,"" the people are referred to as ""Indians"" rather than by a tribal name. Each fable is illustrated with an intriguing, tapestry-and-collage vignette whose colors and motifs reflect the appropriate culture. A border with the same motifs decorates each page. Most of these stories have not been in print for many years, and other extant versions are bland. The Zerners' retellings are full of magic."