San Souci, Robert D

Contains fifteen accounts of American women from myths, legends, and tall tales from all areas of the United States, including Native Americans such as the Star Maiden, African Americans like Molly Cottontail, and Anglo Americans including Bess Call.

Presents a retelling of an Irish folktale, wherein a brave young woman battles a sea serpent and rescues her true love from a giant.

An itinerant shoemaker in colonial New England makes a pair of shoes for a beautiful young woman, although he fears the red heels are a sign that she is a witch.

A Creole variant of the familiar Cinderella tale set in the Caribbean and narrated by the godmother who helps Cendrillon find true love.

Presents a retelling of Kenneth Grahame's classic story in which Jack, aware that the fire-breathing dragon living near his home is really a gentle, poetic soul, must find a way to convince St. George the dragonslayer, as well as the villagers, that there is nothing to fear.

Retells Washinton Irving's famous yarn about a superstitious school master, rival for the hand of a wealthy farmer's daughter, who has a terrifying encounter with a headless horseman.

Presents the legend of Guinevere from her girlhood to her betrothal to King Arthur.

A very tiny but clever boy outwits his older brothers, an ogre, an alligator, and a giant catfish to rescue a rich man's daughter in this Cajun version of a French fairy tale.

A Filipino monkey secures the fortune of his young owner in this variation of a traditional tale.

In this Ojibwa retelling of the Cinderella story, a Native American maiden called Sootface, who is mocked and mistreated by her two older sisters, wins a mighty invisible warrior for her husband with her kind and honest heart.