The Dreamer Awakes

Edith Fowke is professor emerita of folklore at York University, the
1986 winner of the Vicky Metcalf award for her body of work for
children, and the author of Canadian Folklore: Perspectives on Canadian
Culture and Legends Told in Canada.

Alice Kane is the best storyteller in North America, if not in the
English-speaking world. She enchanted thousands of children when she was
a librarian; since then, she has won international recognition as a
storyteller for everyone. Her stories are the kind she describes as
“longish fairy tales that have elements in them sometimes of myth, at
other times of simple folktale, and always of enchantment.”

The 17 stories in this charming, beautifully produced book are drawn
from varied sources. There are Celtic and Gaelic tales from Ireland,
legends from France and China, folktales from the Punjab, and fairy
tales from England, Russia, Japan, and Albania. Sean Kane, who edited
his aunt’s stories, says what he hears in her voice is “the music of
humanity at peace with time, and with the earth, and with mortality.”
Robert Bringhurst has contributed a beautiful introduction to this book,
which I cannot recommend too highly.