Once upon a time, stories had teeth.
Somewhere along the way, the wolf got a stomach-ache instead of a supper, the woodsman learned to arrive exactly on time, and everybody got a ribbon for taking part.
Not here. These are forty of the oldest tales in the world, told the old way. Each one opens with its moral and stops one breath before the worst part, with three ink-and-watercolour plates to show you exactly how close it came.
Read them aloud. Do the voices. Let the silence do the rest.
Hardcover $29.99 · Paperback $22.99 · Kindle $7.99 · Ages 6–12
A Warning to the Reader
These stories are old. Older than your grandmother, and she is very old indeed.
In these pages, the wolf is hungry, the giant is angry, and the boy who lies is not believed. Nobody is coming to save the people who did not save themselves. That is not cruelty. That is the point. The old storytellers knew that a child who has met the wolf in a book is a little less likely to open the door to one in life.
So read them aloud, by the fire if you have one. Do the voices. Stop at the bad part, and let the silence do the rest.
And if your little one asks, “Then what happened?” you may look them in the eye and say:
“Exactly what you think.”
One tale, one spread.
The story on the left, sized to read aloud in about three minutes. Three plates on the right that carry it to the turning point.
¶The moral
Printed first, in red, in a dozen words or fewer.
I.The setup
The flaw, and the first hint of what is waiting.
II.The mistake
The wrong turn, caught while it is happening.
III.The brink
The big plate. One breath before the worst, and not one breath after.
One breath before the worst.
Every tale ends on the brink. Jaws open, axe raised, a clear gap left for the imagination. Nothing gruesome is ever shown.
Frightening the way the old stories were. Never gruesome.
Imply, never describe
No gore, no blood, no wounds on the page or in the pictures. The worst always happens just past the edge of the frame, where a child's imagination can make it exactly as big as they can handle.
Written for your voice
A dry old storyteller by the fire. Short paragraphs, real dialogue, the refrains your children will start saying along with you, and a wink or two for the grown-up holding the book.
The original endings
Perrault's Red Riding Hood has no woodsman, and neither does ours. A note at the back of the book says where every tale comes from, from Aesop to the Brothers Grimm.
If someone knocks, get a grown-up, however nice the voice sounds. Better yet, have a family password. The youngest goat had one by evening.
Bound in red cloth and flat gilt.
Hardcover
- 8.25 × 11 in, case laminate
- 96 pages, premium full colour
- Made for the shelf and the nightstand
Paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in, matte cover
- 96 pages, premium full colour
- Light enough for the diaper bag
Kindle
- Fixed layout: every story faces its plates
- Free with Kindle Unlimited
- Read it tonight
Sold on Amazon. Prices in US dollars; Amazon's price at checkout is the final word.
A world of old tales, one volume at a time.
The Original Forty is the first book on the shelf. Each new volume gathers forty tales from one corner of the world, told the same way: the moral first, the ending intact, three plates to the brink.
Every tale, read aloud on YouTube.
The paintings come gently to life, every character gets a voice, and read-along captions follow each word so early readers can keep up. A new tale three times a week, plus a 90-second Short of each one, starting November 15.
For parents: Michael's own channel, Don't Raise Weak Kids, on YouTube and TikTok.