Good Story Memories

After writing yesterdays post, it got me thinking about some fairytale I like from other countries.  One of my first experiences with faerie tales set outside of the normal American/European countries was
Brocaded Slipper: And Other Vietnamese Tales .  I found it at my local library (one of my favorite places in the world growing up) after I had run out of books to read.  This is also one of the first books I chose that was not part of a series or author that I already knew about and set me on my path to trying new and unfamiliar books. 

This book was amazing (to a 9 year old)  It is a collection of 5 short stories/tales starting with the title story The Brocaded Slipper. This is the Vietnamese version of Cinderella and is defiantly on the darker side of the story, with the main character being killed three times!  This story is also known as The Story of Tấm and Cám.  This was probably my favorite story in the book because of it's level of detail.  After I read all five stories I used to tell them to my youngest sister Baby Sis, who after hearing them all decided that Little Finger In the Watermelon Patch, which is a Thumbilina type tale was her favorite, and insisted on me telling it to her numerous times, even I got sick of it after a while :-)  There is also The Lampstand Princess, The Fairy Grotto, and Master Frog included in the book.  This is a great introduction to world fairytales, especially for the younger crowd.  Let me know what books influenced you as a child.