Gathered here are gems galore, which, while revealing much as to the Chinese national psyche, highlight particular traits and characteristics that span the globe. We all know Chairman Mau's infamous 'It doesn't matter what colour the cat, as long as it catches mice', but most of us would only recognize an approximate English equivalent of 'A mighty dragon cannot crush a local snake' or, 'A Phoenix might come out of a crow's nest'. The beasts and birds of legend and folklore provide the inimitable Kathryn Lamb's pen with a feast of hilarious subjects, not least a certain revolution at one ill-fated dinner party...

The first study to look at the intersection of the discourse of the Anthropocene within the two highly influential storytelling modes of fantasy and myth, this book shows the need for stories that articulate visions of a biocentric, ecological civilization. Fantasy and myth have long been humanity's most advanced technologies for collective dreaming. Today they are helping us adopt a biocentric lens, re-kin us with other forms of life, and assist us in the transition to an ecological civilization. Deliberately moving away from dystopian narratives toward anticipatory imaginations of sustainable futures, this volume blends chapters by top scholars in the fields of fantasy, myth, and Young Adult literature with personal reflections by award-winning authors and illustrators of books for young audiences, including Shaun Tan, Jane Yolen, Katherine Applegate and Joseph Bruchac. Chapters cover the works of major fantasy authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien, Terry Prachett, J. K. Rowling, China Mieville, Barbara Henderson, Jeanette Winterson, John Crowley, Richard Powers, George R. R. Martin and Kim Stanley Robinson. They range through narratives set in the UK, USA, Nigeria, Ghana, Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Australia. Across the chapters, fantasy and myth are framed as spaces where visions of sustainable futures can be designed with most detail and nuance. Rather than merely criticizing the ecocidal status quo, the book asks how mythic narratives and fantastic stories can mobilize resistance around ideas necessary for the emergence of an ecological civilization.

Zombies are everywhere these days. We are consuming zombies as much as they are said to be consuming us in mediated apocalyptic scenarios on popular television shows, video game franchises and movies. The zombie industry generates billions a year through media texts and other cultural manifestations (zombie races and zombie-themed parks, to name a few). Zombies, like vampires, werewolves, witches and wizards, have become both big dollars for cultural producers and the subject of audience fascination and fetishization. With popular television shows such as AMC s The Walking Dead (based on the popular graphic novel) and movie franchises such as the ones pioneered by George Romero, global fascination with zombies does not show signs of diminishing. In The Thinking Dead: What the Zombie Apocalypse Means, edited by Murali Balaji, scholars ask why our culture has becomes so fascinated by the zombie apocalypse. Essays address this question from a range of theoretical perspectives that tie our consumption of zombies to larger narratives of race, gender, sexuality, politics, economics and the end of the world. Thinking Dead brings together an array of media and cultural studies scholars whose contributions to understanding our obsession with zombies will far outlast the current trends of zombie popularity.

The magical bestseller: a classic story to read again and again Winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize Winner of the British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year Shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize Beautiful, thrilling and magical, Sunday Times bestselling-author Kiran Millwood Hargrave's debut novel has all the makings of a modern classic. 'Absolutely loved it from start to finish' TOM FLETCHER 'I read it, I loved it' MALORIE BLACKMAN 'Kiran Millwood Hargrave creates a spellbinding world of magic, myth and adventure' EMMA CARROLL Forbidden to leave her island, Isabella dreams of the faraway lands her cartographer father once mapped. When her friend disappears, she volunteers to guide the search. The world beyond the walls is a monster-filled wasteland - and beneath the dry rivers and smoking mountains, a fire demon is stirring from its sleep. Soon, following her map, her heart and an ancient myth, Isabella discovers the true end of her journey: to save the island itself. A beautifully written, multi award-winning story of friendship, discovery, myths and magic for any age - perfect for fans of Philip Pullman, Frances Hardinge or Katherine Rundell From the author of Julia and the Shark and The Mercies, chosen for the Richard & Judy Book Club Set in an extensive and stunningly-imagined parallel world imbued with magical realism A gorgeous gift for readers young and old - will stay with you long after reading

After enjoying years as a popular journalist and poet, intellectual and freethinker Gerald Massey turned his vast studies in the field of Egyptology into A Book of the Beginnings, a bold statement that the origin of all civilization lays in ancient Egypt. His assertions, radical at the time-indeed, almost a century before the discovery of three-million-year-old human remains in Africa-resonate loudly today, when molecular biology is making corresponding discoveries alongside the still-raging creation-versus-evolution controversy. In Volume II, Massey intelligently argues an Egyptian origin for Biblical symbology, lexicography, and mythology. Here, he not only asks if the oldest Jewish and Christian axioms were really born on the banks of the Nile, he offers a stalwart and profound "Yes " British author GERALD MASSEY (1828-1907) published works of poetry, spiritualism, Shakespearean criticism, and theology, but his best-known works are in the realm of Egyptology, including The Natural Genesis and Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World.

Throughout our Cherokee history,"" writes Joyce Dugan, former principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, ""our ancient stories have been the essence of who we are."" These traditional stories embody the Cherokee concepts of Gadugi, working together for the good of all, and Duyvkta, walking the right path, and teach listeners how to understand and live in the world with reverence for all living things. In Eastern Cherokee Stories, Sandra Muse Isaacs uses the concepts of Gadugi and Duyvkta to explore the Eastern Cherokee oral tradition, and to explain how storytelling in this tradition - as both an ancient and a contemporary literary form - is instrumental in the perpetuation of Cherokee identity and culture. Muse Isaacs worked among the Eastern Cherokees of North Carolina, recording stories and documenting storytelling practices and examining the Eastern Cherokee oral tradition as both an ancient and contemporary literary form. For the descendants of those Cherokees who evaded forced removal by the U.S. government in the 1830s, storytelling has been a vital tool of survival and resistance - and as Muse Isaacs shows us, this remains true today, as storytelling plays a powerful role in motivating and educating tribal members and others about contemporary issues such as land reclamation, cultural regeneration, and language revitalization. The stories collected and analyzed in this volume range from tales of creation and origins that tell about the natural world around the homeland, to post-Removal stories that often employ Native humor to present the Cherokee side of history to Cherokee and non-Cherokee alike. The persistence of this living oral tradition as a means to promote nationhood and tribal sovereignty, to revitalize culture and language, and to present the Indigenous view of history and the land bears testimony to the tenacity and resilience of the Cherokee people, the Ani-Giduwah.