Woodland Folk books

We had the first in this series, Meet the Woodland Folk, by Tony Wolf, found at a thrift store a year or so ago.   Santa brought the boys the other five books in the series.  I guess he must have found them second hand on Amazon or something, or else rescued them on the Island of Misfit Toys.  That's all he brought this year.  That, and a 1 pound block of Sculpey clay.  Here are some of my favorite illustrations scanned.  Click for a closer look.

From Meet the Woodland Folk:

From The Woodland Folk Meet the Gnomes:

From The Woodland Folk Meet the Giants:

From The Woodland Folk in Fairyland:

From The Woodland Folk Meet the Elves:

From The Woodland Folk in Dragonland:

I haven't read all the stories in these yet but R has, and E has spent many hours on the couch "reading" through these.  The writing isn't always the best, although charming for the most part and filled with rascally characters from mischievous elves, raucous dragons, troublesome fairies, silly gnomes, and all sorts of other critters, even a blue fairy named Iris.  The illustrations more than make up for any little shortcomings in the stories.  The series at least ends on a good note, the build up to a war between the dragons and all the other folk of the woods evolves into a tug-of-war and even that is put to a stop by a fairy, ending in a great, friendly feast for all.  If only such fairy tales could come true.

There.  I couldn't keep these to myself any longer, finally gathering all the books into one place again and finding time to scan them.  I figured all you gnomey/acorny/woodlandy/elfin/fairy folk out there would enjoy.

   

Comments

[k]

i LOVE these gnomey woodsy books! there's another book--quite famous--that i can't come up with the title just now that is similar. i loved as a child...but now it's driving me nuts that i can't remember the title. was it wind in the willows?

[Jennifer]

I would have loved this books as a child. I will have to keep my eye out for them; I agree, the illustrations are wonderful.

[chelee]

Those look adorable!

[Tammy S.]

Oh my goodness...the top right-hand picture reminded me of a toy I had when I was little. It was made of fabric and rubbery plastic (charming, eh?) and it was a little log, that opened on one side. It had little plastic furniture and little creatures that lived in it. I wonder if it was from the same books? I got it in 1979 or 1980, I believe.

[Emily]

Awww! The pictures are so cute and fairy-ish. I'm a fan of the little people myself.

[Julia]

Wow, I had that Meet The Woodland Folk book as a kid! (none of the others, though) I'd completely forgotten about it. Brings back memories! I wonder where my parents got it and where it is now?

[Peg]

The illustrations are fabulous. I wish I could scan things so well!
We all need a fairy named Iris to set our world on the right path!

[Janie Wilkerson]

Have you seen the book The Little Grey Men? It's another one about the "little folk" and SO good. It quickly became one of our favorites! You can find it on chinaberry.com...

[angharad]

Those have to be the most amazings books. I have one I keep meaning to blog about-A New Home for Tandy, that is in a similar vein. Thanks for sharing-I love reading your blog-it's one of my regulars!

:)

[suse]

I love little gnomey folk. I've just made a dozen of your korknisse gnomes. Thank you!

[lindsey]

i had woodland fold meet the giants as a kid. like others have all ready said, i had no idea there were others. i really liked those books and thought that the contraptions they came up with were ingenious. i'm glad to see there's a new generation reading these.

[t]

Love your blog. I've been reading it for a few months now and find it very inspirational. I adore children's picture books, and love all of the ones you've shared so far. If you are not familiar with The Paper Princess, by Elisa Kleven, you should get your hands on a copy. Not an elfin book, but the artwork is gorgeous, and it inspired my children to make their own paper princesses for months on end! Also, are you familiar with www.fairyhouses.com ? That is something else you might like.

[doulicia]

Wow! These are great. Gotta get my hands on them.

[Holly Burnham]

What lovely illustrations....thank you so much for sharing.

[Kristin La Flamme]

Wow. We just read these books recently at a friend's house, but they were all together as chapters in a larger bound collection. Oh, and they were in German! I had a great time translating the characters in the dragon chapter to my soldier husband :-) I had no idea this was also available as separate books and in English. The illustrations are just toooooo cute :-)

[Amanda]

I had these books all in one huge binded book with a handle that my grandfather gave me when I was younger. I keep finding them all seperately but I would really love to have the all in one book again. I'm so happy I found out what this book was! I had forgotten and gave it away a few years ago.

[Tony]

I grew up with a few of these books, have not thought about them in years. Thanks for posting this.

[emilia]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH, I love this series. When I was a child My grandmother bought me "The Woodland Folk in Fairyland".
I'm from Poland you see and now I can find it anywere... I wanted to buy it on amazon or sth but I don't have money. And I don't know if it will arrive all right. in Poland it is now impossible to find it.
Could you post scans of it? That would be great. I have never seen 5 others And I could read it to my sister. Thank you so much for your time.
emilia

[emilia emiliaa18@tlen.pl]

My sister want to thank you for scans also.
We really like Tony Wolf's illustrations.

[Claire Noon]

i love these books! i notice that you havent mentioned the purple one! The woodland folk meet the dragons! This one is lovely too! i have all except the first one which im still trying to get ! thanks for the memories!

[Amit Vachharajani]

Hi,
I am an India based children's book illustrator.
Just stumbled across your blog trying to find some more information about Tony Wolf the writer-illustrator of the Woodland folk books. I also found the book in a roadside second-hand book shop. To me his style looked spookily similar to Antonio Lupatelli. Can there be two illustrators with exactly similar styles. Well this http://lambiek.net/artists/l/lupatelli_antonio.htm
link answered my question. I have also found a fantastic nursery rhymes book illustrated by Lupatelli. Will do a post on him sure with some scans.

[muge]

Hi, i'm a blogger from Turkey. I read these books when i was a child. i know that i still have them in my library but i can't find them. May i use these photos in my blog?

thanks advance.

Muge

[ann]

i love this books
where can i download this books because i cant find anything about them!!!

[karla M.]

Hi, I am from Mexico and I have a spanish translation, a big hard cover book with the complete stories. I was a gift I recived when I was around 9 I think... It starts with the Mirlo's wedding and ends with the dragon feast. Mi sister made some damage to it when she was a little girl with crayons and ripped off a couple of pages! I cried so hard.. anyways it is still beautiful dispate all what happened. I am 26 now and still love it. I have never seen another edition of it.

[Coro]

Hi, I'm from Indonesia. I read this book when I was a kindergarten kid. Fortunately, this book still sold new here. It is in Indonesian language of course, but it is not in hard cover as it is used to be.

I love the way the author illustrate the machineries. The gnome's corn roasting machine, apple juicer etc are totally awesome. Probably this book influences me to take Mechanical Engineering for my bachelor degree...

Being father of one son now, I thought I will purchase these books for my son. While these books are still exists...