James Riordan

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  • Bibliography:
    33 Books
  • First Book:
    May 1985
  • Latest Book:
    December 2015
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Multi-Author Series List

My Side of the Story

Escape from War ()

Book List in Order: 33 titles

  • Tales of King Arthur

  • Tales from the Arabian Nights

  • Snowmaiden

    The daughter of Spring and Frost in the form of a girl made of snow is raised by a peasant couple, but when she falls in love she endangers herself in the sunlight, in this version of an old Russian tale...

  • Thumbelina

    Gr 2-5-- A credible translation of Andersen's Thumbelina. Although rather formal in tone, lacking the immediacy of Haugaard's colloquial language in Hans Christian Andersen: His Classic Fairy Tales (Doubleday, 1978), Riordan's smooth retelling presen...

  • Illustrated Treasury of Myths and Legends

  • Woman in the Moon

  • Book of Narnians

    Full-color paintings depict the enchanted creatures of the seven books of The Chronicles of Narnia, and the accompanying text sets the animals in the context of their role in the story of Narnia....

  • Treasury of Irish Stories

  • The Barefoot Book of Stories from the Sea

    This collection of folk tales revolves around an awe and respect for the sea's power. Some pose age old questions such as "Why the Sea is Salty", others like "The Little Mermaid" convey the fear of evil sea spirits, mermaids and giants in an otherwis...



  • Stories from the Sea

    A collection of stories represents the Celtic, Finnish, Maori, and Native American cultures and includes traditional tales from Senegal, Vietnam, Siberia, Denmark ("The Little Mermaid"), and Egypt ("Sinbad the Sailor") about monsters and brave little...

  • The Songs My Paddle Sings

    Gr 3 UpThese 20 stories from a variety of North American nations are based on tales collected by the compiler on his travels across America and those published in collections earlier in this century. Riordan states that his renditions are a synthesis...

  • Sun Maiden and the Crescent Moon

    Rich in cultural significance, each title in this bestselling series includes a collection of 20 to 30 tales together with an introduction and a historical overview that give the reader compelling insights into the culture, the folk literature, and t...

  • Storytelling Star

    These unusual and alluring tales will familiarize children with the stars, constellations, sun, and moon as well as introduce them to the storytelling traditions of the world's ancient cultures. James Riordan has spent many years researching these my...

  • Little Bunny Bobkin

    Little Bunny Bobkin is learning to count, but no one wants to help him. He wanders deep into the woods and has to use his new counting skills to outwit Mother Fox. Published in hardback in 1998. In the ORCHARD PITCUREBOOKS series, illustrated in c...

  • My G-r-r-r-reat Uncle Tiger

  • Korean Folk-Tales

    Here are Dan-Gun, the first emperor, whose mother was a bear; Shim Chung, who sacrificed herself to the sea to restore her father's sight, and the magistrate who tried to steal the Dragon King's daughter. The traditional Korean tales in this collecti...

  • Boxcar Molly

    It is the 1930s and the Great Depression has generated poverty that threatens to tear America apart. Fourteen-year-old Molly has nobody to rely on but herself. To survive, she needs to find work. Any kind of work will do. With millions unemployed, Mo...

  • The Enemy

    It is spring 1940 and France has just fallen to Nazi occupation. Young Marie and her mother find themselves looking after two injured soldiers -- but one is English and the other is German. The men are sworn enemies. Marie and her mother soon realize...

  • Kingfisher Treasury of Irish Stories

    The Irish have a strong heritage of storytelling. This collection brings together seventeen of the best tales, both traditional -- The Fox and the Hedgehog and Munachar and Manachar -- and contemporary, such as Edna O'Brien's The Leprechaun....



  • Jason and the Golden Fleece

    Award-winning children's author James Riordan boldly retells this story from Greek mythology, introducing readers to the first great European hero to undertake a grand journey. Accompanied by some of ancient Greece's bravest heroes, Jason leads an...

  • The Prisoner

    Two English children discover an injured German pilot. The air-raid warnings sound and they take shelter. While they are confined together, the pilot tells his story. They come to realise that the casualties of war are not just the soldiers....

  • The Coming of the Walrus

    When a down and out acid casualty stumbles across the greatest secret of the 1960s, all hell and half of heaven breaks loose. In his effort to find the famed Walrus of the Beatles legend, Dave Chalmers battles his way through demons, madmen, murderer...

  • Rebel Cargo

    Abena is a rebellious Ashanti girl sold into slavery on the notorious Transatlantic route from West Africa to Jamaica. Mungo is an English orphan who becomes a cabin boy, only to be kidnapped and sold as a white slave. Fate brings the two together...

  • Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor

    The seven voyages of Sinbad are some of the most popular stories in A Thousand and One Arabian Nights. During his 20 years as a merchant adventurer, Sindad encounters a Rookh’s egg, a valley of diamonds, streams of amber, a terrifying sea-monster, ...

  • The Sniper

    Stalingrad snipers were legends in their time. Their patience, keen eyes, and ruthlessness helped win the Battle of Stalingrad and turn the tide of the Second World War. James Riordan visited Stalingrad in 1959 and several times later. In 2006 he met...

  • The Ugly Little Swan

    The newly born swan is not like the others - he's small and brown and ugly. His brothers and sisters won't play with him, the bigger swans bully him and even his mum and dad chase him away. Sad and lonely, he sets out into the big wide world. A ye...

  • The Coming of Night

    Long, long ago, when the earth was new, the great river goddess Yemoya sent her daughter Aje to marry a handsome earth chief in the Land of Shining Day. At first Aje was happy, but soon she started to pine for the cool shadows of her mother's realm. ...

  • Blood Runner

    Samuel's parents and young sister, innocent bystanders during an uprising, are killed by South African police. Samuel is sent to live with his uncle, a tribal chief in the Bantu homeland, while his brother vows to join the African National Congress a...

  • The Little Puppet Boy

    Petrushka is part of Russian folklore, but is not a folk tale. It is in the European tradition of 'Harlequin' and 'Punch', performed in a puppet theatre at travelling fairs.

    Petrushka is tired of being a clown in a puppet s...



  • War Games

    It's Christmas Eve, 1914, and there's a war on. British and German
    soldiers sit in the muddy trenches either side of No Man's Land, as
    deadly enemies. Suddenly, a strange sound fills the air. A German voice
    is singing '...

  • The Great Depression: A Young Girl's Story

    It's 1930s America and the Depression has ripped the nation apart. Poverty is rife and families are starving. Fourteen-year-old Molly has no one to rely on but herself. She has to find work - any work. But with millions of people unemployed the compe...

  • WWII: A Young Girl's Story

    It's spring 1940 in occupied France when Marie and her mother find themselves looking after two injured soldiers. But one is English and the other is German, and they are sworn enemies. The two patients must not find out about each other. Will the co...

  • Escape from War

    • / Historical
    • Buy Buy
    My Side of the Story

    Frank lives in London's East End. When his father is drafted and his neighborhood is bombed, Frank is evacuated to the countryside. There, he meets a German Jewish girl named Hannah and learns how much is at stake in the war with Nazi Germany.

    ...

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

James Riordan has published 33 books.

James Riordan does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, The Great Depression: A Young Girl's Story, was published in December 2015.

The first book by James Riordan, Tales of King Arthur, was published in May 1985.

No. James Riordan does not write books in series.
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