Ransome - Little Daughter of the Snow - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

Have been saying "at least our weather isn't Boston!" a lot.  Sometimes it helps to remind yourself things could be worse.  As I write this it's Thursday at mid-day and our temperature has finally bounced up to zero with plenty of wind gusts on our "bunny slope of a hill" to create sub-zero wind chills.  Unfortunately places even less prepared for this weather are shivering, too.  I'm a fan of Weather Underground or Wunderground.com for long-range forecasts, not only here, but around the world. 

Looking around the world I see:

Miami on Thursday has a low of 38 and even Havana went to 50,

while Anchorage goes to up to 35 and down to 21 (and will even reach the 40s this weekend),

looking for Siberian weather, Vorkuta, Russia has both 15 high and 15 low, feeling like 14 with snow showers.

By the way, the Weather Underground has a page on "Global Warming Causes and Climate Change Facts" tucked away on its site.  

Earlier this month I posted a Cuban story to warm up reading here.  Siberia generally is noted for its brutal weather, so that was the type of weather Arthur Ransome was describing in a story posted here almost a year ago, Frost, and a "killing cold" it was, too.  (That post also tells more about Ransome.)  Today's story is worth enjoying over hot chocolate after making a snowman or girl.

Today's story opens with the "frame" of Old Peter telling to little Vanya and Maroosia, giving hints of ways to tailor it to your listeners.  Watch for Frost to put in a cameo appearance near the end.

It's worth noting not every Public Domain book is available online or even by interlibrary loan.  On the back cover I saw advertised A Book of Teddy Bears; Brown Bears, White Bears, Gruff Bears, Kind Bears, He-Bears, She-Bears & Very Little Furry Bears edited by Elizabeth Teague.  The description sounds charming, but the only way to find it is to buy it from a bookseller, online or otherwise.  Hmmmm.

Guess there's plenty of reason to keep posting . . . so stay warm and stay reading.

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This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories. 

At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings as often as I can manage it.    

There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I recommended it earlier and want to continue to do so.  Have fun discovering even more stories!