A collection of traditional stories from across the Pacific, Pacific Island Legends gathers tales of creation, transformation, supernatural beings and the human and non-human experience, through  Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia and Australia.

The collection offers an introduction to the extraordinary diversity of storytelling traditions found across the region.Among its stories are accounts of women saving Guam from an island-devouring fish, a young man stealing the moon, a mother whose sacrifice transforms a deadly tradition, and a husband whose absence threatens to turn his wife into a terrifying witch. Elsewhere, turtles, dolphins, spirits and tricksters populate landscapes in which the boundaries between human and non-human life are wonderfully unstable. The stories carry humour, danger, practical wisdom and explanations for the origins of familiar things.

Organised geographically, with black-and-white illustrations by Connie J. Adams and pronunciation guides alongside unfamiliar names and terms, this is an engaging collection for readers interested in folklore, oral storytelling, mythology and the cultural histories of the Pacific. A particularly lovely addition to a collection concerned with the ways communities understand their environments through stories.

Bess Press, 1999. Paperback, later printing (2017). Good condition, with visible shelf wear, light marking and rubbing to the covers.