My favorite memory of my mother while living in Tokushima, Japan, is when my sister and I would sit on either side of her, listening to her read fairy tales and other stories to us. The words once upon a time would hook my interest from the start, carrying me off to faraway places in my imagination.

Many of these well-known tales were once told to audiences of all ages. For centuries, there had been no attempt to eliminate gory details to spare a child’s sensitivities. In the late 1800’s to mid-1900s–the “golden age of children’s literature”–these stories from the oral tradition were rewritten with children in mind. Their compilers eliminated or toned down the fear-inducing descriptive passages that once passed from one generation to the next by word-of-mouth. By doing so, they could provide young readers with moral guidance by making the lessons hidden within them more digestible.

Many of the folktales we remember from childhood were once shared by travelers moving from eastern to western Europe, and from northern Europe—Scandinavia—to the southern countries of Spain, France, and Italy. In addition, well-known tales such as the One Thousand and One Nights and other collections like it, originated in places much farther away: the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Centuries ago, there were no visible boundaries or fences between countries, and so people shared stories and food as they walked together along dusty roads or gathered around the warmth of a campfire. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, written over six centuries ago, provided a framework for bridging the oral tradition and the printed word. Human, animal, and supernatural beings in many of them continue to be introduced, and their stories retold, in cultures far from one another. No matter where the tales originated, they often bear similarities with respect to theme and plot.

Authors representing First Nations everywhere are finally being recognized for their outstanding written contributions to world literature, and I only wish I’d had access to the tales of indigenous writers when I was growing up.

My sister and I became readers at a very young age. I dedicated Prince Nicolai and the Empty Box–my first published picture book–to my mother. Locally, it’s available for purchase at Woozles Children’s Bookstore in Halifax, N.S. The paperback, hardcover, and e-book are also available online at the Canadian-owned operated indigo.ca website.

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