This is a collection of short folk tales from all over South America, almost like an Aesop's Fables for that continent. Most stories take up a chapter, with a bit of framing done beforehand by the author, Charles Finger, of the circumstances where he heard the tale.
If this is a collection of actual folk tales, it's hard to critique them too much - the book is more a historical record than a piece of literature. Still, a handful of the stories are disappointing, because the troubles are solved with a deus ex machina in the last couple paragraphs. It's a fairy tale, I know, but some of these are so well done, that the weakness shows in others.
Having only made it through four books so far, it's pretty striking how different they've been from each other. Mankind is straight non-fiction, Dolittle is a whimsical children's book, Frigate is a dark adventure story, and this one is all folk tales. And they've all been enjoyable.
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