Re: Rose Myers posting: Fairy tale motifs are indeed still in use. When I worked in a public library, we relied on the Index to Fairy Tales, which may not still be published but would be worth looking into for your purposes. Along with the standard Stith Thompson system (on which the Index was based), the Israel Folk Archives has a motif classification scheme. Some Jewish anthologists and storytellers give IFA numbers to the stories in their books. See Solomon and the Ant and Other Jewish Folktales (Boyds Mills Press, 2006). Others who sometimes refer to motifs and always cite sources are Howard Schwartz, Peninna Schram, and Nina Jaffe. Look in any of their collections for examples and also for models of authoritative sourcing of Jewish folklore. Sharon Elswit, the author of THE JEWISH STORY FINDER (McFarland, 2005) categorizes Jewish folktales according to a typology that I believe is of her own devising. Consult her book; it would also probably be helpful if you contacted her. Almost all of the stories in Elswit's book are in collections; it includes far fewer individual illustrated versions. The same is true for Oberman. I don't know of any Jewish source that indexes or categorizes by motif single illustrated books so you'd be breaking new ground. The ValuesFinder's annotations might be of help. Do a subject search for folklore at www.ajljewishvalues.org. Contact me directly if I can be of more help. Good luck! Linda Silver,Editor Jewish ValuesFinder
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