Ten of the Best Fairy Tale Collections for Children


Ann Lazim chooses. I’ve always been fascinated by folk and fairy tales and how similar stories appear across countries and cultures. The collections described here are beautifully produced volumes well worth sharing in the home and classroom and, importantly, read aloud well, reaching back to origins in oral tradition. A ‘fairy tale ending’ doesn’t always mean they lived happily ever after!


Yummy: My Favourite


Nursery Stories Lucy Cousins, Walker, 9781406328721, £12.99pbk


My preferred collection for young children. Lucy Cousins’ signature style,


using bold


colours with stalwart figures strongly outlined in black, is well suited to illustrating traditional tales, here retold in spare and straightforward language.


The


eight stories include Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Henny


Penny and The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Sensitive adults beware graphic moments such as the wolf swallowing Little Red Riding Hood’s Grandmother and the hunter chopping off his head, but most children will relish them.


Grimm Tales: For Young and Old


Philip Pullman, Penguin Classics, 9780141442228, £9.99pbk


Philip Pullman’s versions of fifty of the tales collected by the Brothers Grimm were not published specifically for children but then traditional tales were generally not first told with child audiences in mind. This is a perfect book for a family or a teacher to own and share with young people. The realisation that similar stories exist across cultures, evidenced by the notes appended to each tale, may capture the imaginations of older children, resulting in a lifelong


interest in folk and fairy tales. 10 Books for Keeps No.227 November 2017 10 The Singing Bones


Shaun Tan, Walker Studio, 9781406370669, £19.99hbk


The dark side of Grimms’ tales is evoked by photographs of stunning sculptures illustrating significant moments from the stories with accompanying related text on the opposite page. A summary of each complete story can be found at the end of the book along with further recommended reading lists. The sculptures make readers ponder why Shaun Tan might have chosen to depict this particular moment in the story, for example Cinderella is


shown in the opening to a hearth at the bottom of a chimney, a golden head with her eyes closed.


Tales of Hans Christian Andersen


Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Joel Stewart, translated and introduced by Naomi Lewis, Walker, 9781406317466, £9.99pbk


This compendium of thirteen of Andersen’s fairy tales includes most of his best known, such as Gerda’s search for her lost playmate in The Snow Queen and the circular journey of The Steadfast Tin Soldier. Each story is prefaced


by fascinating information about its origin and place within Andersen’s work. The subtle illustrations are a mix of muted colours and small sepia vignettes and are well suited to the light and dark of the tales.


The Lion & The Unicorn and Other Hairy Tales


Jane Ray, Boxer Books, 9781910716502, £15.99pbk


One of three exquisite collections of beastly tales by Jane Ray in which she has inhabited and interpreted several stories and expressed the retellings in words and pictures. Included is The Singing Ringing Tree.


I’ve


discovered that many people of my age have vivid memories of the East German TV film of this story! Jane Ray has also illustrated Berlie Doherty’s Classic Fairy Tales


(Walker 9781406365962, £14.99hbk), portraying characters familiar from fairy tales mostly taken from Western European tradition with a variety of skin hues


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