Modern fairytale for toddlers

The paper bag princess - old classic where the princess rescues the prince.

Little red and the very hungry lion

Exactly ... Stories where women and girls are passive and wait around to be rescued and all the malwmes are rescuers who have to be brave all the time are damaging to both sexes. I agree the zog books are good - one of the main characters is a princess but she rejects this in order to be a doctor, and the brave Knight also casts off his armour instead of killing the dragon and the Princess teaches him to be a doctor too. There's a lovely adaptation of it on bbc iplayer along with some other julia Donaldson's.

It might not be exactly what you are looking for but we liked Aesops fables at that age. There's a lovely usborne book of them.
Konnie Huq's fearless fairytale are brilliant but imo funnier/better if you know the original story.
I would look at Hansel & Gretel, The three little pigs etc. I understand your thinking on the messaging of fairytales but a few old stories aren't going to turn your boys into misogynists.

The Paper Bag Princess

@surreygirl1987 Have you tried the Julia Donaldson books: Zog, and Zog and the Flying Doctors? The Zog series is about a dragon, princess and knight, who start out training for the stereotypical fairytale roles, but leave this behind to fly all over the world as doctors helping people.

Alternatively, if you search The BookTrust's site for "Princess", there are a lot of suggestions there (and you can filter by recommended age)?

www.booktrust.org.uk/search/#!?q=Princess&type=All&sortOption=Relevance&pageNo=1

How about non Princess fairy tales? Puss in boots, gingerbread man, goldilocks, ugly duckling, Jack and the beanstalk. And try Roald dahl's revolting rhymes (there's a fab animation on iplayer or amazon prime) for super cool Red Riding Hood and snow White versions!

*taking much else from them

It is unusual because most children gravitate toward stories about their own gender and most boys aren’t interested in the pretty princess stuff - society doesn’t make it unusual, it is unusual and that’s why it doesn’t happen. I’m not saying it’s wrong, just that most little boys won’t like that.

But for those that do perhaps they like the stories precisely because of the gender roles and they enjoy all that stereotype pretty princess stuff - after all, they could read stories about adventure and heroic characters and so forth yet chose princess stories - so why would they want the princess characters they like made into the more adventurous characters little boys typically like which they weren’t as interested in the first place?

For example If a boy doesn’t like Robin Hood and likes stereotypically girly Princesses and those stories, why would he like a Princess outlaw equivalent of Robin Hood? Just because she wears a tiara and a dress?
You say he likes the Princess and the frog and the Princess and the pea but your looking to push him more toward Frozen territory - but that’s not what he’s interested in.
He already chose the stories he likes apparently. It’s you who’s not open minded about that not me.

Anyway I think your making a mountain out of a mole hill as he probably just likes those stories because of the weirdness of the frog and the odd visual of the princess and pea story. That appeals to many kids. I seriously doubt he’s taking much else from him so there’s no point upsetting him by taking his sweet Princess and Frog from him just to replace it with the tale of Arse kicking Dr.Princess who marries herself then becomes President.

Not quite what you're asking but mine love the You Choose books. You can basically make up your own fairytales by choosing a picture on each page. They're based on actual fairytales so they are familiar to the child. It's great for their imagination.

@surreygirl1987 you need gender swapped fairytales! https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gender-Swapped-Fairy-Karrie-Fransman/dp/0571360181/ref=ascdff_0571360181/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=430970648532&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6817152270584497294&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046949&hvtargid=pla-920643732446&psc=1&th=1&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=97419294702&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=430970648532&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6817152270584497294&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046949&hvtargid=pla-920643732446

Good lord this thread has made me laugh - talk about missing the point!!
@surreygirl1987 have you seen the You Choose books, they have a fairy tales one, you make up your own story from the pictures and so the princess could be the one who does the rescuing etc. They seem a bit old fashioned but my Dd loves them.

The Daddy Goose Collection is quite good. The traditional fairytales, each of them with a twist.

I completely agree with you but also even if I didn’t, with the amount of kids who don’t get stories read to them regularly or indeed all those thousands of kids who don’t own a single book why someone would feel the need to criticise the type of book a stranger reads to their child at bedtime is bizarre. Like I said above, I wasn’t aware that fairy stories were only for girls. 😕

He was obsessed with Dora on TV as well and also played with dolls (and trains etc). So I completely agree with you by the way.

Probably not what you are after, but my DS loved Dora Saves the Snow Princess. I read it endlessly (as well as the other 9 stories in the collection).

I adore Lucy Rowland’s books, she puts an amazing twist into the classic stories. I promise you’ll love them!

I also love the Oscar the Hungry Unicorn books.

I like Princess Smartypants by Babette Cole. The 'problem' is that you have to know the conventional fairytale tropes before subverting them makes any sense. I sympathise op, my dc love/d fairytales and I can't some of the trad princess ones