Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Well-written modern fairy tales ...

34 replies

Bink · 24/11/2006 09:44

I have just, by an utterly lovely stroke of luck (dd was lent her teacher's own copy as a special extra reading book), been able to re-read Lucy Boston's The Castle of Yew, which is otherwise out of print.

It belongs to a very special category of short, enchanting, very finely-written things - Ted Hughes' The Iron Man is the other one which springs to mind. And maybe Kipling's "How the Whale got its Throat" has the same quality.

If you know what I mean, can you add anything to the list?

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
popsycal · 01/12/2006 19:11

just as another little aside...I read my class the baba yaga story the other day and they LOVED it!
even the hard lads

popsycal · 29/11/2006 20:30

omg
i have just found a book which i have - given to me from my godmother which was hers....
£125 on abebooks.....
mine is in good nick AND signed by the author...

popsycal · 29/11/2006 20:19

a few hard back additions here marina of kingdom under the sea...

popsycal · 29/11/2006 20:16

i have fond necklace of raindrops and also kingdom under the sea at work complete with illustrations

baba yaga is in kindom under the sea....

very excited :P)

TooTickyDoves · 25/11/2006 14:48

this is lovely.

sassy · 25/11/2006 09:18

Oooh - the Baba Yaga story with the witch's house shaped like an egg on a chicken's foot..he girl who lived in a bus..Necklace of raindrops was one of my frequent borrows from the library too.

LOve, LOVE proper, slightly scary fairy tales. (dd1 currently into the desperately saccharine rainbow fairies - yuk.)

MrsBadger · 25/11/2006 08:49

Not modern at all, but the mention of Jan Pienkowski reminded me of The Amber Mountain , which is beautiful and definitely fits the brief.

Original poster
Bink · 25/11/2006 08:41

popsycal - thanks! - but even more wonderfully dd's teacher & her assistant (I told them I'd been looking for it for ever) have said that we can keep Castle of Yew as a present. Isn't that lovely of them?

Yes, Joan Aitken absolutely goes on the "if you liked this, you may like ..." list. The others mentioned I don't know, so that's treasure hunt in store.

NQC, Calvino thing isn't something I've heard of at all ... more details pls?

OP posts:
FrannyandZooey · 24/11/2006 21:44

Yay

I do love MN

Pruni · 24/11/2006 21:42

Message withdrawn

FrannyandZooey · 24/11/2006 21:41

Well I would be lying if I said I didn't have a slightly underlying motive for plying you with parcels...

do you think Fun Chum Melons could arrive before Christmas?

Pruni · 24/11/2006 21:37

Message withdrawn

FrannyandZooey · 24/11/2006 21:35

Oh good

you will love it and so will ds

especially the glass foot

Will send it next week, I owe several people parcels I think. Can we have it back, say, after Christmas?

Pruni · 24/11/2006 21:33

Message withdrawn

Marina · 24/11/2006 21:31

franny, you glutton for punishment!
I really should just buy the paperback ed for now so I can share the stories with the dcs.
My MIL worked in children's publishing many years ago and her colleague had the dubious honour of returning "The Wolves of Willoughby Chase", saying she thought it had no potential to sell She patched it up later with Joan - commissioning Arabel's Raven for Jackanory amongst others.

FrannyandZooey · 24/11/2006 21:31

I know and love that feeling btw

FrannyandZooey · 24/11/2006 21:31

Happy to lend my copy Pruni, if you are kind to old books

Pruni · 24/11/2006 21:30

Message withdrawn

Marina · 24/11/2006 21:29

You will have popsy - any school/children's librarian rates Joan Aiken as one of THE great writers for children

FrannyandZooey · 24/11/2006 21:29

Marina I once tried to do a cross stitch version of one of the illustrations

Ds adores all the stories, especially The Elves in the Shelves, featuring the man who can't run to pick up his hat because he has a glass foot

popsycal · 24/11/2006 21:27

oooh franny's link!!!!
I read that one when I was little
there was a another similar looking one...
the kingdom of something......

marina - I have a funny feeling i may have seen your book at my school....

Marina · 24/11/2006 21:27

Franny's link shows just a hint of its gorgeousness - the book is full of lovely pictures like that cover

Marina · 24/11/2006 21:25

Right book popsy, but Kevin Hawkes illustrated it more recently . The Jan Pienkowski original edition goes for upwards of £100 in hardback format now
The stories are lovely whatever but the glorious surrealism of the Pienkowski cut-outs work so beautifully with them it is a book once seen, never forgotten.

FrannyandZooey · 24/11/2006 21:25

Necklace of Raindrops is fab - you can get cheap reprints but the Pienkowski illustrations are essential. What do you want to know about it, Pruni?

FrannyandZooey · 24/11/2006 21:22

I love The King of the Golden River - not that modern I suppose. How about Oscar Wilde's fairy tales? The Selfish Giant is my favourite.

The other one that is springing to mind is Pobby and Dingan which is by no means for children or a fairy tale in the traditional sense, but certainly fits your request for "short, enchanting, very finely-written things".