Beautiful book of fairytales

[hushabyehill]

Can anyone recommend me a lovely compendium of fairy stories with beautiful illustrations for my almost five year old ds? I had a fantastic one when I was little and wish I still had it. The pictures were really magical, lovely little fairy caves with twinkly lights and things.

Ladybird Favourite Fairy tales for Girls and Ladybird Favourite stories for Boys.

Gorgeous art, lovely padded hardback books to share.

Or this one:
store.barefootbooks.com/the-barefoot-book-of-fairy-tales-1.html

Thanks! Those all look lovely x

This is a gorgeous book - perhaps a little old for your little girl, but definitely worth getting for later on. Second-hand copies available on Amazon.
www.amazon.co.uk/Fairy-Tales-Berlie-Doherty/dp/0744594030

Sorry, for your little boy!

www.amazon.co.uk/Tales-Grimm-Antonia-Barber/dp/0711213410/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1330818948&sr=8-4

My Mum bought me this book when I was just a little older than your DS (it was first published way before 1998!) and it is still on my bookshelf, waiting for my own daughters :)

As a child I loved the illustrations and the author had a beautiful way of telling the tales. One of the best things about this particular book is that it contains an even mixture of the most familiar tales (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel) and others that are a little more unusual, such as the Peasants Wise Daughter and The Shoes that were Danced to Pieces. Those last two are still my favourite fairy tales and I first read them in this book. It is still being sold on Amazon in exactly the same design as it was when my Mum first bought it :)

Also second RosieMBanks in recommending the Berlie Doherty. I agree it might be a little old for your five year old, but the illustrations are just gorgeous and her writing style just rolls off the tongue.

Thank you so much.

Elderberry - how lovely to hear about your book sitting on the shelf waiting for your daughters. I wish so much that I still had some of my lovely childhood books to pass on to my son.

Thanks everyone. They all look great and I haven't managed to decide which one to pick yet!

Errol le Cain's illustrations are among the most magical - for example The Twelve Dancing Princesses and Aladdin and more here - but I don't think there are any whole collections illustrated by him. His Twelve Dancing Princesses is in our Hutchinson Treasury of Fairy Tales, but the pictures are reproduced a bit too small there to do them justice.

There are also links to some lovely illustrations and books at www.surlalunefairytales.com.

This one has amazing illustrations by Edmund Dulac