Fairy tales

[scarecrow22]

can you recommend a good book of fairy tales, initially for me to read and "tell" to my nearly 3yo dd, and later (I hope) to read together

Got Osborne book recently in a hurry and it"s unreadably awful. imho

sorry, Usborne

We had the Helen Oxenbury 'Nursery Story Book' which was good - out of print but available for a couple of pounds on Abebooks.

We've also got the Fairy Tale Treasury collected by Haviland illustrated by Raymond Briggs - this was passed on to us when dd was a bit old for fairy tales, so haven't had much cause to read from it (have kept it for visiting small children) but it looks nice, probably has more stories in it than the one above. Again out of print but available cheaply from Abebooks et al

We have the Oxford Treasury of Fairy Tales - DH got it for DD before she turned 2, and she still loves it now at 8. Suits your purposes I think - read yourself and re-tell to a nearly 3 year old unless she is very verbal and has a very good concentration span. There are pictures but not as many or in the style you'd normally see in a book for 3 year olds.

My favourite story in it is The 4 Friends - that one you can read straight out of the book from age 3, if your DD likes "word stories" (i.e. will listen without it mainly being about the pictures) - my DD could at that age but my boys have both liked more pictures and needed the stories shortened a bit until later.

thanks takver and MrTumbles - will check out all those recommendations. Will see if London libraries can lend first two as a way of dissing them out. DD is verbal so good info on the Oxford edition too: I dont want to put her off (or in some cases possibly scare her?) but interesting that some might be suitable sooner rather than later.

happy reading