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Children's books

Join in for children's book recommendations.

Please recommend traditional fairytale books

16 replies

BabyEl · 08/08/2024 08:28

My daughter has a lot of books, but we noticed recently she doesn’t have the ones I was read when I was a kid. To remedy this, we got her Goldilocks which she really loved.

The problem for me was that the Goldilocks story was changed and updated. It didn’t have the right kind of language. “ who has been sleeping in my bed.” Etc and the repetition.

I basically want to buy nicely illustrated classical fairy tales which have the old-fashioned stories in them. I’d also like the book to be fairly good quality Not a magazine type of publication.

I set out 1st to buy the three Billy goats gruff. I searched Amazon and looked at all the books that were the most highly recommended on YouTube so I could see what the content was like.

Almost all of the top books were unsatisfactory and one way or another. The art style was bad the story itself wasn’t quite right.

It took ages, and I still haven’t found a suitable version of the book.

if anyone has already been to this and can recommend some decent versions of classical fairytales or better yet a set that I could invest in then I would be eternally grateful

OP posts:
Forgottenmyphone · 08/08/2024 10:47

Ladybird Favourite Fairy Tales

BabyEl · 08/08/2024 12:24

Forgottenmyphone · 08/08/2024 10:47

Ladybird Favourite Fairy Tales

Thank you! But aren’t they quite small? Like a5 size?

OP posts:
Forgottenmyphone · 08/08/2024 12:32

It's this one www.amazon.co.uk/Ladybird-Favourite-Fairy-Tales-Stories/dp/1409308766

BlueChampagne · 08/08/2024 12:38

Andrew Lang's fairy stories - if you can find them. Library?

pollyhemlock · 08/08/2024 19:51

There is a good recent collection illustrated by Axel Scheffler ( of Gruffalo fame) which might meet your needs. Axel Scheffler’s Treasury of Fairytales. Some of the stories are available individually as well.

pollyhemlock · 08/08/2024 20:01

Alternatively for a more traditional though wordier selection look for the Berlie Doherty / Jane Ray fairytale compilation . Second hand copies available on Amazon.

MyMILisLovely · 08/08/2024 20:02

Look for illustrated versions of children's stories rather than an omnibus.
The Secret Garden, Wind in the Willows, Peter Rabbit, Where the Wild Things are, etc

You specifically said fairy tales, so I'd go to a bookshop so you can have a look and see the quality of the physical book - the paper, the cover, the binding, the print, the pictures etc

Snippit · 08/08/2024 20:15

I was surprised when I mentioned the “Princess and the Pea” fairytale to a friend she’d never heard of it, nor had my husband. Some of the old fairy tales are lovely.

I used to have the Ladybird book range, small but beautifully illustrated. You can still get the original books on eBay, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Jack and the Beanstalk. Looking at them brings back so many lovely memories 🤗

BabyEl · 10/08/2024 05:05

pollyhemlock · 08/08/2024 20:01

Alternatively for a more traditional though wordier selection look for the Berlie Doherty / Jane Ray fairytale compilation . Second hand copies available on Amazon.

Thank you

OP posts:
MyMILisLovely · 10/08/2024 13:18

What a lovely thread. I hope you find a nice version and please update us when you do.

I had an Omnibus of Nursery Rhymes as a child and loved it.

Singleandproud · 10/08/2024 13:27

I'd go to Waterstones and have a proper browse, they have some beautiful keepsake books.

Alternatively a good hunt in local charity shops or Etsy will get you the same books you remember from your childhood.

MyMILisLovely · 10/08/2024 13:42

or an independent bookshop.

Charity bookshops often have nice ones but they might be inscribed with something like 'To Chloe on your 5th birthday, 7 August 2006. Love from Uncle Steve and Aunty Claire' or similar. Smile

BabyEl · 11/08/2024 07:11

Singleandproud · 10/08/2024 13:27

I'd go to Waterstones and have a proper browse, they have some beautiful keepsake books.

Alternatively a good hunt in local charity shops or Etsy will get you the same books you remember from your childhood.

I tried my local Waterstones, but alas!
they have loads of new books (think gruffalow) but no old fairly tales. When asked they gave me a ‘my first reader’ but my daughter is only 2 and it wasn’t very well illustrated.

OP posts:
Singleandproud · 11/08/2024 08:56

What about the

or DK First Fairy Tales
or classic Hans Christian Andersen
or Aesop fables

Then as she gets older I'd buy her a nice illustrated version of Grimms Fairy Tales as they are much darker.

We had big beautiful fairy tale / Aesop fables growing up and I often see them in Charity shops so it's worth a look in there.

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Alltheprettyseahorses · 11/08/2024 12:57

I bought John Patience fairytale books for my DD. They're only available second-hand AFAIK but they are reasonably inexpensive, the stories are really well-told and the illustrations are lush and old-fashioned.

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