I have just realised, with shock, that ds doesn't really know any fairy tales...

[FillyjonkTheFireEater]

We've been reading the Jolly Postman and the Helen Cooper books, both highly dependent on fairy tales, and I realised that he's never really heard any of them.

Ok so I would like a really lovely book (s) of fairy tales. IMO there is a lot of dross out there.

I am after really good story telling and very nice illustrations.

I like Jan Pienkowski a lot but as I recall his books are not really ok for younger kids. I remember the wicked stepmother dancing herself to death in her red hot shoes . Am also a bit nervous of Joan Aiken for the same reason. (reassurance good here though).

I don't know how to explain exactly what I want. Something that conveys the sinisterness underlying fairy tales like hansel and gretel and musicians of bremen, cinderella etc but not to the extent that my 3 yo can't sleep. (time for that later when i introduce him to the fabulous carol ann duffy adaptation)

(please note that this is a child who was frightened of Herb the Vegetarian Dragon)

Thoughts?

Oooh, we love Herb.

My DS has a dairy and wheat free Herb birthday cake a couple of years ago!

We've got quite a few of the Ladybird 'Read It Yourself' books - Little Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs, The Ginger Bread Man, Snow White etc.

The text is quite basic (obviously), but the pictures are good, and I used to get my DCs to expand the text by using the pictures.

My older son also used to read them to my younger son, which I loved!

I got a book of fairy tales, told very simply in the present tense, from WHSmiths. It's by Stephen Cartwright and Heather Amery. I love the illustrations. Was a bit taken aback one day when ds was angry and said "I'll take your baby away" - thought he meant ds2 but then realised he was quoting from Rumpelstiltskin.

Also Woolworths do a little pack of eight fairy tales. They are not that brilliantly written but the dss absolutely love them.

i was wondering about ladybird, humph

dunno...for me, as a child, I loved fairy tales cos they really got under my skin...they become part of the way I saw the world...

tbh honest...I am not sure if ladybird will do it for me .

Whats herb?

oh duh, dragon. Yes, I love herb, dp loves herb, my vegan mother loves herb

ds is just very...um...(whats good and nonjudgemental word for easily scared?)

its possible that I should say that I spent around 4 years studying, among other things fairy tales

so am deeply fussy

realised this too recently. havent found anything i like. hate all the cheapy badly written books around. want something with some lyricism and magic.

in the absence of which, i have been reading revolting rhymes for a very dark take on the world.

thats it exactly! thats what I want! lyricism! And brooding trees!

tbh, have thought about writing my own, so frustrated was i by the absence of anything remotely appealing. tis a thought...

No, I agree that Ladybird books don't capture the magical essence of fairy tales - just suggested them because you mentioned your son's sensibilities to any frightening elements.

I have a pop-up book of Hansel and Gretel, published for the German book market, that scares the pants off me!

Babette Cole has written some adapted fairy tales, but not sure who to suggest for some beautifully written originals.

Sensing a gap in the market here, Filly - get your pen and paper out!

am bloody tempted

hmmm

but my illustrations would be complete jan pienowski rip offs.

ok have plan

will write them myself and make them at a level that is sinister for a 3 year old who finds people getting on trains scary.

and use Arthur Rackham images

The Usborne ones are nice; not too may words, so you can add detail/brooding vegetation as you go along if you so wish..

DD and DS inherited my old fairytale books, which I had inherited from my mum and dad, who had got them second hand as children themselves.

They were gruesome in places, but the illustrations were wonderful. Very un-pc in places mind.

The Oxford Treasury of Fairy Tales is quite nice - we haven't got it but I looked at it when I was looking for something similar.

We settled on a Illustrated Grimm's Fairy Tales book but mine are a bit older and not so dependent on pictures to tell the story iyswim.

also Grimm is prob too dark for a 3 yr old I would think

My 3 year old DD loved dark tales... the darker the better. DS wasn't so keen though.

the oxford one is lovely

quite 'literary' for a three year old but dd2 has loved it since she was 3

the usborne one is lovely but VERY simple

fairy tales

fantastic stories

dd is a bit young for these yet but when i used to nanny these were my absolute favourites. they're by terry jones, so suitably twisted and funny. if he doesn't like them now then he will in the future. and you will love them now, if i'm any judge of character...

pppffft, hark at me... 'nanny'. i was a glorified babysitter really but they're good books.

brilliant

had forgotten those

they have gone in my ever-growing amazon shopping basket

Oh please use Harry Clarke illustrations instead, they are my favourite

erm, I think they are all too scary for unbowdlerised reading to 3 year olds, or so I have found

ds is fascinated by violence and disaster and can sniff it out a mile away despite my best censorship attempts. "What did the witch do, Mummy? Why did the children run away? When Daddy read this story, he said the witch ate the children. Why has your face gone like that, Mummy? Are you a witch?"

Just buy a great edition and then skip lots. We usually find we can only read a few from any one book (The Princess and the Pea is my top choice for non-scariness but of course has dreadful messages about class, gender and so on.... ) but as time goes on it will get easier

enid, the first story in the second book is there on the site so you can read it. i love it, i used to scare the bejeezus out of 'my' wee girl when she was about four cos i would do the corn dolly's voice in the whiney voice she used that used to get right on my tits. (i, of course, would pretend that i couldn't hear her until she stopped whinging.)

i just loved that the conclusion was so utterly, unforgivingly abrupt. (unbelievably, that child never settled for another au pair for more than six weeks after i left... you'd think i'd have traumatised her, but no...)

We have enjoyed these but I seem to be on a Raymond Briggs fest today, don't I?

Oh and Filly are you still around? I have pictures of the advent calendar