I consider fairy tale books an essential part of our children’s book collection. My criteria for choosing the fairy tale books we own are:
1. Good writing
2. Closely reflects the original sources (not for the fainthearted!)
3. Beautiful classic-style illustrations
4. Length of story and amount of illustrations suitable for young children
Here are our favorites:
A Treasury of Children’s Literature
This book (303 pages) contains more than just fairy tales (e.g. Aesop Fables, American folk tales, poetry, and excerpts from children’s literature). With varying lengths and difficulty level, children will enjoy more and more from this treasury as they grow older.
Classic Fairy Tales
I am always tempted to buy an extra copy of this book because I love it so much. The illustrations are beautiful and the writing witty and fresh. If you were only to buy one fairy tale book, this book would be perfect!
The Classic Treasury of Grimm’s Fairy Tales
This treasury is a little shorter and has less illustrations. I still really like it though. My only complaint is the book is too tall for an average bookshelf making it tricky to store.
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| Ben reading from Classic Fairy Tales. (Please ignore the towel – he is pretending to be a king.) |
I would love to hear of any fairy tale collections that you have! I can always talk my husband into letting me buy one more . . .
I totally agree, and am guilty of having twiddle twaddle here! I love the old fairytale books but I have so few of them, wish I had more. Both Ana and Brigid get free books from the Imagination Library and I am all about books but most of them are totally boring!!
Oh, we have plenty of books that aren’t as great too (and of course Ben LOVES them.
) Hopefully, I can help everyone to know what great books are out there for Christmas and birthdays! I will do a post soon too on how to find some great stuff at the library.