Favorite Folk and Fairy Tale Books

[Stacey B]

So we're starting to read tales, and I'm looking for some good collections. I'm trying to avoid versions that are too simplified (I rather explain what a word means) or modernized, certainly no Disney.

[chfriend]

Would the Baldwin Project work for you? Here are the offerings by genre:

http://www.mainlesson.com/displaybooksbygenre.php

[Stacey B]

Originally Posted by chfriend

Would the Baldwin Project work for you? Here are the offerings by genre:

http://www.mainlesson.com/displaybooksbygenre.php

Wow, thanks. Still would love to hear people's favorites, there is entirely too many for me to read through there.

[zeldamomma]

Some of them are a little scary, but we enjoy Andrew Lang's fairy books (The Blue Fairy book, The Red Fairy Book, The Orange Fairy Book, ...)-- they have a wide range of stories, and are generally available online for free. They are old books, definitely not over-simplified, Disney, or modernized.

[acu-mommy]

Hey Stacey B! So our favorite Fables and Fairy tales right not are: Multicultural Fables and Fairytales by Tara Mc Carthy (scholastic, and there are some activities after the stories) 15 Easy Folktale fingerplays by Bill Gordh, these are short, but my littlest really likes the fingerplays....for littler ones. Favorite Norse Myths retold by Mary Pope Osborne, and we just just got Afterwards, Folk and Fairy tales with Mathematical Ever Afters (which i am undecided about, the activities after the tales are slightly cheesy...so not sure yet)
And we have, but have not delved into too deeply, the Enki grade 1 Math Fairy Tales collection. TONS of multicultural fairy tales, very nice ones...but most are too long for my littlest one to sit through ( i save these for when they are in the tub, my 3.5 yearer can listen and soak, and the littlest can just splash away while i read) They are very nice, but kinda spendy...Anyhow, im eager to hear others favorites too. I thought at first that fairy tales seemed too scary (and some kinda violent) but now i see the appeal, C is really into them.....Hope all is well with you guys!

[tallulahma]

Originally Posted by zeldamomma

Some of them are a little scary, but we enjoy Andrew Lang's fairy books (The Blue Fairy book, The Red Fairy Book, The Orange Fairy Book, ...)-- they have a wide range of stories, and are generally available online for free. They are old books, definitely not over-simplified, Disney, or modernized.

Langs have been our favourite..

we also bought a usborne illustratef fairy tale book we like
http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Fa...5206934&sr=8-2

we like e.e. cummings fairy tales
http://www.amazon.com/Fairy-Tales-E-...5206999&sr=8-1

[rumi]

We love love love Celtic Memories
and The Girl Who Helped Thunder and Other Native American Folktales
And many others by Barefoot Books.

I dont know if it counts but Strega Nona was great fun too. As well as Onions and Garlic (Eric A. Kimmel), Nightingale by HC Andersen ...

Just go to the 398 section in the library and you will find wonderful versions of familiar tales by Rachel Isadora. and a bunch of other authors too. Some of the illustrations can be breathtaking.

[zinemama]

Andrew Lang's "color" fairy books.

[acu-mommy]

oh, and i wanted to add 'why the sun and the moon live in the sky' by elphinstone dayrell, 'the blue jackal', by marcia brown, and 'yeh-shen' retold by Ai-ling louie...(also, i dont know if you do tv, but we recently got 25 childrens storybook classics on dvd by scholastic, it has Hans christian anderson, james marshall fairy tale collection, rapunzel, srega nona...etc. a lot of classic fairy tales)

[newcastlemama]

Our favorite is St. George and the Dragon.

[craft_media_hero]

Reader's Digest "Greatest Fairy Tales Collection". Not dumbed down, great vocabulary, five

It's out of print, but you can probably find it used. We are very pleased with it---there's a lot of material in there, so it will probably last a couple years even with frequent reading.

Also, all the fairy tale collections on the Yesterday's Classics site are kid-friendly (like, not the cannibalism and murder and such that you find in an unedited Grimm's colleciton) but not dumbed down or over-simplified, and most of them are available for free online---we just like having the hard copies.

[tankgirl73]

We got a great collection called "Favourite Chinese Children's Stories", or something like that. We have some Chinese aunts in the family so there's a personal tie-in, but it's also just a great multi-cultural set of stories for us.