good "improved" fairy tale picture books?

[indigosky]

After taking every Goldilocks picture book out of the library, we finally found one we love: Jonathan Langley's The Three Bears and Goldilocks. It's the traditional tale, but there are little "tweaks," like Papa Bear makes the porridge and Mama Bear takes out a drill to fix Baby Bear's chair. Goldilocks grows up to be brave, strong woman who has adventures in the end.

Can anyone recommend other good fairy tale books out there (with pictures) that manage to tell the classic stories but are slightly less problematic or less scary? For instance, a version of The Three Little Pigs where the wolf runs away and learns his lesson to leave little pigs alone, rather than being boiled in a pot of water at the end?

Or a version of Cinderella that makes the point that there's more to life than marrying the handsome prince? (I mean, handsome princes are great and all, but it'd be nice to have some other goals and dreams, too... or the possibility of spending one's life with a brilliant princess.)

[rainbringer]

Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter by Diane Stanley - The miller's daughter chooses to marry Rumpelstiltskin instead of the king. The king eventually captures their daughter who outwits him and is made prime minister.

Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett - Traditional gingerbread man story, except at the end the gingerbread baby escapes to the safety of a gingerbread house a little boy made for him.

[mrskingred]

What about "The three little wolves and the big bad pig" by Helen Oxenbury and Eugene Trivas? After trying to make stronger houses which are impermeable to the pig without success the three little wolves make a house of flowers, the pig inhales and is so overcome by the beautiful fragrance that he has a complete change of heart and becomes the big good pig. The wolves and the pig become friends and end up living happily ever after in the house of flowers.

[ollyoxenfree]

I'm not sure if you would consider them "improved", but my dc loved The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith, which re-writes a lot of traditional fairy tales

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by the same duo tells the story from the Wolf's perspective

The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch is probably one of the original post-modern fairy tales with a feminist princess

If you are looking for original traditional tales where the girl rescues the boy, try Hansel and Gretel and Tam Lin. There are picture book versions of both.

[HollyBearsMom]

Love the paper bag princess!!

[travlr]

We recently read The Goat-Faced Girl by Leah Marinsky Sharpe. It's the story of a beautiful but very lazy girl who is asked by a prince to be his bride. The girl's stepmother, who is a witch and has raised the girl since she was a foundling in the woods, decides that the girl needs to make more of her life and turns her into a goat faced girl. The prince then has second thoughts about marrying the girl since he only chose her for her beauty. He sets up various tasks for the girl to complete before he can marry her in the hopes that she will give up and go home. It's a fun play on the usual fairy tale and it's pretty humorous. My 6.5 and 4yo girls both enjoyed it.