Fables and Fairy Tales Books

Ken Geist and Julia Gorton's THE THREE LITTLE FISH AND THE BIG BAD SHARK is a wonderful story outlining what happens when three little fish encounter a seahorse, a shark, and various underwater building materials. Fish who stick together make fun houses and safer settings are hilarious here.

My son loves this book. It is a great twist on The Three Little Pigs. We read it at least twice every day. Bright colors. Highly recommend.

My four year old son loves the story of the three little pigs which is why I purchased this book. I was so pleased when it arrived. The illustrations are beautifully done, the colors are vibrant and the print is large. The story is quick and easy to read and the repetition, just like in "The Three Little Pigs," makes it very catchy. Examples: "Little Fish, Little Fish, Let Me Come In." "Not by the skin of my finny fin fin!" "Then I'll munch and I'll crunch and I'll smash your house in." A quick and fun read!

I can't remember where my son got this book or for how long we have had, but I do know how much we enjoy it. It's a short story so it's usually one of two bedtime books.

This book took the legendary story of The Three Little Pigs and gave it a face lift. Instead of the Three Little Pigs, we have Three Little Fish. Instead of the Big Bad Wolf, we have The Big Bad Shark. It's the same basic plot with a new setting, the ocean.

The pictures are very vibrant and the story is fun to read. The words are fairly large, making it easy to point them out as I read. The author has also added a female to the story. Instead of all three of the fish being brothers like in the classic piggy story, they have added one sister fish.

Like the original, the story is brief. What I like about the brevity and repetition is I can easily point out the words while I read. Hopefully the familiarity of using some of the same words and sentences repeatedly will help my son recognize those words and eventually help him read.

As someone who enjoys the repetition for teaching, but was a bit burned out on the pigs, this book was a refreshing and enjoyable change. I give it two fins up!

Cherise Everhard, Feb. 2008

This story line is familiar if you've read The Rainbow Fish, but Tico pre-dates that story. Tico is also a more profound, developed story. Happy, re-assuring ending. Sensitive and precient in this age of me me me.

Library bound edition very high quality. Wonderful to have a new copy of a very memorable story from my childhood to share with my children, nieces, nephews and grandchildren.

I've been reading books to children for almost two decades, and Leo Lionni's books have always been among my favorites. They're simple in the same way that the parables of Jesus are simple - the meaning of the stories is immediately clear, yet they are deep and wise, and the stories stay with you forever.

Tico and the Golden Wings is not one of Lionni's best known books (Swimmy and Frederick probably fill that category - and both of them are terrific), but it's one of my favorites. It's about a bird born without wings, who cannot fly like his friends. The friends are kind to him, but he feels left out because he cannot do the things they do. Wishing for wings, he gets his wish, but the wings are made of gold. As Tico flies around the world, he encounters people with great needs and tries to help them by giving each of them one of the gold feathers from his wings. His reward for this generosity is to grow a real feather for every golden one he gives away.

In the end, Tico returns to his friends, who are thrilled to see him with wings just like theirs. They think he is now just like them, but Tico nurtures an understanding that his thoughts and experiences are not like those of his friends, that inside he is still different.

The message is simple: you can care about others and still nurture your own indivuality. What is special about this book, though, is not just the lovely and wise message, but the fact that it remains lovely, and not the least bit cloying or preachy, after hundreds of readings. You can read this book to any three or four year old who has enough experience with books to sit still for a quiet story, and continue reading it to him or her for years, knowing the child will get more out of it each time he or she hears it.

A lovely story. Thoughtful. Sometimes having what we wish for is not nearly as important as giving. Our value comes from within. A story I look forward to sharing with my nephews and grandchildren.

With a few students skeptical (they thought they knew the Ugly duckling story), I found that the kids loved this story. Girls loved the animals and the relationships in the story; the boys loved the adventures and the funny parts, esp. The fact that it took place in the southern hemisphere with some unfamiliar animals, gave us lots to talk about during discussions. One of the boys in the book club said that the book made him cry at times but he still liked it. He said, "My mom says if a book makes you cry, then the author has done a good job." Pretty powerful writing to have kids understand that. All my students recommend it!

My wife and I took turns reading this book to our 5-year-old daughter, and we loved it.

The basic story of the Ugly Duckling should be familiar to most readers, but Napoli develops that core into a truly charming novel. "Ugly" is driven away from the other ducks for being different. He spends the next year encountering other animals, friends and foes alike, until he finally discovers who he is.

Napoli never talks down to her readers, as some childrens' books do. From page one, there's an almost brutal honesty to the story. Ugly is attacked by the other ducks, then his own mother tells him to leave, for his own safety as well as the protection of her other ducklings. Ugly tries to brush off his injuries, to show that he's okay so he doesn't have to leave his mother. His efforts fail, but the scene is a powerful one, with genuine emotion.

At the same time, there's a delightful sense of fun throughout the book. Whether it's Ugly's mother counting her eggs ("One, two, three, many, many, many more, so many...") or the wallaby boxing with Ugly, the book made us laugh any number of times.

Best of all, you learn a great deal about Australian animals. For my daughter, a true animal-lover, this was a chance to learn without feeling lectured. Who knew a wombat's backside could be so dangerous?

It's rare for us to find a book that we love as much as our daughter did. This one's a keeper.

As you might have guessed from the title and cover, UGLY is the ugly duckling story revisited but with a Tasmanian twist. In this version, the ugly duckling is helped by inhabitants of Tasmania on his journey to discovering the truth about himself.

We first meet Ugly while still in his shell, trying to be hatched. His mother keeps assuring doubting ducks that this egg is completely normal and will hatch into a lovely, perfect duckling. This doesn't happen, and so everyone calls him "Ugly."

In a painful paragraph, Ugly's mother finally has to order him out of the flock and send him off on his own before the other ducks attack him. On his lonely journey, Ugly meets a wallaby who carries him around on his back.

After leaving the wallaby, Ugly teams up and lives with a wombat, snuggling happily into the tunnels the wombat has dug. Ugly even loves to sleep in the wombat's pouch, which is usually reserved for baby wombats. Once, when Wombat is out of her tunnel, a quoll begins to attack her. (A quoll, in case you've never heard of one, is about the size of a dog, has a reddish-brown spotted body and a bushy tail.) Ugly sees and hears what is happening, and bravely sticks his head out of the tunnel and takes a big bite out of the quoll's tail, saving Wombat's life.

After several other adventures with different Tasmanians, human and animal, Ugly is finally taken by a friendly, lovely Tasmanian possum to a lamentation of black Tasmanian swans. What they tell him will forever change the way he views himself.

UGLY might have been a bit more interesting if author Donna Jo Napoli had given more details about the various Tasmanian animals, which most readers know little about. It is especially suitable for younger readers who may have just started reading longer books.

--- Reviewed by Robert M. Oksner

Though this book may be written for a younger audience, the story is touching all over again. Donna Jo Napoli has once again succeeded in giving a fresh voice to an old tale. "Ugly" is a quick read for older audiences and well worth the time spent. Younger audiences will feel new sympathy for the little "duckling" as he makes his way through the world with an assortment of odd friends.

While I love all of Andrew Lang's collections, I think this has to be one of my favorites. This is a collection that pretty much goes out of its way to collect every strange, exotic, and unknown tale on the face of the planet. Far from the simplicity of other tales, these are complex and detailed. Which probably means they were not passed down quite as much, but are wondrous and inspiring just the same

Submittted by Pamela Kekst: I thought that the Violet Fairy Book was very well written and fun to read. The book is made up of many different short stories, all of them are fairy tales. Each has its own problem and solution. They all had their own setting as well. One of my favorite stories is called The Finest Liar in the World. It takes place at the edge of the wood. It is about a boy telling a story to an old man for a lying face-off. I liked the book because each story was different so you could never get bored reading the book. It was also very interesting because of all the strange pictures in the book. I would only give the book a 4 star rating, however, as sometimes the stories could be hard to follow. I recommend this book for any one that likes fairy tales.

For some reason, this is one of my favorites of the Colored Fairy Books edited by Andrew Lang. Once again, Lang includes tales from many cultures including The Boys with the Golden Stars, The Envious Neighbor, The Fairy of the Dawn, The Finest Liar in the World, The Story of a Gazelle, The Girl Who Pretended To Be a Boy, The Grateful Prince and many others. I am also a fan of H. J. Ford's illustrations. Be sure to admire them and wonder at the power of black and white. END

As always Andrew Lang's books continue to be great, this book being no exception. This book contains myriad great fairy tales, great for all ages, my mom read them when she was younger and know I am reading them. The Violet Fairy Book contains 35 fairy tales and 65 black and white illustrations. Fairy Tales include: The Finest Lair in the World, Schippeitaro, The Lute Player, The Grateful Prince, Stan Bolovan, The envious Neighbor, The Enchanted Knife, The Fairy of Dawn, The Nunda, Eater of People, The Headless Dwarf and many more. This book is a great bed-time-story book.
I would recommend this book.

Sleeping Beauty was, of course a good movie for those Disney fans who love the great artist's works. The three good fairies, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather offered a single gift to the newborn princess. But the evil Maleficent crashed the party and cursed Aurora by pricking her finger to the venomous spindle of a spinning wheel and die at her 16th birthday. As a Disney fan, I'm considering that this beautiful young princess will be saved at last by the third of the fairy trio, Merryweather, who had given to her this almost tiny gift: When Aurora pricks her finger into evil witch Maleficent's spinning wheel, she cannot die. Instead of death, the princess will sleeping into a deep slumber until a charming prince wake her with the true love's kiss. So Maleficent turns herself into an evil black fire-breathing dragon to stop Prince Phillip to rescue sleeping Aurora. But the good fairies combine their magic to the mighty Sword of Truth, chanting "Now, Sword of Truth, fly swift and sure. That evil die and good endure!", and the prince throw his magic sword straight as an arrow into the dragon's heart. I'm sure that's a nice movie and I strongly recommend it to all the children beginning from 5 to 12 years old.

This book is a real treasure. Based on Walt Disney's widescreen animated fairytale epic "Sleeping Beauty," this is a nostalgic exact reprint of the storybook created for the film in 1959. It is illustrated with original artwork created especially for storybooks. It is a shame that more people have not discovered this wonderful book. It's one of those books that you can read to your children at bedtime and they can be captivated by the illustrations. It is one of those books that you keep in your bookcase after the children have gown up and you can pull it out from time to time and just reminisce.

This is a beautiful book. It is reminiscent of the images and style of children's books published at the time when Disney originally released SLEEPING BEAUTY. This is a real tribute and a cherished edition to have from one of Disney's best and often overlooked fairy tale classics. It has a real place in my heart.

This is a beautiful book. With Amazon not carrying a picture of it, I was a little afraid to order it, fearing what I might get. I am so pleased with it. The illustrations are very stylized, very 1950's era. The colors are brilliant, even to the endpaper. I love the angles of the characters' faces and shoulders. To get a general idea what the book looks like, check out "Walt Disney's Classic Storybook" and imagine a ten times more beautiful version. Enjoy!

Great book, interactive. I couldn't believe how cool it was when my son was reading it. There are places you pull and the picture changes, flip down facts, etc. It is not a pop up book, it is better and for older children or adults. Very interesting, the artwook amazing.

I love the illustrations, collage graphics, and interesting information included in this beautifully bound volume for young adults.

Astonishing in its format and content, "Warriors" is a must-have for the bibliophile fascinated by the "best of" warriors in any ancient or medieval culture. Set up like a memory book, this volume is filled with blocks of printed information and actual tidbits hidden in secret pockets, cubby holes, flaps, and pull-outs.

Because of all the flaps and such, this is not a book to be handled over and over by many curious readers. Why? Flaps eventually get torn off, inserts disappear, and so on. Since it was impractical to acquire this book for the children's school library where I work, I bought it for myself. It really is a veritable treasure book of information about warrior cultures. But check this: When you open the cover, on the left side is a full-length slit which holds a poster of all the warrior cultures included in the book. The poster is awesome! I'm thinking of framing it.

One last comment about the format: The entire book is dark and ominous in appearance with "blood" smears everywhere. The paper resembles vellum, the parchment of the European medieval period and the book is sized to resemble a photo album, although the interior contains what is made to resemble clippings and such items added to the book.

The content is various types of information about each culture, with at least a two-page spread for each: Assyrians, Spartans, Alexander and the Macedonians, Celts, Romans, Gladiators, Vikings, Samurai, Ninja, Genghis Khan and the Mongols, Medieval Knights, Aztecs, and Zulus. For example, the information for Genghis Kahn includes this: regular print describing their fighting maneuvers, an illustration from a medieval manuscript, a box about Geghis Khan, "universal emperor," one about the Mongolian bow and a picture of it, an insert about Marco Polo, a picture of the helmet, and a map of the kingdom.

There are two separate fold-outs making four-page spreads of the Romans and medieval knights. Also, open to the Vikings and a longbow pops up. In the Samurai section a short fold-out details the Samurai Code.

Women are not neglected. The Vikings had the Valkyries, warrior women who selected the best to die in battle and escorted them to Valhala, where they served these fallen heroes mead at a banquet table. The Greeks had the Amazons, women warriors who "lived at the edge of the known world" and took male prisoners for mating then disposal.

"Warriors" is not a scholarly book, not is it meant to be. Instead, it is a visual compilation of a hodge-podge of facts and myths, weapons and tactics, leaders and stories of mighty warrior cultures. It provides plenty of speaking knowledge for a child 9-14 and, ahem, middle-aged women fascinated by warriors. Perhaps this fascination by all ages is really for bravery and courage beyond the norm, that people really can be fierce and protective of self and nation.

Along the same lines as Pirates: Most Wanted, WARRIORS takes us behind-the-scenes to discover the true lives of long-lost warriors of old.

This interactive book takes us into the lives of the Assyrians, the Spartans, Alexander and the Macedonians, the Celts, the Romans, Gladiators, the Vikings, the Samurai, the Ninja, Genghis Khan and the Mongols, Medieval Knights, the Aztecs, and the Zulus.

What's great about this book, besides the facts and figures, is its ability to truly draw you into the world that it's describing. There are posters, envelopes filled with interesting cards, pop-ups, awesome graphics, and all sorts of fun things that you can spend your time getting lost in.

This is the perfect reference book to use as a guide for that pesky book report, or just a good read that you can spend the day exploring in detail. Either way, you're sure to learn something, and how can your parents say no to that?

Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"

This book is fabulous! It is a great story about being beautiful on the inside and respecting and loving yourself. What a great self-confident heroine!

My daughter (almost age 6) picked it up at the library along with other princess books and I enjoyed reading every page of this book. It has justice in it and a very happy ending: "People would often say what a handsome couple she and Egbert made, but they found their true joy reading good books to each other by the fire every evening, sharing a good laugh, and simply enjoying the pleasure of each other's company." THAT is a fairytale to emulate.

It was published in 2004, and I am greatly surprised not to see it plastered with awards. The illustrations are magnificent in and of themselves.

Apart from the entertaining story, the thing that really sets this book apart from the rest is its stunning and meticulous illustration. It is hard to believe that this is Rebecca Walsh's first childrens book! Can't wait to see the rest!

This is such a wonderful book. Not only are the illustrations gorgeous, but the heroine of the story is friggin' awesome! I love her tenacity, her love for her father, her brains, and her warm heart. Great story! I wish I'd written it myself!

I can't believe that this book hasn't recieved more attention. My daughter chose it at the library and it is fabulous. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is fabulous. The message is that beauty comes from within.

This beautifully illustrated book tells a simple story that can be appreciated on many levels. I used it in a mixed age Sunday School class (4-10 year olds) and I think all the kids enjoyed it AND got something out of it.

I am so thrilled to see that this lovely book is available again. My grandson received this book from my sister as a christening present and we have read it together more times than I can count. The beautiful pictures and soothing tone of the book held his attention when he was very young, and Zenele's question and the wonderful answers from the animal kingdom intrigued him as he grew older (3 and up). I plan to buy 2 more copies right away - one for my church's nursery and one as a first birthday present. Don't be concerned that this book is religion-specific; it works for anyone willing to consider the question, "Who made me?"

Zanele has one big question. Who made her? to help her find the answer, she turns to her friends, the animals of the African bush. What she discovers by the end of the day is wiser than she ever imagined. Cathie Felstead's spectacular artwork is a perfect showpiece for Shirley Tulloch's engaging and delightful story.

I really enjoyed this book - it's written and illustrated beautifully. The US Publishers Weekly calls it 'quiet and reverend', 'a book that captures the vastness of the African landscape'. That is exactly how I felt when the author presented me with a copy! The story is deceptively simple, and becomes ever more beautiful as it sinks in. It makes an excellent christening present.

The story, part of ancient Nigerian lore, is an intriguing one, providing insight into non-Western folktales. However, it is the illustrations that truly make this book. They are stunning in their vibrancy. My toddler son really enjoys this book and I love reading it to him.

Buy this book for the illustrations. They're spectacular. You'll want to frame each one and hang them on your wall. Of just leave it on your coffee table for people to ohh and ahh over.
For anyone who can't afford an original Carla Golembe -- she's a famous artist who exhibts in Mass. and Maryland -- this is the next best thing.

I find myself struggling to get my daughter to eat foods good for her body and read books good for her mind. This book accomplished what I wanted -- it teaches about a different culture, taking care of the environment, and how greed leads to punishment. It did this with an entertaining story and beautiful pictures, fully deserving it's prominent place on my daughter's bookshelf.

Why the sky is far away is a great story that teaches important ecological and moral values in a fun way. The illustrations are amazing and the story is delightful.