THE LITTLE MERMAID AND OTHER FAIRY TALES by Hans Christian Andersen, Illustrated by Isabelle Brent

PUBLISHER: Viking, 10/1998

IMAGES: link

MY GRADE: C

SYNOPSIS: The Little Mermaid is one of the most haunting stories ever written. Its author, Hans Christian Andersen, made the literary fairy tale so much his own that even today no writer has surpassed him.

This collection, with an introduction and fresh new renderings of the tales by Neil Philip, includes not just "The Little Mermaid" but also such favorites as "The Tinderbox," "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," and "The Little Match Girl."

Includes the stories The Tinderbox, Little Ida's Flowers, The Little Mermaid, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Flying Trunk, The Sweethearts, The Bell, The Little Match Girl, The Collar, The Goblin at the Grocer's, In a Thousand Years' Time, Five Peas From the Same Pod, The Beetle, The Toad, Dance, Dance, Dolly Mine!, The Gardener and His Master

MY THOUGHTS: This is a really nice looking book. The full color illustrations are predominantly blue, for some reason, and you can view every single one here. There is at least one full color illustration for each story except there are none at all for The Sweethearts, In a Thousand Years' Time, and Dance, Dance, Dolly Mine!,

The stories I like best are "Little Ida's Flowers." It's really cute. It's about flowers who dance and have parties at night when humans aren't around, and inanimate objects come alive and join in the fun. Someone in the story says that butterflies are really flowers who've jumped off the stems. "The Sweethearts" is funny and is about a top and leather ball, toys that belong to a child, that are stored in a drawer together, get separated, then meet up again years later. There's a silly yet very funny short story called "The Collar", about a shirt collar with quite the personality, an iron, garter, and comb who still has all her teeth. Other good ones are The Little Mermaid, The Little Match Girl, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, and The Emperor's New Clothes. The rest aren't good at all, so I liked 7 out of 17.

 

THE WORLD'S BEST FAIRY TALES VOLUME 2 by Reader's Digest, Edited by Belle Becker Sideman, illustrated by Fritz Kredel

PUBLISHER: Reader's Digest, 1967, 1977

GENRE: Children's Fiction

ALL IMAGES: link
MY GRADE: A

SYNOPSIS: Volume 2 of a two-volume fairy tale anthology. All the best loved and remembered tales. 

Includes: Jorinda and Joringel, Puss in Boots, The Emperor's New Clothes, Billy Beg and His Bull, Little One Eye, Little Two Eyes and Little Three Eyes, The Red Shoes, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Snegourka, the Snow Maiden, The Three Little Pigs, The Shoemaker and the Elves, Doctor Know-It-All, The Six Swans, Dick Whittington and His Cat, Rapunzel, Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, The Three Bears, Rumpelstiltskin, The Golden-Headed Fish, Hansel and Gretel, The Brave Little Tailor, The Gingerbread Man, A Horned Goat, Seven Simons, The Little Match Girl, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, The Musicians of Bremen, Blue Beard, The Princess on Glass Hill, The Half-Chick, Sleeping Beauty, The Magic Carpet, Jack the Giant Killer, Twelve Dancing Princesses, Little Claus and Big Claus, The Colony of Cats, Sinbad the Sailor.

MY THOUGHTS: This is the second volume to the one I reviewed previously. Each story, some are common fairy tales, some are just stories, has a full color, full page illustration. This volume had a few more stories and weighs slightly less than the first volume. Like I said of the previous one, the stories in here are hit or miss. I'm disappointed in myself for skipping three of the longer stories. They didn't hold my interest and I didn't want to waste time on them. My favorites are: Jorinda and Joringle, Hansel and Gretel, The Gingerbread Man, Bluebeard, which has no business being in a children's book, The Little Match Girl, The Red Shoes, and The Steadfast Tin Soldier. The most morbid ones are Bluebeard and Little Claus and Big Claus with The Red Shoes runner-up.

See all images from inside the book here.

THE WORLD'S BEST FAIRY TALES VOL. 1 from Reader's Digest, Edited by Belle Becker Sideman, illustrated by Fritz Kredel

PUBLISHER: Reader's Digest, 1967 & 1977

GENRE: Children's Fiction 

ALL IMAGES: link

MY GRADE: A

SYNOPSIS: A Reader's Digest anthology, volume 1 of 2: The best of the world's fairy tales collected together from all over the world.

Featuring the stories: The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Snow White and Rose Red, It's Perfectly True!, Tom Thumb, The Nightingale, Chicken Little, The Frog Prince, Cinderella, The Princess and the Pea, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, The Golden Goose, Why the Sea is Salt, The Ugly Duckling, Jack and the Beanstalk, Two Frogs, The Snow Queen, Six Sillies, The Hedgehog and the Rabbit, Thumbelina, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Red Riding Hood, The Little Mermaid, Five Wise Words, The Goose-Girl, Beauty and the Beast, The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Tinderbox, Little Fir Tree, The Bronze Ring, Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Boy Who Kept a Secret, The Magic Kettle. 

MY THOUGHTS: This is a small hardcover without a dust jacket, measuring 8 1/4" x 5 1/2" x 1 1/8" and weighing 1lb. 8 oz. The top of the pages are gold. This was originally published by Random House in 1967 as one huge 800+ page volume with the same illustrations on the dust jacket as this one from 1983 but a different color. The pages of my 1983 edition are thick and of good quality. Each story has one full page, full color illustration. All illustrations were done by Fritz Kredel and can be seen here. There's information in the back of the book about where each story chosen for this anthology came from, which book it was previously published in, and what year. As far as translations go I couldn't tell you if these stories were translated good or not. 

The stories are hit or miss as all fairy tales are. I like the darker ones, so I like the well-known ones in here best, like The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Red Riding Hood and Chicken Little. This has the original Charles Perrault version of Cinderella, not the darker Grimm's version. Most of these stories are very violent and gruesome. very, especially Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, which makes me think of a Beastie Boys song. My least favorite is The Boy Who Kept a Secret because he beats a woman and smacks another one and still wins in the end. Perhaps the saddest one, to me, is The Little Mermaid. It actually made me sad. The cutest one was Two Frogs and made me giggle. I didn't grow up reading fairy tales so as an adult I'm getting into them, so I enjoyed this book, and the illustrations. Illustrations always make stories better, preferably ones in color.

 

THE CLASSIC HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN FAIRY TALES, edited by Sheila Black

PUBLISHER: Courage Press, 1991
IMAGES: link 

GOODREADS: link
MY GRADE: A

SYNOPSIS: For generations of readers, Hans Christian Andersen's stories have opened a world of unforgettable enchantment. This beautiful edition brings nine of Andersen's most beloved tales to life through rich, full color artwork by some of America's most gifted illustrators.

Contains the stories The Emperor's New Clothes, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Princess and the Pea, Thumbelina, The Fir Tree, The Little Mermaid, The Nightingale, The Little Match Girl, The Ugly Duckling.

MY THOUGHTS: This contains nine stories and is just 56 pages. This is a taller than average book, which is disappointing because it won't fit on my shelf. It measures 13 1/4" x  10 1/8" x 1/2". The full color illustrations are absolutely beautiful and very colorful.

The stories are retold by author and poet Sheila Black and illustrated by seven people. Each story contains more than two full color images. I didn't compare the stories to the originals so I can't tell you if they're practically the same or not, but I think they are, from what I can remember of the originals. Most of these stories aren't really fit for children, but you likely already knew that. The Little Mermaid is far too deep and dark for children and I really like it. It's very sad. The Little Match Girl and The Ugly Duckling definitely aren't for children. But I like dark stories so I liked all of these, even the light ones. Truthfully I bought this for the illustrations and they didn't disappoint.