DEAN'S A BOOK OF FAIRY TALES, Ilustrated by twins Janet Grahame-Johnstone and Anne Grahame-Johnstone

PUBLISHER: Playmore Inc., 1977

IMAGES: link

MY GRADE: B

SYNOPSIS: Omnibus edition including the previously published books: Dean's Gift Book of Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales, Janet & Anne Grahame Johnstone Gift Book of Fairy Tales, Dean's Gift Book of Fairy Tales, The White Cat.

Contains the stories: Little Red Riding Hood, Mother Goose, Hop O' My Thumb, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs, Rumpelstiltskin, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Frog Prince, The Princess and the Pea, The White Cat, Little Ida's Flowers, Ole Lucköie or the Dustman, Thumbelina, The Top and the Ball, The Darning Needle, Blockhead Hans, Babes in the Wood, Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots, Tom Thumb, Hansel and Gretel, Beauty and the Beast.

MY THOUGHTS: This is beautifully illustrated in full color and it's very colorful. Every single page has illustrations on it. It's a large hardcover without dust jacket. Most of the faces on the people are ugly. Most of the children have large heads, big eyes, and the boys have feminine faces and longish hair. Here's one example of a boy. The faces on Hansel and Gretel are hideous. I strongly dislike the artists giving the Princess from The Frog Prince large breasts and cleavage. 

A big chunk of story was left out of Hop O' My Thumb, the entire part where the brothers stay with a woman and her ogre husband, and the husband mistakenly murders his daughters thinking he's murdering the brothers.

The grandmother wasn't eaten in Little Red Riding Hood and instead escaped out the back door! Ridiculous.

Most versions of Hansel and Gretel that I've read have the stepmother in the story, not the biological mother, but this version used their real mother, which is how I prefer the story.

Rumpelstiltskin doesn't tear himself in two in this version. For leaving out or changing parts of these classic stories I rate this 4 stars and not five.

Below is my favorite image from inside the book. You can see more images here.

PLAYBOY: A CHILDHOOD LOST INSIDE THE PLAYBOY MANSION by Jennifer Saginor

PUBLISHER: Dey Street Books, 2005
GENRE: Nonfiction/memoir

MY GRADE: B

SYNOPSIS: You are six years old. Every day after school your father takes you to a sprawling castle filled with exotic animals, bowls of candy, and half-naked women catering to your every need.

You have your own room. You have new friends. You have an uncle Hef who's always there for you.

Welcome to the world of Playground, the true story of a young girl who grew up inside the Playboy Mansion. By the time she was fourteen, she'd done countless drugs, had a secret affair with Hef's girlfriend, and was already losing her grip on reality.

MY THOUGHTS: This was very good but extremely repetitive, to the point I wanted to stop reading halfway through. Every page was the same, just about; endless drugs, drinking, and partying. Jennifer was born in 1969 and grew up with a wealthy father who she chose to live with when her parents divorced. There were no rules at all for her. She had an inappropriate relationship with her father, who was like a jealous boyfriend and who treated her like an adult. There was no true father/daughter relationship, ever. She cheated her way through school and college (she had tutors do her work) but that's really all we know about her. She didn't really say much about how her adulthood turned out. I have no sense of how she turned out. As for stories about what goes on at the Playboy mansion, she mentioned endless parties and dinners. Though I give this 4 stars, I wouldn't recommend it.