Friendly Fairies - Illustrated Version (Childrens Fairy Stories)
Contents:
The illustrations by Helen Field are cute and for the most part pretty, while Paul Mason explores both sides of the appearance of fairies, from the gorgeous to the monstrous. This book is not for those who simply want fluffy bunny children's fairy-tales, but for the real student of real fairies and real fairy lore.
It is simply the most comprehensive and most accurate book on the market for anyone who has a genuine interest in fairies, rather than Victorian 'fairy' tales. As soon as I looked at the cover I just knew I would like this book and I wasn't disappointed. There is just so much to read and the pictures Some pretty, some really made me laugh and others a bit scary. I don't know how the artists managed to make everything look so real. I really never realised there was so much to know about fairies.
Each day I open the book at a new page and just read. Some words we take for granted like nightmare now have a very different meaning to me. When I have read every page, I will probably go back to the begining again and again. Words in capital letters refer the reader to other entries in the encyclopaedia. ABATWA are tiny South African fairies that live peacefully with the ants in anthills, but who are very shy, only occasionally revealing themselves to wizards, young children and pregnant women.
If a woman in the seventh month of her pregnancy should see one, she will have a boy child. It seeks to steal human children. It has no stomach and is therefore always hungry.
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He also appears as a grasshopper. She appears as a lovely woman with dark hair wearing a circlet with a star on her forehead. They occasionally appear to humans as little old men. She loves nuts and will punish anyone who takes acorns from her tree with bloating and cramps. She hates lazy humans and will pinch them. It looks like the Encyclopaedia has found a new publisher. Our experiences are not uncommon. A-Z Words in capital letters refer the reader to other entries in the encyclopaedia. The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Fairies.
Even more than that, The Ice Queen has caused ripples of fear, and so the tribes have turned not only inwards, but against each other, and harbour an intense fear of strangers and outsiders, lest they be spies or intruders. By the end of the book the message is clearly that tribalism may not work, that strangers do not necessarily have evil intent, and by working together, evil can be overcome. As well as the large messages within, this book showcases a writer coming into her own.
The descriptions are lush and appealing — the flump of snow flopping from a branch, and crack and pop of the river melting — a feeling of Narnia-eque bursting into spring. The Ice Queen brings memories from The Snow Queen , and the fairy tale language of the voice-over prologue lends itself well to the feeling of timelessness and gives an all-encompassing setting to Erkenwald and its various tribes although less confident readers may wish to get straight into the story of Eska.
- Correspondência - I (Portuguese Edition).
- Description.
- CHILDREN'S NURSERY.
There are numerous child-friendly touches within the story — the protagonists are children of course, but there are hideouts and dens lovingly described, and a constant flow of energy and vivacity sending their tendrils through the story. There is also the touching character of Blu, shown with a mild intellectual disability, but it is noticeable that the older children and adults are those least forgiving of this; Blu is easily accepted by Eska, Flint, and those with kind, open hearts.
This is a fantastic story of friendship, nature, overcoming adversity, but most of all acceptance and belonging. Always enthralling and daring, it speaks to our darkest fears and our intrinsic faults, and yet to an ongoing belief in the strength of humanity and empathy to pull us through. Throughout, the author and illustrator manage to give a warmth to the snowy landscapes with the innocence of dotted pastel illustrations, and a subtle simplicity within the text.
The menace in the tall trees matches the menace Hortense sees in the stretch of her shadow, but in the end her happy ending comes when she sees that the shadowy figures in the background can be more frightening than her own shadow. Without her shadow, she is smaller. With it, despite its darkness, she grows in stature and confidence. With an allusion to Peter Pan via a sash window guillotine, and the hints of fairy tale, this is a picture book that comes from the literary canon that preceded it. Author Natalia and illustrator Lauren are sisters. MinervaReads asked Natalia and Lauren to discuss working together, where their ideas come from, and writing alternative modern fairy tales.
The sisters, being sisters, interviewed each other. This is their conversation. In a way, Hortense and the Shadow was your pick, because I came to you with six or seven story ideas and asked which you liked best. What attracted you to the story? Those are qualities we both seem to be attracted to. Actually it was kind of liberating, feeling like we could just play and learn because nobody would ever want to publish this book. It surprised me when you said just now that Hortense and the Shadow was a personal idea.
What do you mean? It had a message about self-acceptance I loved. Remember, that was the time when I was coming out of that dark period in my life, and working hard to accept myself and my flaws. And both of us struggled with low self-esteem when we were children. We talked about Hortense being a kind of modern incarnation of the fairytale princess and about gender quite a bit when we were making this book. What did that mean to you? Well if you remember, when we very first started working on the book there was a moment where you considered making the hero a little boy. Because this story has a message about accepting your darkness and holding onto your imperfections.
His illustrations for that book are just so evocative and magical. The beautiful snowy landscapes and talking animals and flower-filled gardens… I remember copying out some of the illustrations when we were little, and I feel like they worked their way into my head and found their way out again when I was illustrating Hortense and the Shadow. You were developing a new style because you were illustrating for the first time, but at the same time what delighted me was how you were channeling the books and illustrators we loved as children — Jiri Trnka, Errol Le Cain, Mirko Hanak.
Probably because of that your illustrations felt familiar to me. Do you think our Eastern European background influences the kind of stories we tell? How could it not really? There are subtle ways it influences us, like the mood of melancholy and nostalgia that comes from being born into a family like ours, where every generation until ours, people had to go into exile to escape horrible political events.
Then there are more obvious ways, like the fact your illustrations look a lot like the hand-me-down mid-century Soviet books we had at home. Or the fact I love to write strong female protagonists, which is quite common in Slavic fairy tales where the princess often rescues the prince. You can buy a copy of the book here. Scientists have been looking at how folk and fairy tales, particularly stories of animals and magic, have been distributed from their place of origin. What fascinates me is the content itself. She has renamed her tales, but given the traditional name underneath, so as to help the readership, covering ten stories from Rapunzel and Rumplestiltskin to The Swan Brothers , Twelve Dancing Princesses and more well-known stories including Red Riding Hood and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
But McKay is clever in her storytelling. She understands that her readership may have an inkling of the denouement of the stories, so she finds another way to tell them — be it changing the point of view, or the timeframe through which they are told. For example, The Pied Piper of Hamelin is told from the perspective of the Mayor, who may have a slightly different view from normal on the terrible tragedy of the children being taken away those noisy, litter-dropping children!
There are newer lessons in here too — with the story of Rapunzel , McKay manages to convey something leaning towards a discussion on freedom and captivity — what it really means to be free and the fears that this can bring. With Snow White , McKay extrapolates our sense of what is considered beautiful, and also whether beauty is held within.
By telling some stories from a perspective of the fairy tale characters in old age, looking back, more wisdoms can be brought out with the beauty of hindsight, and sometimes the clever children listening question their grandparents on decisions they made as children — Snow White as a grandmother is particularly effective — also bringing to the discussion the difference between telling a story and making up a story, and things purporting to be truths. These stories will appeal because they sound modern, despite the ancient stories buried inside, and because they right some ancient wrongs — McKay clearly feels sorry for Rumpelstiltskin, and gives him some relief.
This is a wonderful collection of fairy tales retold, with bite and pathos and humour. You can buy a copy here. Updating the fairy tales not only means that the authors can inject them with our own sensibilities, but also showcase thoughts about our own history by setting them in a specific past era. But more than that, Roberts beautifully highlights the architecture and comforts of the time — the burgeoning building works post-war, the fashions and hairstyles, and before Annabel Sleeping Beauty goes to sleep, she is shown to be an up-and-coming wise young lady, complete with reading a book, harbouring a fascination with space travel and robots, her discoveries Elvis indicative of the s.
This sleeping teen sleeps for a 1, years and wakes to find another strong female protagonist exploring her s house as if it were a museum.
Friendly Fairies - Illustrated Version (Children's Fairy Stories) - Kindle edition by Johnny Gruelle. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC. 'Friendly Fairies' is written and illustrated by Johnny Gruelle. artist and political cartoonist, as well as a children's book illustrator and author. This particular story does not feature Raggedy Ann, instead presenting fifteen unique fairy stories, including Sought after by collectors, this re-printed edition showcases Gruelle's.
The robot poster on the wall is an extra special touch in a book that speaks to discovery and learning, science and science fiction. A unique way of crushing stereotypes and exploring lasting fairy tales. This sequel to This is Not a Bedtime Story returns Sophie and her Dad as he attempts to read Sophie a typical fairy story from his book princess in tower etc , but Sophie interrupts, and then changes the story to suit her.
This story within a story picture book pokes fun at traditional gendered stereotyping in fairy stories; the princess using a combine harvester and then a transformer to reach the tower in which the prince is sleeping. Fairy Tale Pets by Tracey Corderoy and Jorge Martin pulls characters out of fairy tales and puts them in another story altogether. In this case, Bob and his pet dog Rex decide to open a pet-sitting service to make some money.
The humorous illustrations add to the fun. A perfect gift to be read over and over. Updating the fairy tales not only means that the authors can inject them with our own sensibilities, but also showcase thoughts about our own history by setting them in a specific past era. Frankie Francesca is out distributing leaflets to try to find her lost cat. This story within a story picture book pokes fun at traditional gendered stereotyping in fairy stories; the princess using a combine harvester and then a transformer to reach the tower in which the prince is sleeping. The Story of the Chinese Zodiac by Christopher Corr A complete contrast in the illustrations here, in which Corr uses his book to explain how the Chinese zodiac came to be.
Of course, mayhem ensues, and Bob has to turn to making his money some other way. The illustrations are large and impactful, with liberal use of colour in quite wacky chaotic scenes. Well worth a look. If, like me, your kids at a very young age went through a stage of playing nothing but Cluedo, then you might beg to differ. If they can spend an afternoon arguing whether it was Col Mustard or Rev Green who hit someone over the head with a candlestick in the library, then you would assume that their own library could contain a little noir. The plot however, is easy to pick up. Pigeon PI, complete with detective hat, is resting when the Kid a blonde chirpy little thing turns up and asks for help finding her missing friends.
The end papers themselves are incredibly funny too — from detective thinking poses to asking tough questions — it guides the reader through being a private investigator as a pigeon. In fact, throughout this busily illustrated book, there are numerous clues and ideas about PIs. The title page shows the private ads of the newspaper, advertising the PI, and there are quite a few bill posters and rubbish detritus throughout, strewn across the pages, but showing images of missing birds, advertisements, articles etc. Seek it out here.
Using clues, and conducting interviews, as well as eventually catching the culprit, the book puts a whole new spin on the classic fairytale. The idea is very much for the reader to be his or her own detective, deciphering what is different from the original fairy tale, and predicting what might happen. The book was devoured by my testers here, who definitely wanted more. Detective Gordon is on a break, perhaps even on the cusp of retirement, leaving assistant Buffy in sole charge of the police station as the new Police Chief. Buffy is a mouse, Gordon, a frog.
But Gordon misses the police station and Buffy misses having a companion. When there are strange noises at the police station one night, Buffy asks Gordon for help — after all, being a lone police mouse is dangerous and scary work. Together, the two officers are braver and cleverer. Again, the plot here is easy to decipher and simple to detect, but there is a much greater depth to these warm stories from Ulf Nilsson. Themes of companionship, and self-discovery, tales of friendship and teamwork.
A great introduction to detective fiction for the very youngest — with plenty of cakes and wholesome allusions. Until he meets neighbour Shelby Holmes. Despite being only nine years old, Shelby is the best detective in the neighbourhood — using her inflated confidence and acute skills of observation to discover everything about everybody. She has low tolerance for fools.
The black and white humorous illustrations throughout serve to make our protagonist and sidekick rather endearing. Eulberg may have transplanted Baker Street to New York City, but she paints a realistic, fully-fleshed and diverse neighbourhood, which makes the read even more up-to-date and pertinent.
The first of many we presume. Rose Raventhorpe is born into the aristocracy and ought to behave as a Victorian young lady already, the place of women in historical society is a hook , but when her butler is murdered — the third butler in Yorke to be found dead in a week — Rose feels compelled to investigate. With sinister grave-robbers, underground tunnels and cats with strange powers, this is a dark and twisty little tale, yet highly readable with good pace, and also packs in a good supernatural element. Rose is a fine protagonist — smart, curious, brave.
Classic stories and fairy tales
A historical giggle with darkness and magic. Investigate how to buy it here. It borrows many of the familiar tropes from them — good versus evil, the magic of an animal this time a bird , and the heroics of ordinary people. And throughout the story, the reader can trace glimpses of remembered tales, faint associations with stories of old.
Alberto, the carpenter, lives in a special little town called Allora, where the fish fly out of the sea and the houses shine like brightly-coloured jewels on the hilltop. But he suffers great loss when a plague sweeps through the town, killing his entire family. He turns from making furniture to making coffins.
When his food starts to go missing, he tries to discover who the food thief is, and before long befriends a boy, Tito, and a rather special bird. The story unfolds in style like a long lost folk tale, both in the way it describes the town, and also in the unfolding of the plot.
If you look closely, fragments will remind you of other stories. Each beat of its wings made a patch of stars flicker out, and another made them flicker back on. The book flows beautifully, with enough suspense and adventure to keep the reader hooked, but also the lilting beauty of the text which matches perfectly the beauty of the setting — the small glistening town on the edge of the sea, and a cast of colourful characters. Full-page illustrations punctuate the story.
But why did I mention fairy tales and folk stories at the start? Why do the allusions in the story make it special? The allusions add a depth to the read. Ancient myths, fairy tales and fables were told to make moral points, to guide the reader in life, in much the same way that so many modern stories are told to teach empathy and compassion in our diverse world. Our reading will be a much richer experience if we teach the next generation the storytelling tradition — strengthening the relationship between stories of different cultures and literary canons, giving the readers tools so that they can develop an analytical understanding of narrative, deeper connections between texts, seeing bonds and similarities.
I was approached recently by a teacher raised in an extremely religious orthodox environment, who knew none of the fairy tales that we and Disney so often take for granted. She was lamenting her ignorance, until I pointed out the wealth of stories she must have from her religious texts. And these too provided guidance and a way for her to draw parallels with the texts she is now reading with the children. Crossing barriers, reaching over the divide.
And what better way to do it than by creating new folk stories from the old. Borrowing, alluding, and comparing. This book came out in and rather slipped under the radar, but despite that, has continued to haunt me since I read it — in the same way that the song from somewhere else haunts our protagonist. Frankie Francesca is out distributing leaflets to try to find her lost cat. But when she is hemmed in by bullies in the park, she is rescued by school outcast Nick Underbridge the name is a carefully chosen clue to the later events in the story.
Nick is ostracised in school, and smells slightly, but Frankie finds herself accompanying him home out of a sense of duty and thanks. She starts to spend more time with Nick, despite the worry that she too will be cast out at school because of the friends she keeps. The duality of the story is what makes it so special. The book is set in a time in which kids get on their bikes and ride to freedom, of lego and drawing, but also the internet and mobile phones, yet Harrold makes it feel sort of timeless.
The effect of the everyday objects is to ground Frankie deeply in reality, within a contemporary story about friends and bullying, yet there are clear shadows of another world that seep into this — a fairy tale dimension that echoes the heightened emotions of our main story. In this way, Harrold uses the duality of his fairy tale to mirror reality and his contemporary story — we all have the darkness and purity inside us.
And yet, because of the shadows cast, the point of view from which the picture is drawn, the intensity of the pencil lines, and yes, more by what is hidden than what is shown — they are deeply dark and disturbing — mysterious and haunting. They feel slippery and ethereal. The text too — telling a compelling story of friendship in a lyrical way — there is comedy and poetry mixed with darkness.
Its evocative and ghostly. But most of all, all this combines to make a text that is easy to read, and scattered with illustrations. It implies a feeling of loss and absence throughout, and leaves the reader with a sense of bittersweet sadness, as well as uplifting lightness.
This is a great book for deciphering and picking apart friendships — understanding not only who we choose to be friends with, but also how we demonstrate our loyalty to our friends, and how we come to understand them.