Cinderella, or, The Little Glass Slipper by Marcia Brown (Caldecott Winner 1955) has crayon, watercolor, and ink with appropriately gentle pictures for the story of a little Cinderella, who pines after the ball. At first glance (the cover) I wasn’t sure about the illustrations, but once I opened the book and saw the coloring of the ink sketches, I was hooked.
I really like how the characters are outlined in ink and then the crayon (or colored pencil) brings out the details. I also like the telling of Cinderella: just right for a young child wanting to read of princesses. (My 3-year-old son has not shown an interest to this point in princesses unless they are on trains, but we may revisit this again since he does enjoy fairy tales.)
Which of children’s books have you and/or your kids read and enjoyed?
Oh, I had that Cinderella book when I was a kid! But my favorite fairy tale book when I was little was the Jan Brett Beauty and the Beast. It’s absolutely gorgeous. In every picture where Beauty’s in the castle with the Beast and his servants, there are tapestries in the background with images of what the Beast and the servants used to look like before the curse. Really, it’s lovely.
Jenny, I’ve been warming to Jan Brett’s style — I”ll have to look for her Beauty and the Beast, sounds beautiful.
These brought back many happy memories.
Ann
Ann, That’s why I love being a mom: I get to revisit favorite books and enjoy seeing my son love them too!
I’m so sorry to hear that my favorites did not work for you. I grew up with the Tudor Mother Goose, which I wore down with love. Now I love the Jarrell Snow White, and I adore the St. George and the Dragon. The latter was the first book my son actually read. He assured us he was reading the pictures books we had in the house, but given his very young age, we were sure he was just reciting them from memory. Then we checked out St. George from the library and he picked it out of the bag and read the first page aloud–NOT an easy task. We stood there slack-jawed for a long time. How lovely to think back to those magical days.
Not a fairy tale, but do you know the Clooney book Miss Rumphius? A lovely quiet picture-book read just right for children as they are growing up.
LifetimeReader, ah, I really didn’t like Jarrell’s Snow White. I really didn’t like the illustrations or the way it was told! I could tell I’m a lone voice, though, I checked out the plethora of postive reviews on Amazon.
I like the Tudor and St. George, just not love. I think I am reading picture books with my son in mind — and since he’s so young, I tend to have a hard time giving the older kids readers a fair chance? Maybe? I need to read more openly, I guess when it comes to picture books….
My new favorite book to read to my 2 yr. old is Jon Sciezka’s Truckery Rhymes. It takes the Mother Goose rhymes and puts them in “truck talk”. For example:
“Little Dan Dumper sat on his bumper, taking his break for the day, along came Pete Loader, who revved his loud motor, and frightened Dan Dumper away.”
Scieszka’s rhymes still sing with rhythm like the traditional Mother Goose and are fun to read aloud. The illustrations draw you into the rhymes so well you won’t want to turn the page until you have taken it all in.
My son recites the poems with me now and we can’t go to bed without reading it!
Julie, oh that sounds like so much fun! Now that my preschooler knows the original nursery rhymes, he’d probably love it even more!