Fairy Tale Comics, edited by Chris Duffy (First Second, 2013) collects a variety of drawing styles and author’s voices into this anthology of 17 different favorite fairy tales. Most of the tales are retellings that young children will be familiar with. A few are more unfamiliar, coming from traditions other than the Brothers Grimm. This

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What is your favorite fairy tale? Mine has always been Beauty and the Beast; I loved the Disney movie when it first came out. I’ve always wondered, though, how the Beast became so beast-like so fast and that no one remembered him in that castle! The Beast Within by Serena Valentino (Disney Book Group, July

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Are you ready for adorable? Because these two board books definitely fit the bill! For anyone who has read my blog for any length of time, you will know that I absolutely love reading the classics. So why not read and enjoy a board book version of some classics? Cozy Classics: Tom Sawyer and Cozy

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Since my son and I have been learning about Ancient Greece and Greek mythology over the last few weeks, I thought it would be appropriate to revisit some familiar stories. Given my more recent lack of reading time or inclination, I determined not to attempt The Odyssey this year; but I did manage to read

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I love reading my son fairy tales. I particularly love fairy tales retold. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszkca (1989) was a favorite of mine when I was a kid. I love hearing a familiar story from some other characters point of view! Also, my own son has gone through

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The first quarter of 2012 has been spare on the blogging front, but it’s been busy and delightful on the home front from my perspective!  My daughter is now five weeks old, and my son (age 4) and I are starting to settle into a routine again of reading picture books. I’m reading my baby

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Previously by Allan Ahlberg, illustrated by Bruce Ingman is a different type of fairy tale. It goes backwards, showing that each nursery rhyme or fairy tale characters came from somewhere else. showing the effect of the action before showing the action. It begins, for example, with Goldilocks: Goldilocks arrived home all bothered and hot. And

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I’ve found that these retellings are more fun to read, sometimes, than the original. It goes to show that if you want your fairy tale picture book to stand out, you have to do something different to the story. Stay tuned! Once I’m done talking books, Raisin has a puppet show for you! Which picture

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The story of Goldilocks and her visit to an unoccupied house of three bears has inspired a plethora of picture books, retellings, and rewritten accounts of the story. Robert Southey first recorded the folkloric story in an 1834 collection. (See Wikipedia for a rundown of the story’s history and reincarnations). As I mentioned when I

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I went through a summer children’s and YA binge during my blogging break. These books did not take long to read, and I read them for the pure entertainment value. They also are not ones that I’ll remember for long, although they were enjoyable. It may be that I am not thinking much of them

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