Michael Hague's Read-to-Me Book of Fairy Tales
K-Gr 3—This collection brings together 14 folk- and fairy tales, including "Beauty and the Beast," "Cinderella," "The Little Mermaid," and "The Three Little Pigs," retold simply and in a large format for sharing aloud. Many of the more violent plot points have been dampened down or omitted completely, though the girl in "The Seven Ravens" does cut off her own finger and Snow White's stepmother "feasted on what she thought was Snow White…." Jewel-toned paintings done in pencil, pen-and-ink, watercolor, and Adobe Photoshop decorate each story with complex, rich details that are occasionally a bit frightening. Overall this volume serves as a nice introduction to these well-known tales and will be useful in library collections, but unfortunately no sources are cited, even for the Hans Christian Andersen tales. The flap copy references "The Frog Prince," which is not actually included in the book.—Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA