folk and fairy tale reviews

Tag: folk and fairy tale reviews

December 14, 2022 by Betsy Bird

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2022 Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, and Religious Tales

I've been pleased with the slow uptick in these titles over the last few years. So with that in mind, here are the stories and legends that did a particularly good job in 2022.

December 14, 2021 by Betsy Bird

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2021 Fairy Folk, and Religious Tales

Fairytales and folktales are like mushrooms. You have a general sense when they'll crop up but you never know quite where. Today, they're cropping up here.

December 14, 2020 by Betsy Bird

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2020 Fairy, Folk, and Religious Tales

This year I was impressed by the sheer variety of the stories on display. Hope you like your tales done in all kinds of styles from all kinds of places! This year was a good one for this category.

Review of the Day: Vasilisa the Wise and Other Tales of Brave Young Women retold by Kate Forsyth, ill. Lorena Carrington

July 25, 2019 by Betsy Bird

Why not crank things up a notch and hand a kid a collection of fairy tales full of strong, clever, wily female characters that have to use their brains? If you’ve waited for such a collection, brimming over with strange stories and illustrated with even stranger art, this is the book you didn’t know you deserved until it arrived. Fairytale feminism, old school style.

Review of the Day: Cinderella Liberator by Rebecca Solnit, ill. Arthur Rackham

February 20, 2019 by Betsy Bird

Want to look at Cinderella through the mores of the 21st century? I suggest pairing yourself up with an artist that’s been dead for 80 years. Why it’s so crazy, it just might work.

Review of the Day: Dwarf Nose by Wilhelm Hauff

March 11, 2016 by Betsy Bird

Dwarf Nose By Wilhelm Hauff Illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger Translated by Anthea Bell Minedition $19.99 ISBN: 97898888341139 Ages 8-12 On shelves April 1st It seems so funny to me that for all that our culture loves and adores fairytales, scant attention is paid to the ones that can rightfully be called both awesome and obscure. […]

Review of the Day: Hansel and Gretel by Neil Gaiman

December 29, 2014 by Betsy Bird

Hansel and Gretel By Neil Gaiman Illustrated by Lorenzo Mattotti Candlewick $16.95 ISBN: 978-1-935179-62-7 Ages 6 and up When a successful writer of books for adults decides to traipse headlong into the world of children’s literature, the results are too often disastrous. From Donald Barthelme’s self-indulgent Slightly Irregular Fire Engine to the more recent, if […]

Review of the Day: The Fox and the Crow by Manasi Subramaniam

March 26, 2014 by Betsy Bird

The Fox and the Crow By Manasi Subramaniam Illustrated by Culpeo S. Fox Karadi Tales $17.95 ISBN: 978-81-8190-303-7 Ages 4 and up On shelves now In the classic Aesop fable of The Fox and the Crow where do your loyalties lie? You remember the tale, don’t you? Long story short (or, rather, short story shorter) […]

Review of the Day: Aesop in California by Doug Hansen

September 18, 2013 by Betsy Bird

Aesop in California By Doug Hansen Heyday $16.95 ISBN: 978-1-59714-235-9 Ages 3-7 On shelves now. Gather round me, o ye little children, and hear the tale I tell. Of a time when fairytales and folktales were as ripe and plentiful as the grapes of summer. When you could walk into any bookstore or library and […]