A First Book of Fairy Tales [Hardcover]

Mary Hoffman (Author), Anne Millard (Author), Julie Downing (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

In this beautifully illustrated book, 14 classic fairy tales are retold for young children. Old favorites, such as "Cinderella" and "Jack and the Beanstalk," are presented alongside some lesser known stories, such as "The Fisherman and his Wife" and "Diamonds and Toads." Mary Hoffman's charming retellings use simple, lyrical language ideal for reading aloud, while Julie Downing's illustrations bring the characters to life. The stories in this collection show the consequences of greed, pride, and vanity, but also tell of the love that grows from a kind heart and a cheerful nature. And along the way, there is a wealth of magic and fun to be enjoyed.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mary Hoffman has written more than 70 books for children, and her powers of observation bring vitality and humor to all her stories and retellings. Her previous titles for Dorling Kindersley include Henry's Baby and A First Bible Story Book. Her best-known picture books are Amazing Grace, Three Wise Women, and An Angel Just Like Me. Mary lives in Oxfordshire, England, with her husband, and they have three daughters. The girls were brought up on myths and legends, of which Mary and her husband have an extensive collection. Julie Downing has always had a love of drawing and discovered her desire to illustrate children's books during her arts studies at The Rhode Island School of Design. She has had several books published, including A Ride on the Red Mare's Back, Lullaby and Goodnight, White Snow, and Blue Feather. Julie's books for Dorling Kindersley include A First Bible Story Book, The Christmas Story, and Come Aboard Noah's Ark. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and their young son and daughter.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 80 pages
• Publisher: DK CHILDREN (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789479060
• ISBN-13: 978-0789479068
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #36 in Books > Children's Books > Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths > Anthologies

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magically Illustrated...., September 6, 2001

By 

Rebecca Johnson "The Rebecca Review" (Washington State) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A First Book of Fairy Tales (Hardcover)

It is as if a fairy waved her wand and these illustrations appeared! Julie Downing discovered her desire to illustrate children's books when she was studying at The Rhode Island School of Design. Her characters have believable personalities and the page of art on the first page of The Little Mermaid is ethereal.

Mary Hoffman has written more than 70 books for children and has great powers of observation to bring humor to all her stories and retellings. She lives in Oxfordshire, England, and has three daughters who were brought up on a healthy diet of myths and legends of which she and her husband have a extensive collection. Her goal in writing this book was to chose the best-loved and most well-known fairy tales from European tradition.

The stories in this collection strive to show the consequences of greed, pride and vanity. They also tell how love comes from a kind heart. These are the stories you will remember forever because they are so classic. They also teach that good is rewarded and selfishness is punished. Storytelling has played a role in developing character in children for a long, long time. Originally, fairy tales were not just for children...and to tell you a secret: "I still love them!" These stories are easy to read out loud!

In this collection you will find:

Cinderella
The Selfish Giant
Rapunzel
Jack and the Beanstalk
Sleeping Beauty
The Little Mermaid
The Frog Prince
Beauty and the Beast
Diamonds and Toads
The Twelve Dancing Princesses (never had heard of before!)
The Fisherman and his Wife
The Princess and the Pea (I tried this as a child to see if I was a princess...lol)
Rumpelstiltskin
The Snow Queen

A page about the storytellers tells about Hans Christian Andersen, Madame De Beaumont, The Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault and Oscar Wilde.

Bring a child's imagination to life with fantasy tales that often have a moral lesson.

~The Rebecca Review

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful for young children!, September 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: A First Book of Fairy Tales (Hardcover)

I had been looking for a book of fairy tales for my three year old but most seem to be more appropriate for older children. This book is terrific because it contains many of the best-loved classics - Cinderella, Rapunzel, The Frog Prince, Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin, The Princess and The Pea and many others. Also, each tale is just a few pages, pefect for a young child's attention span. It has been fun for me to hear these timeless tales again and they are just as charming as I remembered. My daughter asks for this one again and again.

49 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars It could be so much more, January 16, 2006

By 

Spinspin (Big Apple USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A First Book of Fairy Tales (Hardcover)

I really wanted to like this book, since there aren't a lot of offerings for introducing toddlers to fairy tales. I have no issue with the selection of tales, or the illustrations, which are lively and appropriate. But the TELLING of these tales is really poorly done. The authors seem to have confused the idea of telling a story briefly (for an audience with a short attention span) with telling it quickly (by leaving out important details and giving it the "cliffs notes" treatment). These are done the latter way-- which often means the whole point of the tale seems lost! Also, striving for brevity, the authors made bad choices about vocabulary. If these tales are for young children, choose your words more carefully, please. The book throws around vocabulary like "enchanted" without explaining it (i.e. how does one become enchanted, who did the enchanting?) but spells out simpler things in near-baby-talk. All in all, I find this book unreadable to my child. I'm going to put it on a high shelf so neither of us becomes frustrated by it again.