How could everyone in a castle - even the flies on the walls - sleep for a century and then wake up? This magical, beautifully illustrated tale begins when the king excludes the most difficult fairy of the kingdom from a feast celebrating the birth of his beautiful daughter Briar Rose. Furious, the fairy storms in and curses the baby, pronouncing that on her fifteenth birthday she will be pricked by a distaff (from a spinning wheel) and fall down dead. The youngest fairy softens the curse to a century-long sleep. Despite the fact that the king burns all the spinning wheels in the kingdom, 15-year-old Briar Rose finds herself in the tower where the evil fairy and her fate await her. The drama of the spell unfurls as she and the other inhabitants of the castle fall instantly asleep, from courtiers to kitchen maids. Thorny briars - moodily captured by Trina Schart Hyman's masterful paintbrush - grow up around the castle. Hyman depicts those who died attempting to break through the maze of thorns to reach the legendary sleeping beauty in a nightmarish illustration. But goodness and true love prevail when the perfect prince does finally find his way through the thick vines.Hyman won a Caldecott Medal for her work in Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges, and her version of The Sleeping Beauty makes us believe in the magic of the spell. The scenes inside the castle are alive with color and movement and rich with details that children will devour eagerly. Moods and expressions are rendered exquisitely, especially those of the wild, red-haired beauty Briar Rose. This wonderful read-aloud classic is one of Hyman's best.

    The gingerbread man outruns everybody, until he meets the quick-witted fox.

    You thought you knew the story of the “The Three Little Pigs”… You thought wrong. In this hysterical and clever fracture fairy tale picture book that twists point of view and perspective, young readers will finally hear the other side of the story of “The Three Little Pigs.”

    What's her special power?"Cat says, "She doesn't have any special powers. It's not that kind of a story."And then the fun ensues!The zany, fun back-and-forth of Dog and Cat celebrates the joy of reading -- and questioning. Young children will cheer Dog's persistent questions as well as Cat's dedication to keep telling the story.

    But Little Bush Deer is onto Anansi's scheme, and hatches a plan to beat him at his own game.Based on tales originating in West Africa and familiar in Caribbean culture, the five-book Anansi the Trickster series is full of slapstick humor and mischief. Eric A. Kimmel's imaginative energy combined with Janet Stevens' expressive illustrations create the perfect silly stories for fun-loving kids.

    What would you do if you were invited to the princess’s tenth birthday party but didn’t have money for a gift? Well, clever Jack decides to bake the princess a cake.Now he just has to get it to the castle in one piece. What could possibly go wrong?Candace Fleming and G. Brian Karas, creators of the bestselling picture book Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!, have teamed up again to bring us a modern fairy tale starring a determined boy and a story-loving princess with a good sense of humor. While girls will fall for a story featuring a princess’s birthday party, Jack’s adventures with trolls, bears, and gypsies make this the perfect read for young boys as well—and ideal for storytime.

    Now brought luminously to life by K. Y. Craft's lavish paintings, this new edition of a timeless favorite is sure to enchant readers both young and old. Fairy tale lovers have been eagerly awaiting Craft's next magical romance since the release of her Cinderella. With illustrations inspired by the magnificent style of Baroque painters, the sumptuous color and exquisite detail of this breathtaking interpretation make it a dream come true.

    But the proud tiger must suffer the consequences when he becomes ungrateful and forgets his humble origins. Marcia Brown’s magical woodcuts bring this Indian fable to life with the mastery that won her a second Caldecott Medal.

    A tiny creature comes to save her under the condition that she has three chances to guess his name right.West Indian

    But when the Big Bad Wolf comes looking for a snack, he huffs and puffs the first little pig right out of the story . . . and into the realm of pure imagination! Dialogue balloons pepper a wide variety of illustration styles taking readers through a dazzling fantasy universe to the surprising and happy ending. You will never look at “The Three Little Pigs”—or artwork—the same way again!"A funny, wildly imaginative tale that encourages readers to leap beyond the familiar; to think critically about conventional stories and illustration, and perhaps, to flex their imaginations and create wonderfully subversive versions of their own stories." — ALA Booklist , Starred Review

    Priscilla the princess has accidentally switched places with Pigmella, the farmer's new piglet. The kindly farmer and his wife believe it's the work of a good witch, while the ill-tempered king and queen blame the bad witch-after all, this happens in fairy tales all the time! While Priscilla grows up on the farm, poor yet very happy, things don't turn out quite so well for Pigmella. Kissing a frog has done wonders before, but will it work for a pig?Sure to hog all the attention, this story's frequent nods to well-known fairy tales such as Sleeping Beauty, The Frog Princess, and Thumbelina-plus hilarious illustrations-will delight readers of any age.

    With keen emotion and fresh vision, the acclaimed artist captures the essence of the tale's timeless appeal: The journey of the awkward little bird -- marching bravely through hecklers, hunters, and cruel seasons -- is an unforgettable survival story; this blooming into a graceful swan is a reminder of the patience often necessary to discover true happiness. Splendid watercolors set in the lush countryside bring drama to life.

    Seventeen fairy tales are wonderfully adapted and illustrated in comics format by seventeen different cartoonists, including Raina Telgemeier, Brett Helquist, Cherise Harper, and more. Edited by Nursery Rhyme Comics' Chris Duffy, this jacketed hardcover is a beautiful gift and an instant classic.

    Zelinsky has once again with unmatched emotional authority, control of space, and narrativecapability brought forth a unique vision for an age-old tale. Few artists at work today can touch the level at which his paintings tell a story and exert their hold.Zelinsky's retelling of Rapunzel reaches back beyond the Grimms to a late-seventeenth-century French tale by Mlle. la Force, who based hers on the Neapolitan tale Petrosinella in a collection popular at the time. The artist understands the story's fundamentals to be about possessiveness, confinement, and separation, rather than about punishment and deprivation. Thus the tower the sorceress gives Rapunzel here is not a desolate, barren structure of denial but one of esoteric beauty on the outside and physical luxury within. And the world the artist creates through the elements in his paintings the palette, control of light, landscape, characters, architecture,interiors, costumes speaks to us not of an ugly witch who cruelly imprisons a beautiful young girl, but of a mother figure who powerfully resists her child's inevitable growth, and of a young woman and man who must struggle in the wilderness for the self-reliance that is the true beginningof their adulthood.As ever, and yet always somehow in newly arresting fashion, Paul O. Zelinsky's work thrillingly shows us the events of the story while guiding us beyond them to the truths that have made it endure.

    Unavailable for years, it is back with fabulous new illustrations by Barbara Upton, perfect for our time. Its vibrant, rhythmic read-aloud text-sprinkled with dialect-tells the story of Little Girl, who is forbidden to enter the jungle for fear of meeting the Gunniwolf. But when she does, this version's Gunniwolf seems almost playful-if just a little scary. But Little Girl learns her lesson, and a new generation of listeners will be rapt with delight at this "guten sweeten" book. Illustrated by Barbara Upton.