The Zemachs have interpreted the folk tale which the play dramatized, recognizable as a version of the widespread Rumpelstiltskin story. Its main themes are familiar, but the character and details of this picture book are entirely Cornish, as robust and distinctive as the higgledy-piggledy, cliff-hanging villages that dot England's southwestern coast from Penzance to Land's End.The language spoken by the Christmas players was a rich mixture of local English dialect and Old Cornish (similar to Welsh and Gaelic), and something of this flavor is preserved in Harve Zemach's retelling. Margot Zemach's pen-and-wash illustrations combine a refined sense of comedy with telling observation of character, felicitous drawing with decorative richness, to a degree that surpasses her own past accomplishments.Duffy and the Devil is a 1973 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and Outstanding Book of the Year, a 1974 National Book Award Finalist for Children's Books, and the winner of the 1974 Caldecott Medal.

    When a newly orphaned baby in the moon makes friends with the children of Earth, he seeks a way to ward off their fears and nightmares.Up there in the sky.Don’t you see him?No, not the moon.The Man in the Moon.He wasn’t always a man.Nor was he always on the moon.He was once a child.Like you.Until a battle,a shooting star,and a lost balloonled him on a quest.Meet the very first Guardian of Childhood.MiM, the Man in the Moon.

    Brown's illustrated translation of Perrault's tale in which Cinderella leaves behind a glass slipper in her haste to flee the palace before the fairy godmother's magic loses effect won the 1955 Caldecott medal.A free translation from the French of Charles Perrault, with pictures by Marcia Brown.

    Tucked into envelopes are actual letters for children to pluck out. Humorous and engaging, this is the perfect read over a spot of tea. Ahhh!

    The more than 175 tales culled from a centuries-old Russian storytelling tradition by the outstanding Russian ethnographer Aleksandr Afanas’ev reveal a rich, robust world of the imagination that will fascinate readers both young and old.With black-and-white drawings throughoutPart of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library

    . . before."Jack was running like mad in the dark woods with a hen under his arm.Previously, he had stolen the hen and climbed down a beanstalk."But do you know what was Jack doing before he climbed down the beanstalk?Or what Jack and Jill were arguing about before they went up the hill? And what happened before that? Every story, every person, and every thing started somewhere, and now the inventive and whimsical Allan Ahlberg explores what all your favorite storybook characters were up to previously, aided by Bruce Ingman’s energetic illustrations.

    . . . The droll illustrations, with tones blended to luminescent shading, are complete and humorous themselves.' -- Association of Library Service to Children, ALA.

    As the pot of water boils with the stone in it, he urges her to add more and more ingredients until the soup is a feast "fit for a king".

    But she wants to be a knight. At night, she practises at becoming the best knight in the land. When her father, the king, stages a tournament for Violetta's hand in marriage, she knows she must win the greatest battle yet, for the most important prize of all - herself.

    A traditional tale of a lovely princess, a brave prince, a wicked stepmother, evil enchantments, magic rowan wood, and an immense, scaly dragon in majestic, romantic paintings.

    With a little help from her fairy godrobot, Cinderella is going to the ball--but when the prince's ship has mechanical trouble, someone will have to zoom to the rescue! Readers will thank their lucky stars for this irrepressible fairy tale retelling, its independent heroine, and its stellar happy ending.

    Rather, it is the story of a young woman who must choose between the security of her sheltered tower and the uncertainty of independence. Full color.

    Someday, she believes, she will marry a prince. When the town mayor announces he is throwing a grand ball, Fanny is convinced her time has come. She puts on her best calico dress and goes out to the garden so that she'll be ready when her fairy godmother arrives. As the seconds tick by, Fanny waits and waits. Finally, she hears a voice. It isn't her fairy godmother-but it is someone who will change her life forever.

    He kept them in a box beside his throne. But Ananse, the Spider man, wanted them -- and caught three sly creatures to get them. This story of how we got our own stories to tell is adapted from an African folktale.

    One day, Little Bear wanders out of the woods and finds himself lost in the Big City. Will he find the city too noisy? Too quiet? Or just right? And what are the chances of him bumping in to someone who remembers exactly how he likes his porridge?