I remember having these Fairy Tales read to me at bedtime when I was little. I bought the same book to read to my son. The stories are bit anachronistic and may not meet modern standards of being politically correct, but we love them anyway.

Philip has faithfully translated this collection of the Grimm Brothers' anthology of oral folktales. He has chose to include twenty of the classic German tales in this beautiful edition. Hardcover, with gilted pages, and metallic highlights in the illustrations creates a very stunning picture. Philip has selected some of the most well known favorites, but also a few that modern times have forgotten. The reading level is approximately third grade, though the stories look as though they would be better understood and more entertaining if read aloud. There tends to be just one illustration per story. While they are wonderfully done and framed with more artwork, they don't do much to tell the plot of the story and are not always matched up with the text. Every classroom should have a collection of Grimm's fairy tales, but this isn't the one. This book seems to have been designed more for collectors and to sit on a shelf than to be handled by youngsters on a daily basis in a classroom environment.

Why 4 stars?:
This is not a book to be read, but one to be collected and set upon a shelf to collect dust. The illustrations are beautiful and the information provided about the tales and the brothers is excellent. However, this book was not made for children to read their favorite tales from.

This book is about a man who runs away from his father because the father does nothing but yell at him. This book is one of my favorites, even though I gave it a four, because it had a lot of action and it made me want to keep reading. Although I still think that the orignal was one of the better ones that have been written.

The book "Rip Van Winkle" is about a guy named Rip and his father, Dame, who thinks that Rip can never do anything right. Dame is always yelling at Rip. Dame really got mad when Rip sold part of the family property, so he went away for awhile and met some strangers and started to drink quite a lot of beer. You have to read the book to find out what happens next.

Several of these other reviews are for a different version of this story. The one I am reviewing is an "All Aboard Reading" version. It is definitely written for beginning readers (1st-3rd grade)

This version is a good introduction to the classic Washington Irving story. I do not like the way Rip's wife yells at him to get to work or how Rip is only "maybe...a little" sad when we finds out that his wife has died after his long sleep. Neither Rip nor his wife were the most exemplary characters! :-)

Still, that is the way the story was written and can be a good launch into a talk about character.

Well, I judged this book by its cover, and I was wrong. The beautiful illustration on the cover is NOT what you will find on the inside. All of the internal illustrations are black and white outlines. I was very disappointed. However, the story is much more expanded in this version than in any other that I have seen. There are actually fairies in this fairy tale. Don't buy this book for the pictures or you'll be disappointed...buy it for a new, but familiar version of the classic tale.

Arthur Rackham not only excelled at creating full color illustrations; he also was an unrivalled master at the art of the silhouette. In this reprinted children's classic, Rackham lavishly illustrates C.S. Evan's intricate retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story with one amazing silhouette after another. One of my favorite illustrations when I was a child was a fabulous two-page cross-section of Sleeping Beauty's palace, including such great details as slumbering cats, doves, scullery maids, the king and queen on their thrones, and of course the princess in her high tower. It never ceases to impress me how much a masterful artist like Rackham could communicate just with beautifully crafted graphic shapes alone- and remember, just because something's not in color, doesn't mean it's not good! Highly recommended!