The Hut in the Forest

A Grimm's Fairy Tale

Illustrated by Bettina Stietencron

Hardbound

Regular Price: $17.95

Introductory Price: $15.95

Beautiful, atmospheric illustrations bring this classic Grimm’s fairytale to life. A woodcutter’s daughter encounters a small house in the woods, along with an old man, a hen, a rooster, and a spotted cow. She makes dinner for the man but not for the animals — and she doesn’t return home. The next sister follows, with the same fate. Finally, the youngest sister discovers the hut, but this time everything is different!

This is a classic fairytale from the Brothers Grimm about selflessness and looking after everyone equally.

(Ages 5–8)

Hansel and Gretel

Jacob an Wilhelm Grimm

Illustrated by Anastasiya Archipova

Hardbound

$17.95

This is one of my favorite fairy tales because it is so very beautiful and so very rich in the wisdom of the human heart. This version wondrously tells every single part of the story, including the ride home on the duck's back, which for some reason is often omitted. The fact that it is illustrated by Anastasiya Archipova adds another element of truth and beauty for our children and ourselves to find. A book for all generations.

Little Red Riding-Hood

A Grimm's fairy tale

Illustrated by Marjan van Zeyl

Hardbound

$17.95

This is the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale of a little girl who goes through the woods to deliver food to her grandmother.

I love this book because Marjan van Zeyl’s luminous illustrations are soft and glowing, just right for our children.

(Ages 5-8)

Briar Rose

Illustrated by Caroline Mason

Softbound

$11.95

This favorite Grimm's fairy tale is beautifully retold with soft, luminous, radiant watercolor illustrations. Just right for young children.

Recommended for ages 4 to 8.

Rumpelstiltskin

Illustrated by Caroline Mason

Softbound

$11.95

Another dear fairy tale made even more magical with Caroline Mason's watercolor illustrations. Both her fairy tale books remind me of ones that were available about 20 years ago -- it's so very nice to see this quality available for today's children!

Recommended for ages 4 to 8.

The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales
Pantheon Edition

Introduction by Padraic Colum

Commentary by Joseph Campbell

Softbound

$18.00

This is the classic Pantheon edition of the Haus Marchen ("house stories") collected by the Brothers Grimm. This collection has nurtured children's imaginations in English-speaking Waldorf kindergartens and first grades throughout the world. The richness of imagery and the ultimate truth of the tales is a gift to every child fortunate enough to hear them told by a loved adult. It is also a gift to the adults who are able to share them with the children in their care. One of the few books that genuinely belongs on every home and schools "must have" list.

Russian Fairy Tales

Illustrated by
Aleksander Nickolaivicher Afanasyev

Softbound

$18.00

This is the largest collection of these beautiful, rich stories that I know of. Beautifully retold, charmingly illustrated in Russian folk-art style, this is a treasure that will serve you and your children for years and years. Nearly 200 characteristic and colorful traditional folk and fairy tales are brought together in the only comprehensive edition available in English.

I especially love the Russian tales because they are so richly woven - there is a glorious "fullness" to them, with a wonderful sense of detail that never mires, but always results in the most engaging, most multi-layered folk tales I have encountered. Our children heard and read hundreds of fairy tales - these are the ones they most often mention as still living in their adult hearts.

As Eudora Welty wrote when the original edition was published in 1945, "These tales are gorgeous."

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!!!

Best-Loved Folktales of the World

Selected and with an Introduction by
Joanna Cole

Softbound

$17.00

I am so happy to be able to offer this collection to you. It was one of our family's favorite treasures, containing story after story that we loved and worlds we explored. It has also been one of those books that over the years goes in and out of print. Happily, we again arrive at a time when it is available for families and teachers and, most importantly, our children.

Best-Loved Folktales of the World is a collection of over 200 folk and fairy tales from all over the world. It is also the only such collection of which I am aware that covers all areas of our planet and represents all major cultures with beauty and integrity. The stories are arranged geographically and include the familiar (to us) classics such as "Snow White" and "Sleeping Beauty" as well as their counterparts for around the world - and much more besides!

These stories are delightful, enriching, satisfying. They also offer a loved-filled feast prepared by the heart of our world. May you enjoy them for years, as we did!

Folktales from India
A Selection of Oral Tales from Twenty-Two Languages

Edited and with an Introduction by
A.K. Ramanujan

Softbound

$17.00

I know of no other collection of folktales from India that is like this one - stories taken truly from the oral traditions of many groups and retold with an integrity that conveys so much life that I repeatedly find myself hearing the voice of the storyteller as I read them. For me, this collection is an exciting "find" - something I didn't know I wanted but now can't imagine never having had.

These are the types of fairy tales and folktales that explain the world around us - they reveal the types of people in the world, the way the spiritual world intermingles with daily life, the difference between what is wise and what only looks wise, and much, much more.

I would love to see more and more children hearing these stories - to me, they are a nectar of life. I would enthusiastically recommend various of these tales for children at several ages - during the "fairy tale years (ca. kindergarten and grade 1), "the fable years" (ca. grade 2), and then again as an enlivening addition to the myths of India (grade 5) as a way of uniting the heaven of the gods with the life of the earth. These tales are good, solid soul food - the kind that uplifts without carrying one off the ground. You'll love them!

Favourite Grimm's Tales

Illustrated by
Anastasiya Archipova

Hardbound, Large Format

$25.00

If you can have only one collection of fairy tales, this is the one to get. A practically perfect selection of the best-loved of the Grimm's collected tales, retold with a simplicity worthy of their depth, and illustrated with a beauty and innocence that will invite a child's heart of roam these worlds, Favourite Grimm's Tales is one of the best books to appear this season. This is truly the "stuff that dreams are made of."

Sleeping Beauty

A Grimm's Fairy Tale

Illustrated by Martina Müller

Hardbound, large format

$16.95

One of the most beloved fairy tales, told in many ways throughout the world, this beautifully illustrated edition does justice to the vision of this story with its great themes of innocence, destiny, protection and redemption. A worthy offering and a gift to any child.

Winter, Awake!

Written by Linda Kroll

Illustrated by Ruth Liebrherr

Softbound

$11.95

This new children's book is cause for hope - that lusciously illustrated, beautifully told childrens stories are being created! In this story, it is the last of fall's days. The trees and animals and insects all know it is time for Winter to awake - and they all are becoming impatient. They need their rest and can't get it until King Winter wakes once more.

Told in delightful rhyme amid color-filled, wonder-filled paintings - this new fairy tale is almost too good to be true. Children ages 4 and up will love to listen to this story and gaze at the pictures.

The tired trees had had enough
They cried and creaked in groaning gusts;
With lashing limbs they swayed and thrashed,
"Oh, Winter, wake with icy blast!
We need a rest! We must prepare
To bloom and grow afresh next year.
This season's done! Our leaves are lost;
Our branches bare. Bring on the frost!"
Wail and whoosh! the tree tossed.
Wail and whoosh!

But Winter would not wake.

Japanese Fairy Tales, Volume 2

Stories by Keisuke Nishimoto

Illustrations by Yoko Imoto

Hardbound, dustjacketed, large format

$14.95

The second in this serires of beautifully illustrated fairy tales continues with more of Japan's most cherished tales. While their origins go so far back in time that even their birth place is unknown, their value as stories for human beings couldn't be clearer. Whose imagination would not be captivated by shape-shifting animals, a one-inch-tall warrior, a band of singing mice, and other stories of the fantiastic? But the stories in Japanese Fairy Tales are more than just entertaining. They also address some of life's enduring themes: how to live a good, kind life; how to achieve happiness; and the price to be paid for cruelty, greediness and cowardice.

Included also is a short and quite interesting article by the author, "Capturing a Child's Imagination."

The stories in volume 2 are:

• The Straw Millionaire
• The Contest
• The Bouncing Rice Ball
• The Monkey's Statue
• Little One Inch Boy
• Tail Fishing

The Story of Colors
La Historia de los Colores
a folktale in both English and Spanish from the jungles of Chiapas

Subcomandante Marcos

Illustrated by
Comitila Domínguiz

$15.95
Hardbound

Once upon a time, of course, the world was black and white with gray in between. Black and white and gray? This understandably bored and angered the gods, so they went looking for other colors to brighten the world for the people. How the gods found all the colors in the world is told in melodic Spanish and warm English, accompanied by gloriously vivid paintings. This story is a great find and will be loved by children ages 3 and up. The Spanish is complex enough to engage upper grades English speakers in a translation journey of epic proportions - some will love the challenge. For Spanish speakers, the English is at a mid-grades reading level.
A note here: I thought for a long time before including this wonderful folktale in our book shop. Not because of the folktale - it well deserves any honors we can think to heap upon it - but because it is told by a leader of the Zapatista revolutionary movement and published by the movement's supporters who make it clear on the dust jacket that they consider this civil war to be a manifestation of great goodness. I am not of the opinion that any violent revolution has ever moved the world forward very far. You may or may not think differently. Should you share my view, I would suggest simply removing the dust jacket and delighting in a very well-told version of one of the worlds best folktales.

The Valley of Mist

Arcadio Lobato

$16.95

In a distant country there is a deep valley always covered in mist. The people there have never seen the Sun; they believe their elders, who tell them that nothing exists beyond their valley. Then, one day Stefan's grandfather tells him of a sunlit world on the other side of the mountain. This story tells of the young boy's journey to find that world. A lovely tale of the wondrous light we can all find if we believe enough to keep looking. Ages 4-8.

The Woman Who Outshone the Sun
La mujer que brillaba aún más que el sol

A duel language book
From a poem by Alejandro Cruz Martinez

$7.95

The Woman Who Outshone the Sun is a Mexican legend of Lucia Zenteno, a beautiful woman who arrives in a mountain village with an iguana at her side and hair so glorious it outshines the sun. How the villagers react to her extraordinary presence - and how she responds to them - form this story, beautifully retold in both English and Spanish. For reading to children in their mother tongue, ages 4-5 and up. For children to practice English or Spanish as a second language, at the end of the first year of instruction to the middle of the second year.