Tag Archives: translated

The Lady & the Lion

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Once upon a time, a merchant asked his three daughters
what he should bring them from the city. The first asked
for pearls, the second for gold, but the youngest longed for
a singing lark. The merchant found a gold necklace and a
bracelet of gold, but there were no songbirds to be had for love
or money that winter.
He turned towards home, sorry to disappoint his youngest
daughter. The road took him past a fine castle, with a grand
garden full of spring flowers in spite of the winter snows. At the
top of a laurel tree, a lark sang.

While the boys show polite interest in The Magic Nesting Doll, by the same author and illustrator, they adore this book (which combines and reworks elements of The Singing, Springing Lark; Beauty and the Beast; and East of the Sun, West of the Moon). They each want a copy of their own and I can absolutely see why. (It is gorgeous. Plus, lions and dragons and griffins. Oh, my!) My oldest enjoys pointing out the plot follows the Frozen principle of getting to know someone before marrying them and my youngest repeatedly (forcefully) requests it as a bedtime story.

Author: Laurel Long and Jacqueline K. Ogburn/The Grimm Brothers
Illustrator: Laurel Long

Monkey and Me

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Monkey and me,
Monkey and me,
Monkey and me,
We went to see,
We went to see some. . .

A girl and her toy monkey imagine going to see all kinds of animals. That’s it, really (with one small visual twist at the end). Visual clues give a hint to what type of animal they will be going to see next (in the photo above, they are anticipating elephants), which is fun, and this is an outstanding read aloud; the repetitious refrain (quoted above) is perfect (if ungrammatical).

When the boys were very, very small, they each loved this book. Like When Dinosaurs Came with Everything, it arrived in a Cheerios box in 2008 (which was a truly banner year for the spoonfuls of stories promotion in our house). The version we have is very small and, well, it was free, so I had no qualms about flapping it about to make the boys laugh (especially on the bats page, to make the bats “fly”).

The boys have outgrown it now, but this book is highly recommended.

Author: Emily Gravett
Illustrator: Emily Gravett

Cupid and Psyche

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Several fairy tale archetypes originate with the Greek myth Cupid and Psyche (including, especially, Beauty and the Beast). This beautiful version by a mother-daughter team (don’t judge this book by its cover; it is much more compelling inside) draws from the best parts of several ancient variants and retains the darkness and interest of the myth. The boys are fascinated with it.

Author: Charlotte Craft/Thomas Bulfinch/Lucius Apuleius
Illustrator: Kinuko Y. Craft

The Emperor’s New Clothes

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This clever book doesn’t need much of an introduction. Like The Wild Swans (by the same author, translator, and illustrator), it is a great translation of a classic story with beautiful illustrations.

Author: Naomi Lewis/Hans Christian Andersen
Illustrator: Angela Barrett

The Squirrel’s Birthday and Other Parties

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Over the last thirty years, Dutch author Toon Tellegen has written over 300 stories about a group of anthropomorphized animals. This book is contains nine of these stories that all, in one way or another, relate to parties. The stories are whimsical, delicate, and quiet. The characters glory in lists, details, and internal discourses. The book itself is beautifully and thoughtfully produced (down to a bright ribbon bookmark). It is charming, bittersweet, and perfect for bedtime.

Author: Toon Tellegen
Illustrator: Jessica Ahlberg

The Wild Swans

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Far, far away, in the land where the swallows fly during our winter, there lived a king who had eleven sons and one daughter, Elisa. The eleven brothers–princes all of them–went to school, each wearing a star at his heart and a sword at his side. They wrote on leaves of gold with diamond pencils; whatever they read, they learnt at once. You could tell straight off that they were princes! Their sister Elisa sat on a little stool made of looking-glass, and had a picture book that had cost half a kingdom.

Oh, they lived royally, those children! But it did not last.

Hans Christian Andersen’s stories verge on being too dark and long for reading to younger children. But they are also beautiful, and the artwork and the translation here reflects that.

This book was a happy surprise, found the morning before a family wedding in a very unusual bookstore housed in an old bank (complete with a vault for the rarest volumes).

Author: Naomi Lewis/Hans Christian Andersen
Illustrator: Angela Barrett

Little Red Riding Hood

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This is a classic story with beautiful illustrations, but all those jokes about the grim Grimm Brothers exist for a reason. This retelling hews very close to the Grimm tale, which in turn was based on an even darker French version. You won’t want to read it with your kids before they’re ready (or, perhaps, before bed), but you also won’t want to miss reading this aloud:

“Grandmother! What big, hairy ears you have grown!” she said.
“The better to hear you with, my dear.”
“Oh, Grandmother! Your eyes are so shiny!”
“The better to see you with, my dear.”
“Your hands look so strange, Grandmother!”
“The better to catch you and hug you with, my dear.”
“Please, Grandmother, why do you have such big, sharp teeth?”
“Those are to eat you up with, my dear!”

Author: Trina Schart Hyman/The Grimm Brothers/Charles Perrault
Illustrator: Trina Schart Hyman

Birds of a Feather

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This book doesn’t have many total pages, but it is enormous (well over a foot tall and almost a foot wide), heavy, and attractive. It very well designed; filled with interesting flaps, pop ups, puzzles, and avian tidbits; and recommended for kids large enough to pick it up easily and treat it gently.

Author: Bernadette Gervais and Francesco Pittau
Illustrator: Bernadette Gervais and Francesco Pittau

 

Happy

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Something adults take for granted is having a feelings vocabulary–knowing what to call your emotions. This book helps kids express their feelings before they have all the right words in place (and, as a bonus, it helps them learn the right words too). The concept is simple: each double-page spread has a highly expressive fish and a single word next to it describing its state of mind (for example: curious, nervous, brave, astonished, bored, and delighted). We don’t really read this book straight through; we flip through it to find the fish(es) that looks like we feel. This is one of my oldest’s very favorite books; he says he will never get rid of it.

Author: Mies Van Hout
Illustrator: Mies Van Hout

Rapunzel

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Once again Paul O. Zelinsky draws from the best of the Grimm’s multiple versions, along with earlier Italian and French versions, to create a compelling and beautifully illustrated tale. My youngest will accept no substitutions; we must read this edition: “The one with the big tower.”

While this story violates the Frozen principle–“You can’t marry a man you just met”–in a big way and the prince seems to be either a cad or none too bright (otherwise why wouldn’t he just bring Rapunzel a rope ladder early on in their relationship?), it is a classic. (And Frozen has made discussing these kinds of issues much easier and faster at just the right time.)

Author: Paul O. Zelinsky/The Grimm Brothers
Illustrator: Paul O. Zelinsky