Classic Fairy Tales Vol 1 (Volume 1)

I highly recommend this book of faulty tales. My four year old loves it. A few of the stories are a little long, so we do have to read a few of them in multiple settings.

I am a former elementary reading teacher and an amateur artist, I highly recommend this book. The stories are well written and engaging but not at all gory or frightening as fairy tales can sometimes be.But the REAL JOY of this book is the illustrations. We always stop and talk about each of the pictures... how they reinforce or reflect the story content as well as how beautiful and detailed they are. I am grateful that the book is so sturdy and well made with glossy pages because this is one of those charming books that children love to read over and over.

We absolutely love snuggling up as a family to read Scott Gustafson books! The illustrations are so beautiful and the stories well written. Books are made well and have held up with with little hands using them.

We love this fairy tale collection! So much that I will be buying Vol 2 and another fairy tale collection by this same illustrator.

Excellent product

I bought this book to read out loud to my 3 and 6 year old kids. I scoured the reviews and photos posted to see if it was going to have images that might scare my little ones, but didn’t find a lot. Hence why I’m taking this time to post for other parents trying to vet it out.Fairy tales are known for being dark at times so I’m not surprised but I was curious to see this rendition. The art is beautiful and I’m still considering if I’ll keep it or return. 90% of the stories and images are great but there are a few I know would scare my little boy. Several spindly fingered evil witches, talk of burning children in ovens and listening to a witch burn and die while shrieking (Hansel and gretal of course), flaying open the body of a wolf to find Little Red then filling him with stones and drowning him.For some this info will not be surprising- these are classical fairy tales and it’s how they go. But for those not totally familiar with details and wondering about age appropriateness, I’m just putting this out there as an fyi!

Scott Gustafson first attracted my attention with his stunning illustrations for J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan." With "Classic Fairy Tales," Gustafson raises the bar once again, standing alongside K.Y. Craft, Charles Santore and Greg Hilderbrandt at the forefront of fantasy illustration. The text of these ten tales ("Goldilocks & The Three Bears," "Puss In Boots", "Little Red Riding Hood", "Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs", "Tom Thumb", "Hansel And Gretel", "Rumpilstiltskin", "The Frog Prince", "Cinderella" and "The Three Little Pigs") is straightforward; the morals are easily apparent ("Litttle Red Riding Hood said to herself that, as long as she lived, she would never leave the path and stray about in the wood alone, and she would always do exactly what her mother told her."). But the fairy tales themselves are not the main attraction here. The illustrations, which definitely take command at center-stage, are. Gustafson's strength is his ability to combine the necessary aura of "magical- long ago and far away" with a strong sense of living, breathing naturalism. You get the sense that these fairy-tales could have REALLY happened; at some place, at some time. We see a particularly naughty Goldilocks, a demure Little Red Riding Hood pitted against a devious Big Bad Wolf. Never before have the deep, dark woods looked so foreboding in "Hansel & Gretel." Gustafson goes for maximum scariness in this story. Hansel and Gretel are pictured as adorable tots. The Witch, dressed in a candy hat and Cupcake dress, appears as a frightening, human extension of her own Gingerbread and Candy house. Gustafson's double-page illustrated spreads, most effectively used in "Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs" and "Cinderella", are awe-inspiring and visually arresting.

Very pleased.

Scott Gustafson is an amazing illustrator of books .We got all four of them! We wish to see more of his books very soon!

Amazing art and book, highly recommended

A terrific large-format collection of fairy tales, with such fantastic illustrations, each more magical than the last. I can heartily recommend it!

Je n'ai pas choisi d'offrir cet ouvrage pour les histoires (classiques parmi les classiques), mais pour les très belles illustrations, qui ne peuvent que faire rêver un enfant.

Per gli amanti delle belle illustrazioni (anche se qui siamo più su un catalogo di dipinti bellissimi....) da avere. È un bellissimo libro di favole (in Inglese). Da sfogliare e risfogliare.