Michael Hague's Read-to-Me Book of Fairy Tales

by Michael Hague, Michael Hague (Illustrator)

Overview

From once upon a time to happily ever after, these are the fairy tales everyone knows and loves. Here you will find the princess who kisses a frog, the fairy godmother who changes everything, and the ugly duckling who becomes a graceful swan.

Master artist Michael Hague has selected and illustrated this enchanting collection, compiled especially for reading aloud with the whole family. Through his luminous paintings, readers will rediscover all the magic of these beloved childhood classics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780688140106
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/01/2013
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	774,219
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Michael Hague has illustrated more than thirty children's classics, including memorable editions of The Wizard of Oz, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Wind in the Willows, and The Secret Garden. He is also the artist of several bestselling books by his wife, Kathleen, including Alphabears, Numbears, and Ten Little Bears. The father of three grown children and the grandfather of four, Michael has a ready audience for all of his work.

Michael Hague has illustrated more than thirty children's classics, including memorable editions of The Wizard of Oz, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Wind in the Willows, and The Secret Garden. He is also the artist of several bestselling books by his wife, Kathleen, including Alphabears, Numbears, and Ten Little Bears. The father of three grown children and the grandfather of four, Michael has a ready audience for all of his work.

Editorial Reviews

09/30/2013
This fairy tale anthology features 14 simplified versions of classic stories including “Cinderella,” “Rumpelstiltskin,” and “The Three Little Pigs,” accompanied by gilded paintings that honor their fantastic, enigmatic, and sometimes terrifying content. Beauty’s Beast is a shrieking, wolflike ghoul; Hague’s illustrations for “The Little Mermaid” evoke the Art Nouveau movement, his sea witch a cross between Medusa and an octopus; and Little Red Riding Hood’s cape trails behind her in sinuous and sinister tendrils as she crosses the dark forest. While MacDonald’s abbreviated retellings don’t linger on the grimmer elements of the tales, the material isn’t overly laundered either (in “Snow White,” the queen “feasted on what she thought was Snow White, satisfied that she had rid herself of her beautiful stepdaughter”). Ornate visual details provide a gateway for readers to uncover the symbolism and unspoken complexities behind these familiar stories. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

01/01/2014
K-Gr 3—This collection brings together 14 folk- and fairy tales, including "Beauty and the Beast," "Cinderella," "The Little Mermaid," and "The Three Little Pigs," retold simply and in a large format for sharing aloud. Many of the more violent plot points have been dampened down or omitted completely, though the girl in "The Seven Ravens" does cut off her own finger and Snow White's stepmother "feasted on what she thought was Snow White…." Jewel-toned paintings done in pencil, pen-and-ink, watercolor, and Adobe Photoshop decorate each story with complex, rich details that are occasionally a bit frightening. Overall this volume serves as a nice introduction to these well-known tales and will be useful in library collections, but unfortunately no sources are cited, even for the Hans Christian Andersen tales. The flap copy references "The Frog Prince," which is not actually included in the book.—Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA

School Library Journal

2013-10-01
Fourteen familiar tales are retold in their simplest and most bloodless forms for reading aloud to very young children--an approach somewhat subverted by Hague's powerful and somewhat surreal pictures. It opens with "Beauty and the Beast," and the Beast is genuinely terrifying. Cinderella's sisters are forgiven so long as they "promise to be good." Rumpelstiltskin does not tear himself in two but disappears in a huff. Snow White's lips are "red as a rose," and the evil queen's fate is elided. The stories are kept quite short, and usually, as in "The Ugly Duckling" and "Jack and the Beanstalk," the moral or lesson is writ large. Perhaps the least familiar tale is that of "The Seven Ravens," in which a girl saves her seven brothers, who had been turned birds--an act that involves her cutting off her little finger. Hague's illustrations are rich in saturated color and sinuous line, and they owe a debt to both the painter Gustav Klimt and the illustrator Arthur Rackham. Some of the motifs seem familiar from other images in Hague's long career of illustrating fairy tales. It could be argued that simplifying and softening these tales does neither the stories nor their audience any good, but for those who want short and sweet versions, they are here. (Fairy tales. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews