Essential Fairy Tales: Puss in Boots

Fred Marcellino 2011

Fred Marcellino: Having culled through dozens of stories in search of the right one for nearly a decade, Marcellino immediately recognized the pictorial possibilities in the text, and agreed to take on the project. He then produced a body of illustrations in colored pencil with a degree of refinement rare in the field. The story’s historical setting allowed him to give free-reign to his penchant for the Baroque, and to his admiration for late-Renaissance perspective explorations. When he tackled the cover design, he found “no room for the type.” His long-standing devotion to typography notwithstanding, this now famous image of Puss was allowed to grace the jacket unencumbered. In a highly unusual gesture, the Caldecott committee elected to bestow its coveted “Honor” award on this first picture book effort.

Puss in Boots is a French Fairy Tale by Charles Perault. Your library visitors will probably relate this story to the character from Shrek.

Story summary:  A miller's youngest son is left with his father's cat after his passing. Seeing his new master is dissatisfied with his inheritance, the cat requests some boots and a sack and departs into the countryside to prove his worth. The cat hunts numerous animals and presents them to the king, saying the game is gift from his master, the Marquis de Carabas. When the king takes a drive along the river with his daughter, the cat plans for the king and his master to cross paths. The cat then hides his master's clothes and convinces the king that his master was drowning and robbed, to which the king replies with new, fancy clothes for the "Marquis" and asks for him to join him in his carriage. The cat runs ahead and threatens all the people working the land along the king's path to tell the king that they work for the Marquis. The cat finally comes to an ogre's luxurious castle, where he asks the ogre to turn into a mouse. The cat then kills and eats him and presents the castle to the king as belonging to his master. The king is so impressed with the Marquis' wares that he offers him his daughter's hand in marriage. The cat becomes a lord with fancy clothes. Source

Illustrated by Cecile Becq (2014)

Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney (paperback edition 2015)

Retold by Joy Cowley illustrations by Sam-Hyeon Kim (2014)

Illustrated by Ian Beck

Essential Fairy Tales: Tom Thumb

This one from Eric Carle was published in 2011

Once upon a time, a poor woodcutter and his wife lived in a small cottage beside a great forest. They had a warm fire, a wooden table and a little garden by the door, but the cottage was very quiet because they had no child. One evening, the woodcutter’s wife looked at the empty chair beside the fire and sighed. “I would be happy with a child no bigger than my thumb,” she said, “if only we had one to love.”

I am sure the story of Tom Thumb is included in many fairy tale anthologies but I did not find any/many current versions. Most of the covers I have included here are for books that are out of print. 

1993

Gerda Muller 1984

The Tom Thumb story is one of the oldest recorded English fairy tales – a chapbook version by Richard Johnson was published in London around 1621, predating the Brothers Grimm by nearly two centuries. In the English tradition, Tom Thumb is a figure from Arthurian legend, known to King Arthur’s court, and his adventures involve giants, magicians, and the royal court. The Brothers Grimm published their own very similar version in 1812 under the title “Thumbling” (Däumling in German), in which the same tiny boy has adventures in the fields, is swallowed by animals, and eventually returns home. The basic pattern – a tiny boy born to childless parents who proves his worth through cleverness rather than size – is found across many cultures, from Issun-boshi in Japan to the Scandinavian Tommeliden.

Tom Thumb’s adventures typically involve his tiny size getting him into and out of extraordinary situations: being carried off by animals, hiding inside everyday objects, being swallowed by creatures far larger than himself, and using his voice and wit from inside places no one else could reach. He sells himself to strangers knowing he can escape through a mousehole; he is swallowed by a cow and calls out from her stomach; he ends up inside a wolf and uses the wolf to return to his parents. In each case it is his cleverness rather than his strength that saves him.  Source

The episodic form of this story reminded me of Pinocchio. 

I am not sure if we will keep this book on our essentials list but you might be thinking of this important reference:

Essential Fairy Tales: Sleeping Beauty

Trina Schart Hyman

The folktale begins with a princess whose parents are told by a wicked fairy that their daughter will die when she pricks her finger on a particular item. In one version, the princess pricks her finger on a piece of flax. In Perrault's and the Grimm Brothers' versions, the item is a spindle. The parents rid the kingdom of these items in the hopes of protecting their daughter, but the prophecy is fulfilled regardless. Instead of dying, as was foretold, the princess falls into a deep sleep. After some time, she is found by a prince and is awakened. You probably remember the scene - the Christening of the new baby, the fairies who come with gifts (six of them) and the fairy who felt scorned or left out (fairy number seven) who bestows her gift which luckily another fairy is able to modify from death to sleep. 

Maja Dusikova

Margaret Early (Australian illustrator - take a look at her other titles)

Ruth Sanderson

Christian Birmingham

Paola Escobar

An illustration by Roger Duvoisin (Favourite Fairy Tales Told in France)

And then for some fun try to find these (or take a look here):

by Mary Pope Osborne illustrated by Giselle Potter

Essential Fairy Tales: The Elves and the Shoemaker

 

Here is a retelling of the story

The original Elves and the Shoemaker was actually a set of three stories with the delightful sounding German title: Die Wichtelmänner. Here is a very academic and detailed analysis of this fairy tale. As a child I loved this story because the little elves were so kind to the old shoemaker and his wife and I especially appreciated the way they then made tiny clothes and shoes to thank their tiny helpers. 

Child's Play

Bernadette Watts

Ian Beck

Paul Galdone

Jim LaMarche

Rachel Swirles 

Kirill Chelushkin

Hopscotch Fairy Tale series

This is not directly related but I remember I loved the illustrations. You might still have this book in your school library - it was a past CBCA title:

Essential Fairy Tales: Rumpelstiltskin

Mac Barnett and Carson Ellis

In some ways this series of posts I am compiling over these few weeks came about because of the Mac Barnett and Carson Ellis version of Rumpelstiltskin and also when Colby Sharp said his Grade Five class were unfamiliar with the fairy tale. That got me thinking about which fairy tales I would read to my senior primary groups - the Essential Fairy Tales.

Bernadette Watts

Paul O Zelinsky (you will also find this version with a different cover)

Paul Galdone

Martin Hargreaves

Jane Ray

Jonathan Langley

Here is a new Young Adult Australian novel that heavily relies on your knowledge of the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin:

Once upon tomorrow

You might find this fracture version in a library:

From the series Hopscotch Twisty Tales

Essential Fairy Tales: Rapunzel

Here is a Pinterest collection with many versions of Rapunzel. Australian author Kate Forsyth has written two books about Rapunzel, one is a fictional retelling of the tale and of the life of Mademoiselle de la Force entitled, Bitter Greens, and her second book was non-fiction describing the development of the tale entitled, The Rebirth of Rapunzel: A Mythic Biography of the Maiden in the Tower. And I am keen to real Zel by Donna Jo Napoli. Another Australian novel for adults is The Crystal Heart by Sophie Masson

Maja Dusíková 

Trina Schart Hyman

Jutta Ash

Paul O Zelinsky 1998 Caldecott Medal winner

Bethan Woollvin

And finally here are two versions to share in your library:

How the library (not the Prince) saved Rapunzel

Rapunzel's Revenge

Essential Fairy Tales: Snow White

Illustration by Wanda Gag

"Snow White" is a German fairy tale, first written down in the early 19th century. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection Grimms' Fairy Tales, numbered as Tale 53

Nancy Ekholm Burkert

Susan Jeffers

Angela Barrett

Bernadette Watts

Charles Santore (see an alternate cover here)

Jane Ray

Retold by Joyce Dunbar illustrated by Julie Monks

Manuela Adreani

Francesca Rossi

Here is a detailed analysis of Snow White with examples of different illustrations. 

You should also look for this book - it is one of my top favourites:

Snow White in New York

And for a younger reader:

And I am keen to read this poetry book. Here is a review:

And I found this one for older readers (I have put it on my to read list):

Read more here Beatrice Alemagna

(See inside this book here)