The Musicians of Brennan Symphony of Stories

The “Town Musicians of Bremen” tells the story of four ageing domestic animals, who after a lifetime of hard work are neglected and mistreated by their former masters. Eventually, they decide to run away and become town musicians in the city of Bremen. Contrary to the story’s title the characters never arrive in Bremen, as they succeed in tricking and scaring off a band of robbers, capturing their spoils, and moving into their house.

Brian Wildsmith (see inside this book here)

Hans Wilhelm

Bernadette Watts

Gerda Muller

Thinking about the 2026 CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) slogan "Symphony of Stories" I had a chance meeting with a parent from a local school and she mentioned the younger children were about to perform The Musicians of Bremen.

There are plenty of picture book versions of this folk tale that you could explore in your library.

The tale was first published in 1819 in the second edition of Grimms’ Fairy Tales and there is a statue in the actual town of Bremen. 

If you want to take a deep dive into the story here is a very academic analysis. I also found a fairly sophisticated audio version.

Lisbeth Zwerger

The four animals put their heads together and came up with a plan. The donkey placed his front hooves on the windowsill. The dog jumped on the donkey's back. The cat climbed on top of the dog. And the rooster flew up and perched on the cat's head.

At a signal, they all began to perform their music at once: the donkey brayed, the dog barked, the cat yowled, and the rooster crowed. Then they crashed through the window into the room, sending glass flying everywhere! The noise was so tremendous that the robbers leaped from their seats, certain that a ghost had burst in, and they fled into the forest in terror.

This illustration is by Hans Fischer (1944)

This is a 2019 book from Korea

This one is from 2009 - illustrated by Katrin Stangl

Rumpelstiltskin by Mac Barnett illustrated by Carson Ellis

Employing a conversational style, Barnett offers a fresh and immensely entertaining take on an old story Kirkus Star review

Hopefully you do know the Grimm Brothers fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin but if you don't you could read this version. 

The best picture books are a partnership between author and illustrator. Carson Ellis has so carefully crafted amazing illustrations for this book and Mac Barnett adds a delicious layer of humour. 

"Her father, a poor miller, was a nice enough guy but he had a big mouth."

"My daughter ... She's really great' (It's true. She was.) ... And ... 'she can spin straw into gold.' (Of course, she couldn't.)

"And soon the queen had a child, a boy she named Tom. (A pretty nice thing to do all things considered.)

The list of names are sure to have your students or young reading companion in fits of laughter - Baxter, Thaxter, Cuthbert ... and Mac! to name just a few. 

Vocabulary: bragged, retinue, sauntered, and chalice. 

Publisher blurb: Once upon a time there was a clever girl with a not-so-clever father. When her father claims she can spin straw into gold, the king forces the girl to perform this impossible task. She has no other choice than to accept a strange deal from a mysterious little man. But when he arrives and attempts to collect the debt, the fiendish trickster Rumpelstiltskin discovers that he is the one who has been tricked! 

This is the second in the groundbreaking new collection of masterfully retold fairy tales crafted by one of today's most celebrated and esteemed authors, Mac Barnett, paired with the stunning illustrations of the acclaimed and award-winning creator, Carson Ellis. With Barnett's signature pacing and wit, his subversive storytelling style and narrative voice, and Ellis's stunning folk-art style, this retelling of Rumpelstiltskin will introduce this classic story to a new generation of readers!

Think about the language used on this page: The little man swept into the room. 'And if I do it once more,' said the man, 'what will you give me?' The girl shook her head. 'I have nothing left. I gave you my necklace. My ring. I am bereft.' And she paused to consider her fate. But the little man smiled. 'I'll make you a deal. If you become queen, give your first child to me.' Well, who knew if that would ever happen. So the girl said, 'Deal.' And the man spun the straw into gold."

After you read and re-read Rumpelstiltskin you should take a look at this interview with Mac Barnett and Carson Ellis and have the book beside you so you can see the images and decisions they are discussing. And then take this deep dive into the illustrations. In this video Mac and Carson talk about their book. Sadly our Australian copy of this book has no dust jacket but if you live in the US be sure to look for the case reveal. 

A great new Rumpelstiltskin version for every library. Waking Brain Cells

Carson Ellis’s painterly gouache illustrations, inspired by 18th century fairy tale art and portraiture of the Renaissance era are a great complement to the telling, while the black and white illustrations resemble wood-block prints. Red Reading Hub

It would be good to share this book with a high school group. For example you could talk about the way this image is reminiscent of well-known paintings of the Madonna and child. Take a look here.

I highly recommend you share this picture book by Mac Barnett and Carson Ellis with the students in your library (ages 9+). Hopefully you will have time to read the book, then go back and look at each page and talk about the decisions made by Carson Ellis and also it would be fantastic to then read a couple of other illustrated versions of this fairy tale (see below). Here is a very useful set of teaching ideas from the publisher Scholastic. See lots more Mac Barnett books here. I especially recommend one of his older titles - Billy Twitters and his Blue whale problem. Here is my Meet Mac Barnett post. 

I was slightly shocked when Colby Sharp talked about reading Rumpelstiltskin to his Grade Five class only to discover many/most of the group were not familiar with this fairy tale - I do hope he has now shared other versions with his class and perhaps gone even further and delved into other 'important' fairy tales that readers need to know. There are so many references to fairy tales in literature, in advertising and in cartoons. We do kids a disservice if we don't build up their field knowledge of this important cannon. By coincidence I have just read Once Upon Tomorrow which is a book for readers aged 16+ and which interweaves the story of the miller's daughter and the character of Rumpelstiltskin. This brand-new dystopian verse novel is by Australian author Karen Comer. 

See inside this version here

Look for this fairy tale version of The Three Billy Goats Gruff also by Mac Barnett with his friend Jon Klassen:

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Here are two books illustrated by Carson Ellis:

Hansel and Gretel illustrated by Anthony Browne

Bookseller blurb: This is a retelling of this famous, dark fairytale from award-winning author-illustrator Anthony Browne. "Hansel and Gretel" is perhaps the darkest and greatest of the fairytales from the Brothers Grimm. This extraordinary book brings the classic childhood tale to a new generation courtesy of one of the world's greatest picture book artists, Hans Christian Andersen Award-winner Anthony Browne.

Book Trust: Anthony Browne's Hansel and Gretel, adapted from the translation by Eleanor Quarrie, has a distinctly contemporary feel. This is enhanced by the humorous illustrations: the woodcutter, for example, has a television set in his home, and the cruel stepmother, trips daintily along in high heels and a striking yellow coat, a cigarette hanging from her mouth. 

The library where I am working as a volunteer had a collection of books for teachers to use with a student welfare program. Since this program is no longer used, she has decided to abandon the boxes. I spied Hansel and Gretel in one box and asked to borrow it. You will have a better understanding about why this book (published in 1981) is my focus further into this blog post but first off I need to say this is a picture book yes, this is a fairy tale yes, but it is also a book for much older students - did you guess that?

Vocabulary: famine; fretting; planks; coffins; grieved; new coins; wakened; lagging; brushwood; weariness; widespread; scolded; reproached; perish; and gnawing.

There has been some discussion on Facebook today about Picture Books for our older Primary readers in Grades 5 and 6. I was immensely proud of my senior picture book collection. A question was asked about encouraging kids to borrow and read these and also about loaning them to younger students - even Kindergarten.  Can you hear me sighing. On this blog 135 books have the label "Senior Picture Book". These are among my most favourite books.

There are simpler less confronting versions of Hansel and Gretel but this is one example of a book that I would place with my senior picture books. This version illustrated by Anthony Browne is not designed for your very youngest library visitors.

The Teacher-Librarian on social media wanted to know what to do with picture books for older readers. Her concern was about usage. My answer - First off how can the kids know these books contain stories that Grade 5 and 6 kids will really enjoy? That is easy - promote, promote and promote again.

Then use these books, read them, add them to your library sessions and pass them onto the teachers to read. These books all formed the basis of my teaching with senior classes because they contain powerful stories and also, since my sessions were weekly and only 40 minutes, it was easy to read one of these and then have a really in-depth discussion. Have you seen the wonderful NCACL (National Centre for Australian Children's Literature) Picture Books for Older Readers database. This is a resource that should be shared with the teachers in your school and one to give you ideas about books to add to your own library collection.  

Here is a tiny selection of my own favourites from the hundreds of books I had on my senior picture bookshelves (Australian titles and international titles) plus a few that I discovered recently:

 (Note the initial question on Facebook was actually a about possibly labelling some picture books to indicate they could/should be read by or shared with an adult. I may talk about this idea in a later post).

Snow and Rose by Emily Winfield Martin

Once, there were two sisters.
Rose had hair like threads of black silk and cheeks like two red petals and a voice that was gentle and sometimes hard to hear. Snow had hair like white swan down and eyes the color of the winter sky, with a laugh that was sudden and wild.


Before you read this review take ten minutes to listen to this audio version of Snow White and Rose Red by the Grimm Brothers.  It is essential to have a good knowledge of this fairy tale before you read Snow and Rose.

I first saw Snow and Rose in a large city book shop and I was attracted to the cover and the promise of a story based on a fairy tale. More recently I visited Beachside Bookshop where I again spied this book and so I decided to buy it. I was right about the cover and scrumptious illustrations but wrong about the story.  This is not a plot based around the fairy tale of Snow White and Rose Red but rather an actual retelling of the fairy tale in the longer format of a 200 page illustrated novel.

I will confess I was not familiar with this tale by the Grimm Brothers but as I read on I realised I needed to find the original tale. There are three covers at the bottom of this post or you may find the tale in a Fairy Tale collection. I actually thought there would be more picture book editions - this is a gap in the market which needs filling. 

Emily Wingfield Martin weaves in all the story elements from the original and then adds her own delicious descriptions. 

"Half the garden was filled entirely with white flowers of every kind - with pale, delicate bells of lily of the valley, spires of vanilla foxgloves with speckled throats, climbing moonflower vines, and bright-eyed anemones, from the tiniest white daisy to ivory dahlias the size of dinner plates."

"And the other half bloomed only in red: vermilion poppies and scarlet pansies and wine-colored snapdragons and Japanese lanterns the color of fire. And dozens and dozens of roses, each with a hundred red petals."

And here is the description of the very special library the girls find in the forest.  They each borrow an object not knowing exactly how these curiosities will help them.

"On every side of the staircase were intricate shelves built into the walls and arm's reach away. As the girls made their way up, they were further puzzled, for in this library, there weren't any books. Instead arranged on the shelves, nestled in nooks, displayed in boxes, stuffed into glass bottles, were hundreds - maybe thousands- of little objects. ... A bit of coral, a spotted feather, a scrap of velvet, a paper crane, a delicate bone, a pebble of fool's gold, ... a postage stamp, an acorn, a baby tooth, a sliver button."

One of the joys with writing this blog is when I discover connections. Emily Wingfield Martin is the author of several picture books (you can hear her talking about her books here) and she is also the author a book I did enjoy a few years ago called Oddfellows Orphanage.


As with all fairy tales, there are lessons in these books: Cultivate inner beauty. Be kind, especially to any creature or fellow human who is suffering. And because young heroines figure so prominently, one notion emerges with particular clarity: Girls have the interior resources to do anything they want, and while a little magic helps, it’s hardly necessary. New York Times

For lovers of fairy tales, this story of sisterhood, taking risks, and being kind is a physically beautiful book with an appealing cover and captivating full-color illustrations. Kirkus

Celebrating 200 years of Grimm

The Grimm brothers collected 211 fairy tales starting with a collection published in 1812.  Among the best known are Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel and Rapunzel.  In our school library we have a huge collection of illustrated fairy tales some simple versions for younger readers and others intended for an older audience.  Many have gorgeous illustrations. One of my favourite books as a child was a huge fairy tale anthology which included many of the famous stories. You can see a full list of all the tales they collected here.

Today Google celebrated the 200 year anniversary with a cute little slide show or doodle based on Little Red Riding Hood.  You can read about this process here or view a video of the slides with music.

Do you have a favourite Grimm tale? My favourite fairy tale is actually by Hans Christian Andersen and not the Grimm Brothers -  The Six Swans or The Wild Swans.  I have included an image from my old book which features photos of puppets and an interesting cover made from plastic that you move to see in 3D from the 1960s.  This story and this particular edition fascinated me as a child.