PDF The Blue Fairy Book Complete and Unabridged Andrew Lang Fairy Book Series Andrew Lang 9781631582769 Books

Product details Age Range 8 - 14 years Grade Level 3 - 8 Series Andrew Lang Fairy Book Series Hardcover 384 pages Publisher Racehorse for Young Readers; Unabridged edition (March 26, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 1631582763

The Blue Fairy Book Complete and Unabridged Andrew Lang Fairy Book Series Andrew Lang 9781631582769 Books Reviews

• While the B&N hardcover edition may be beautiful, nowhere in the description does it say that it is a selection of stories and therefore incomplete. In fact it is misleading because it has the same description as all of the others. It only has 29 of the 37 stories. I'm returning it for the Dover Classics edition. Which isn't as fancy looking, but it has quality printing, with big enough font and most importantly, it is complete.
• I love fairy tales and since I'd read this book as a child I was excited to see it in such a beautiful edition.
  But this book is misleading. No where does it say that it is a "selection" of tales.
  It is missing some very important stories for whatever reason.
  This kills it as a valuable edition to a library as some of the stories it left out are some of the best
  Little Red Riding hood
  Sleeping Beauty
  Rumpelstiltskin
  Little Thumb
  The Goose Girl
  Trusty John
  The Brave Little Tailor
  The Voyage to Lilliput
  
  This is absolutely unacceptable.
  Also, the book is wrapped, so you only find out the stories are missing when you open it. Shame on Barnes and Noble for releasing such an edition.
  
  Stick with the Dover editions, they are complete and include the illustrations. Not as pretty as this one on the outside, but here it's definitely what's on the inside that counts!
• This is a lovely edition, with a handsome cover, gilt edges, original illustrations, and a ribbon bookmark. It has everything I could want for my kiddo--except all the *actual stories* from the original Blue Fairy Book. For example, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, and Rumpelstilzkin are all within the first 10 stories in the original book, but missing in this edition. What were the editors thinking?
• If you are new to Lang, it started in 1889 with the blue fairy book, and then a series developed, yellow, crimson, orange, red, and so forth.
  
  The fact that this series has endured to now is a testament to its quality.
  
  As you read, you will discover fairy tales and myths from all over the world, including the well known writers such as Grimm, Andersen, Perrault, and Mme D'Aulnoy.
  
  These are not the politically correct stories you might expect, and I believe you will find them useful whether it's for your own reading pleasure, of for passing on stories to children.
  
  In fact, if you look beyond the surface of the story, there is a cautionary aspect for children who might get lost, and the evil characters they might meet like the wolf in sheep's clothing, or the boy who cried wolf, or the nice person who offers a gift, but is really a wicked queen in disguise.
  
  There may be a young prince who helps a hairy man escape, and the king embarrassed and enraged orders the child to be killed. Naturally the woodsman slaughters an animal instead, and returns those to the king instead as evidence of performance of the deed.
  
  There are stories of boys becoming men, being tested by the princess, and doing great deeds to prove their worth. Some characters are wicked and evil, and so the protagonist has to develop resources of their own to defeat the deceit, trickery, jealousy, ambition, and wickedness of the people they encounter.
  
  I recommend you start with the blue book, because it has most of the best known stories, for example, Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots. You can check the contents of each book at mythfolklore, and even read the stories online.
  
  If you are buying Lang, you need to know which publisher, because there are many editions through different publishers, some are good with nice print and pictures, others have small print and no pictures.
  
  I highly recommend the Dover edition which has pictures and good size print. These pictures are black and white drawings. The Boomer books edition has good size print. If you want a durable hardcover library style book with a red string bookmark, I recommend the D N Goodchild books. Avoid the compilation book, and buy them individually.
  
  One of my favorite stories not in this edition is The wooing of Olwen. It's unusually cruel and bloodthirsty from Wales and King Arthur's court.
  
  I know you will enjoy these wonderful stories, and I hope this review was helpful.
• “The Blue Fairy Book” is the first of twelve fairy stories that were researched, translated and compiled by Andrew Lang (1844-1912) and his wife, Lang, a Scotsman, was a literary critic, novelist, poet, and a contributor to the field of anthropology,
  
  This book contains stories from the ”Arabian Nights,” Madame d’Aulnoy, the Grimm brothers, and a few Norwegian fairy tales. While interesting to read, many of these are gruesome and violent, as many fairy tales are in the original writings. (Not all fairy tales are the sappy sweet rewritten Disney rip-off versions.)
  
  In this book are “Cinderella,” “Aladdin,” “Why the Sea is Salt,” “”Puss in Boots,” “Toads and Diamonds,” “Rose Red and Rose White,” “The Yellow Dwarf,” and more.
  
  Some of these stories are difficult to read because of the writing style, some are quick reads due to the brevity of the tale, and some just don’t make sense in the way they end.
  
  All in all, I do recommend this book for literary and psychological research, and for the fun of it if you are so inclined.
• I've been reading this book during my volunteer assignment with Learning Ally (formerly Reading for the Blind & Dyslexic). Delving into the classic fairy tales is like rolling back the years to my youth. I went through a phase when I was probably 10-12 years old when I read every fairy tale book I could get my hands on. If this collection was available way back then, I'm sure I would have absorbed the pages... There's a wide range of tales of kings and queens, princesses and princes, fools and ogres and mythical beings. At first I was quite shocked at how violent some of the tales are, and I questioned how suitable they are for children. But then I remember that I read some quite gruesome tales when I was a child and it didn't scar me or turn me into an axe-murderer ) Children do have an ability to separate fantastic fiction from real life. The tales will allow children of all ages (like me) to think creatively and inhabit a magical world - a much better use of any kid's time than video games or television !