Description
Product description
Review
2003 Chesley Award for Book Illustration
About the Author
Scott Gustafson is the award-winning author and illustrator of Artisan’s Classic Fairy Tales, Favorite Nursery Rhymes from Mother Goose, and Classic Bedtime Stories, as well as an illustrated novel for young readers entitled Eddie: The Last Youth of Edgar Allen Poe and many other illustrated children’s books. He lives in Chicago with his wife and son.
Chesley Award Winner A lavishly illustrated, enchanting collection of 10 of the best-loved fairy tales, chosen and edited by the artist, who spent more than four years creating the seventy-five oil paintings, reproduced here in full color. Belongs on every child’s bookshelf.
Kay F –
I bought this as a grandparent of 2&4 year olds as wanted multiple stories in one book. Illustrations beautiful and a change from modern cartoon type pics. Kids love the detail in them and many more illustrations throughout stories that wasn’t clear in advert . Children both love the stories and illustrations but also like choosing which ones they’d like to hear before sleep. Makes a great sleep routine where they settle well with their “choices”. Highly recommended as family”keeper” classic.
Book Lover –
Love this book! My 6 yr old granddaughter asks me to read a story to her every time she visits!
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.
Suniba –
Pages, size and illustrations
Beautiful illustrations 😍
Burnett –
Beautiful but a little scary too
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!
Timbertwig –
Classic Fairy Tales in a Beautiful Package
I am always on the look out for a good book of fairy tales. There are numerous available today but most of them don’t appeal to me with their modern, often cartoony, illustrations. Most of those that I see in bookshops have a disposable feel to them: fine for a quick browse but underserving of a place on my bookshop.Classic Fairy Tales (ISBN 978-1579656867) by American illustrator Scott Gustafson first caught my attention last year when I was browsing on Amazon. I was impressed by the preview pages because the illustrations looked stunning: painstakingly hand drawn with vivid colours and striking depth. You could almost feel that you could step into the illustrations and enter the magical world of fairy stories.Even so, it wasn’t until a few days ago that I finally decided to order my copy and I was not disappointed. The illustrations were as beautiful as they had appeared on Amazon. The book features 10 stories over 150 pages. The stories are:Goldilocks and the Three BearsPuss in BootsLittle Red Riding HoodSnow WhiteTom ThumbHansel and GretelThe Frog PrinceRumpelstiltskinCinderellaThree Little PigsThe first thing that struck me about the book was that it was very big (27.4 x 2 x 30.5 cm), looking very much like a coffee book able. This may or may not bother you but the large format makes it more difficult to carry around – it won’t fit in a standard rucksack, for example. I like to carry books around but this book will probably not be travelling with me much.It seems to me that this book is designed as much for adults as it is for children. The retellings of the stories are longer than in most fairy tale books I own, each story having at least 20 pages. This might put off younger children, though the beautiful pictures, some appearing on a two-page spread, will help keep their interest and imagination ignited. Adults will appreciate the quality packaging, with the book clearly designed to last for generations with strong binding and thick, glossy pages.If you’re disappointed that your favourite fairy tale is not included in this book, Scott Gustafson has published at least three more compilations. I intend to collect them all.A highly recommended book of fairy tales.