This was a hardcover anthology of stories for children. I believe it measured about 6” wide by 8” long, but I could be wrong about that.
The book contained a number of stories, but I can only remember two of them: one was the classic Three Billy Goats Gruff. In fact, I think that was the very first story in the book. I remember it had very stark illustrations; thinking about it now, they kind of remind me of Picasso’s “Guernica.”
The other was a story about making pies, and I remember it very clearly because it was the first time I’d ever heard of a mince pie.
Is it one of Virginia Haviland’s “Favorite Fairy Tales Told In….” books? They all had amazing illustrations by different artists.
I don’t recall that was it, unfortunately. I had a vague recollection of the words “STORIES TO READ ALOUD,” but not 100% sure that’s the same book. I suspect this may have been a reader in a school, like a textbook, but I could be wrong about that too (this was 27 years ago).
‘Sounds of Language Readers’ by Bill Martin (compiler)?
It has both the ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff’ (stark illustrations) and ‘Old Lucy Lindy and the Pies’
https://archive.org/details/soundsoflanguage0000mart/page/n12/mode/1up?q=%22three+billy+goats+gruff%22+%22mince+pies%22+%22old+lucy+lindy%22