Tag Archives: fairytale

366A: Fairy tale I read in the 1970’s

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I’m trying to find the name of a book I read when I was a kid, what I can remember of the story is:

A group of friends set off on an adventure. Along the way they find a magic carpet or rug that when rolled out, magically produced a feast. They then came upon a cat that when stroked began to purr and pearls popped out of its mouth. The third magical item the found was a stick or switch that they didn’t know what magical purpose it had.

An unscrupulous inn-keeper saw them using the carpet and the cat and stole them. He didn’t know what the switch did either but figured it must do something. He found that, when he stole it, the magic stick beats dishonest people until they confessed their crime.

That’s all I can recall – if anyone can solve the puzzle and let me know the title and who wrote it, I would be most grateful.

249A: A collection of fairy tales with animals

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I’m looking for a particular book of fairy tales. I could swear it was just called “Children’s Book of Fairy Tales”, followed by a sequel “Children’s book of more fairy tales” or something very similar. I’ve tried Googling with quotes and nothing comes up – without quotes I get hundreds of fairy tale books but none the one I’m looking for. Both were hardcover, medium thick. One of the books (I don’t remember if it was the 1st of 2nd – for some reason I think we got the sequel book first as kids) – I seem to remember had a busy cover that wrapped around from front to back, with characters and scenery that covered all over – and I picture mostly a green/blue color, possibly water or leaves (but I could be remembering that wrong). We received the books in the 80s, and they weren’t vintage so I’m guessing they were 80s published, probably mid-late 80s judging by my age. The illustrations, both cover and in the stories (all the stories were heavily illustrated on every page) – was more cartoonish then painting-like. It was not life like, like many of the vintage fairy tales. Oh and I’m pretty sure all the characters were animals. So like cartoon animals as fairy tale characters. I’d say there maybe 20 or so stories in each book. Some of the stories were classic fairy tales but I remember there being a lot I had never heard.

Anyway, it’s driving me crazy because I’ve found many of my favorite childhood books, even obscure ones, but this is alluding me, possibly because there are so many fairy tale collections out there and this wasn’t a classic vintage one (but the best I’ve ever seen!).

Any help would be great!

Thank you!! – Rachel

245C: Purple Fabric Hardback Fairy Tale Collection Book With Many Illustrations

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I had this book for 11 years before losing it a couple years ago during some moves. I bought the book from my elementary school library in 1999-2000, in one of those sales where they get rid of old or damaged books. The book was hardback, felt like it had fabric over the hardback material but I don’t know that it ever had a dust jacket or anything. The cover was illustrated, with I think either a tower or the “man in the moon”, or both. The book was a purple-maroon color, possibly a faded dark blue the way dark blues and blacks might fade with bleach, but I’m pretty sure it was the purple-maroon color originally.

Some stories I remember, but can’t find exactly on any searches:
1. A poor man lets some elves/fairies eat the last of his food (bread and cheese), and they repay him by placing a coin on his oven that always is replaced when you remove it. I think it flies in from the window or something. He becomes rich, and marries a woman who is different from the other villagers, I think from another town/city. She is vain, and washes her face in milk to keep it pale, while other villagers wash their face in cold water to keep their cheeks rosy. The wife doesn’t like that no one has ever seen the elves/fairies, so she sneaks up on them one night and they disappear and take the money, leaving the man and wife poor.
2. A man sees these fairies dancing at night (either 8 or 12), and thinks one is incredibly beautiful, and describes her features to be like the moon and so forth. I believe her hair was black, not sure. He ends up kidnapping her to be his wife. She becomes very sad and either stops talking to him or tricks him into letting her go.
3. A girl is given 3 presents, which she opens when she needs help from I think her step mother, who makes her do ridiculous things. I think she helped an old lady, who gave her the presents. They might have just been called colorful boxes. One present was opened when she was told to make a cake, and the box contained a giant cake. The last box had a man/prince in it to take the girl away.
4. There was one about the man in the moon, a man built a Tower to reach the moon and I guess he ended up stuck there. Somewhere in the book is an illustration of the tower and of him in the moon, which was a full moon and a smiling face with crinkled eyes. It’s also possible I’m combining 2 stories, but I’m not sure.
5. A boy finds a leprechaun and gets it to reveal his pot of gold. The boy knows he can’t take his eyes off the leprechaun or it will vanish, but the leprechaun eventually tricks the boy into putting him in his pocket. As soon as the boy does this, he realizes what he has done and the leprechaun has disappeared.
6. There was a version of Rapunzel, not sure if that was the title of the story but I’m assuming so. A pregnant woman gets her husband to steal greens out of the witch’s garden, and the witch makes them give up the baby. The witch locks her in a tower, and eventually a prince rides by and climbs her hair, and they fall in love. The witch finds out and causes the prince to fall into brambles, blinding him, and eventually rapunzel finds him again, and cures him of his blindness with her tears.
7. There is also a version of Rumpelstiltskin, where he helps her spin golden thread for three days in exchange for her firstborn child. Then he gives her a chance to keep her child, if she can guess his name in 3 days. She eventually hears him singing his name, and gets to keep her baby.
I want to say there is a number in the title, like 100 or 50, and a list of all the stories in a table of contents. But I feel like that’s too many, so I could be wrong.