Category Archives: Anthology

151C: Anthology of Fairy Tales

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Hi, I had this book probably in the late 90’s. It was a paperback book of fairy tales, but not traditional ones, “different” ones, and I’m pretty sure it was an anthology. I’ve thought of quite a few of the stories and plots but can’t remember the name of the book or editor. Anyways, The borders of the cover were red and there was some kind of blue and green forest type scene on the front I think? The colors looked like a drawing, not a real photo or anything. One of the stories is about a prince crossing an ocean and his boat begins to sink. A mermaid kisses him all over his face and he can breath underwater. He goes to live with her for a while but also wants to go back and tell his parents he’s ok, he does, meets a girl on land and marries her, and when he crosses the ocean again the sea princess drowns him I think. Another one is about a girl getting ready to be married and she meets some kind of half man half stag in a forest and he puts a braid of his hair around her finger. When she goes back home and goes to get married, the ring won’t go on her finger and the stag man shows up to take her back to the forest. The third story I remember is just about a girl with blue hair (maybe a mermaid?) who’s missing and her brothers are coming to a town one by one to search for her. They all end up getting indentured to different people and she shows up in town (or something) riding a tiger. And last, a princess stitches her dog into a tapestry she’s creating and stitches herself in too. Wanted to escape the castle or marriage or something. I found a similar answered question about a story like my very last one, but I know this one was in a book with lots of other stories, not by itself.

 

145O: Lost Fairy Tale Book

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This was a hardback book, with a picture of a beautiful blonde girl on the front with a well and green hills in the background, and I recollect it being blue? But that could be wrong.
It was a compilation of different fairy tales and except for the ‘seven brothers into seven crows’ tale, none of them I have ever come across since.
The tales included stories about;
A little girl who lied a lot and then got given a ring and the ring squeezed her finger and went bright red when she lied.

 A little elf who went to a house with blue flowers in the garden and somehow he was invisible and he went inside the house where the other elves were baking and tried to steal toffee but got caught.

 A wicked magician who had a cloak made out of enchanted beads and somehow moths got to it and it disintegrated and beads spilled everywhere and the villagers took them.

And , the one I remember most clearly was a tale about a wicked mother who had two daughters, one beautiful and one plain – she went away and told the girls to cook clean etc. but the ugly sister wouldn’t do it and so the pretty one did everything but when the mother returned the ugly sister lied and said she did everything so the pretty sister ran into the woods. In the woods she found the house where an old woman lived and so she asked to stay, she made the woman delicious apple pie and cleaned her whole house and so the woman said pick a brooch and a cloak. She picked a ratty old cloak and a plain lark pin, even though the woman had many fine ones. When she left the house the sun shone on the cloak and it was rich velvet with precious jewels all over it. When she got home her mother and sister were so mean she went out to the well and cried but when she sobbed it came out sounding beautiful and a passing prince wanted to marry her. Her sister was jealous and so went into the woods and found the old woman but she did nothing and made the woman cook for her and then demanded a cloak and brooch. She took the fanciest cloak and a emerald toad pin. When she went outside the cloak turned into a motheaten piece of cloth and when she got home and went to the well and cried but it came out sounding like a toad croak.
There were more tales but I can’t remember them. I specifically want the compilation, rather than individual adoptions of the tales. If anyone knows about this it would make me so happy as my mum accidentally gave this book away and it was my childhood favorite.

 

145G: 90’s horror anthology (solved)

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A horror anthology read in the early 90s, found at a school book fair.

-A girl has the power to shrink people who she feels betray her and keeps them in a dollhouse or birdcage.
-Two siblings befriend the new neighbor only to find that she’s a vampire
-A girl keeps hearing something in the cellar begging her for help. It turns out to be some mummified creature that drags her under the floor and that it had meant “help” as in “I’m hungry”
-SHADOWS COME TO LIFE AND KILL PEOPLE. There’s this big scene at the end where the latest victim family is desperately trying to light matches to keep the shadows away.

145A: Unicorn History (solved)

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This was a book read in the late 80s which presented the unicorn as history instead of myth. The drawings were in brown and white and done to look as though they were very old.   The basis of the book was the unicorn as an angelic creature, and one of the stories described it fighting demons disguised as dragons.   I’ve already checked the books of Bruce Coville and Jane Yolen – nothing. 

 

137I: collection of short stories, the title of the book had the word ‘bedtime’ in it

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I’m really hoping you can help me, I’ve been searching the web for a couple of weeks trying to find my favourite childhood book with no success!

It was a collection of short stories, the title of the book had the word ‘bedtime’ in it but I can’t remember any more than that. It was a hardback book with a blue cover and there was also a yellow hardback one of the same characters and author. In one of those books was a story about Mrs mouse who loses her ring in a teacup/teapot. I would have had this book in the 80’s perhaps early 90’s. This is all I can remember!