Tag Archives: fairy tales

318F: 1970s/1980s Illustrated Fairytale About the Plague

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I’m trying to find an illustrated storybook set in a medieval fantasy setting. It may be a children’s book but the story and theme are very morbid. I think the book was published in the late 1970s or early 1980s. The illustration style is drawn in detail and colored, possibly watercolor.

The protagonist is a young hero, possibly a prince, who is betrayed or abandoned by the woman he loves. Perhaps their courtship was called off after he performed a great deed or quest for her father?

He somehow ends up heartbroken and dying on a small island in the sea.

He stays alive by sucking the salt and tears from the tattered and faded blue or black cloak that he wears. Eventually the cloak becomes magically imbued with a toxic curse and is blown on the wind to the kingdom where his former lover lives.There it spreads a deadly plague, possibly the Black Death. I vaguely recall an image of the woman dying from the plague with birds strapped to her feet (an ineffective cure meant to ward off the plague)

Does this ring a bell for anyone?

318A: A Princess on a Hill at Sunset

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In the late 1960’s a friend gave me a fairy tale book that she owned.  I LOVED IT!!!  It was a plastic coated hardcover, perhaps 8×10 (it was a larger book) with various scenes (in color) depicting the stories inside.  One cover picture that I vividly remember was a princess on a glass hill at sunset.  In the body of the book were a lot of drawings (black and white from what I remember).  I think there was a knight in armor on the cover, but I could be mistaken.  I also think there were pictures on the front and back cover.  I LOVED the interior pictures and traced many.  Stories that MAY have been inside were one about “Roland”, definitely princess on the hill story.

I kept the book for years, but thinking that I would not have children to share the book with, I gave it to my stepdaughter, who promptly lost it.  (I love her a ton, but of course she didn’t value the book as much as I did – reading material is a hugely personal preference).

I did read fairy tales to my daughters, but I would love to have this book to share for possible grandchildren.

 

307L: A white mouse hidden in the illustrations

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Looking for over sized, illustrated book of fairy tales, likely published in 60s or 70s. It was about the size of an Encyclopedia volume. Green cover with a giant on the spine. Illustrated by many artists, not a singular illustrator. 3 Little Pigs illustrations had a white mouse hidden in the illustrations. The illustrations in Jack the Giant Killer were scary and realistic. The book contained Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty, The Tinder Box, Matchstick Girl, The Brave Little Tailor, and many others. Your help is appreciated.

307J: Children’s anthology with a very big toe

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Children’s anthology, the edition I had in the 80s had a red cover, stories were all illustrated and included one about a king who couldn’t find shoes to wear because his Big toe was very long, eventually found a man that made him silk stockings with the toes done in black thread and shoes that had toes that curled up at the end so his long toe would fit. Another story was about a fairy that was sad because she couldn’t go to the fairy party (maybe a midsummer’s eve party) because her clothes were tattered. Her mice friends borrowed silk from the silk worms that they wove into a dress and dyed it blue with berries, then they found cornflowers for her to wear in her hair because her eyes were blue. Another story was about a little girl who lived in Holland and whose father was a tulip farmer. They grew every color tulip. Somehow her father created a bigger tulip bulb for her that grew into a larger tulip that was rainbow colored. There may have also been a story about an emperor and a nightingale, but I didn’t read that one as much as the other stories in the book. Thank you for your help!!

306X: Moldy/smelly/musty

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I had a book, probably from somewhere around 1955? or before?

It was a compilation, or a bunch of children’s stories.
It was appx. 81/2 x 11, the book was blue, dark blue on edges, and light blue in the middle? and the spine was maybe 2 inches wide?
My mom had given it to me when I moved out, and I had a flood in my basement, and the book got moldy/smelly/musty, and I tossed it, and forgot to write down the name.
Some of the stories in it were: The little match girl, the owl and the pussycat, and a million more.
I would love to purchase a copy of the book.

306J: Funny Practical Retelling of Fairy Tales

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I am looking for a small hilariously funny book in which the author goes and analyses or re-tells several famous fairy tales using common sense and pointing out the truly ridiculous bits.

I remember in the pulling apart of “Little Red Riding Hood” he ponders why in the world everyone would name a kid after an article of clothing and wonders what if she had been “Little Dirty Tee Shirt” instead.

In “Snow White” he points out that the mirror is essentially creating the whole problem by maliciously or cluelessly making the queen wildly jealous. He also thinks that “Snow White living in the glen, with the seven little men” rather suggests they are getting up to something and is further evidence of the mirror’s troublemaking.

In Rapunzel he comments upon the whole idea of naming your child after a root vegetable and the wisdom of robbing witches.

In Rumpelstiltskin he thinks everyone is rather hard on the poor guy, and wonders why when she knows what his name is, and her baby is on the line, the queen decides it is funny to play around and wind him up by giving the wrong names at first.

The book was (I think) a half-sized hard back (half height but same length as a hardback book? Size of say an Edward Gorey single story like The Doubtful Guest.)  I think it had a black and white drawn illustration on the cover.

I know I gave my copy to a friend around 1983-1985 so it was in print before then. I am thinking it was probably published after 1972 as I think I would have been over 13 when I first received it. My vague memory is that my mother bought several copies as gifts and it was being sold fairly prominently one Christmas season in NYC possibly at Barnes and Noble.

I have tried searching for it but only ever get Fractured Fairy Tales back and that is not it.

I would really enjoy finding this book again!

 

303C: Beauty and the Beast fiction anthology (Solved)

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I’m hunting down a fiction anthology that involved “Beauty and the Beast” riffs. One of the riffs involved a perfect couple (I think New Yorkers) with a perfect life–and the wife was slowly beginning to think that her beautiful, flawless, successful, doting husband had a terrible double life as a beast in a city reeling from a series of bloody, violent attacks. I’m fairly sure it was published in softcover in the late 1980s to mid 1990s. One detail that really stands out to me is that when the husband came home late one night, the wife noticed a drop of blood on his cheek and realized that he was the beast–which left her in a whole bunch of serious dilemmas, most of which were left as cliffhangers. This was only one of many stories in the book, but it really left an impression. If I recall correctly, most of the writers in the anthology were women. I was way into Sheri S. Tepper and other female authors at the time, if that helps, but I don’t think it was her story collection “Beauty.” I hope you can find it! Thanks 🙂

302I: The title has stone in it

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I’ve been trying to find this book forever now and haven’t been able to find anything close.  I’m pretty sure the title has stone in it. The story follows a young boy on an adventure with a girl named Meg, I think there was a hobby horse that could talk. It starts in the boys house where he lives with his sister or step sister who uses him as a housekeeper.  He meets some brownies when sees them at the milk bowl left out for the cat.  There may be an older male character that goes on the adventure as well.  Fairy tales or myths are discovered to be real as the adventure unfolds. I think they have to hide in a well from hunting dogs at one point. The dogs are part of some legendary/mythical hunting party.