The Usborne Book of Fairy Tales

I bought this for my daughter who was just learning to read. We have lots of books, but none of these classic stories. I love that there were easy sentences for her to read on the top of the page and more detail for me to read at the bottom. My younger daughter quickly took this book and wanted me to read it to her every night.

The characters and the dialogue in this book will interest and amuse children. There is a furry dogmother, Fairy Nuff, a flowerwork display, the Silly-Willies, Mr. Blubberbelly, and the dragon that became flame-ous by appearing in films. The stories are all witty modifications of common fairy stories involving genies that appear, fairies, pixies, leprechauns, mermaids, other unusual creatures and of course, some ordinary people. The illustrations are very well done and are in the margins. I enjoyed reading this book, looking carefully for the instances of wordplay. They are many and occasionally funny, which is the mark of a very good children's book.