East of the Sun & West of the Moon
10 best books like East of the Sun & West of the Moon (Mercer Mayer): Beauty and the Beast, Cupid and Psyche, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon, Hilary Knight's Cinderella, The Persian Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, The Water Of Life: A Tale From The Brothers Grimm, Rapunzel: Based on the Original Story by the Brothers Grimm
| Author | Marianna Mayer |
| ISBN | 1587171481 |
I learned about this book from a good friend's blog and went straight to Amazon to find a used copy. Much to my delight, it looks to be a first edition from 1978 (although I'm not sure how many editions there are). The cover was in horrible condition when it arrived as it was falling to pieces. I...
| Author | M. Charlotte Craft |
| ISBN | 0688131638 |
Psyche is the most beautiful woman in the world, yet the oracle at Delphi foresees she will fall in love with a creature feared even by the gods themselves.
Magically, Psyche finds herself in a magnificent castle fitted with sweet music, attentive servants, and a charming but invisible host....
The Twelve Dancing Princesses
| Author | Ruth Sanderson |
| ISBN | 0316770620 |
This is a tale that always intrigued me, so I look for the unique detail in each version I read. I really appreciate that, in this one, there's a subplot about the princes who had been trying to solve the mystery. And I appreciate that this is probably the most gorgeously illustrated version. But Michael...
| Author | Peter Christen Asbjørnsen |
| ISBN | 1564020495 |
"This wondrous tale is brilliantly matched by Lynch's elegant yet accessible watercolors. . . .The best edition now available. Bravo!" —KIRKUS REVIEWS (pointered review)
A beloved Norwegian folktale, EAST O' THE SUN AND WEST O' THE MOON is the romantic story of a bewitched prince and the...
| Author | Hilary Knight |
| ISBN | 0375814221 |
Hilary Knight imbues the story of Cinderella with characters of the same humor, zest, and personality that have made generations of children and grown-ups fall in love with his most famous creation: Eloise. A pair of pet cats, a blue fairy godmother, and an endearing, if somewhat overweight, Prince...
| Author | Shirley Climo |
| ISBN | 0064438538 |
"A luminescent interpretation. Meticulously researched illustrations faithfully depict the ornate beauty of an ancient land" (Kirkus Reviews).
In this jewel-like version of a classic story, popular folklorist Shirley Climo tells the tale of Settareh, the Persian Cinderella.
Magic...
| Author | Max Eilenberg |
| ISBN | 0763631604 |
Exquisite paintings and a lush retelling bring a treasured classic to new life.
A beautiful daughter dreams of meeting a handsome prince, but in order to save her father's life, she leaves home to live with a terrible, frightening beast. Though her patron is hideous, his disarming generosity...
Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins
| Author | Eric A. Kimmel |
| ISBN | 0823411311 |
Hershel and the Chanukah Goblins by Eric Kimmel is my family's favorite Chanukah book. It holds a special place in our home, to the point where I actually purchased it last year as opposed to borrowing it from the library. We start reading this on the first day of the Jewish month of Kislev- 3 1/2 weeks before...
| Author | Jacob Grimm |
| ISBN | 0823409074 |
Now, I have read many stories from the Brothers Grimm and I had enjoyed every single one of them! So, imagine my surprise when I finally came upon one of the Brothers Grimm’s stories being put into a singular children’s book called “The Water of Life” retold by Barbara Rogasky along with...
I almost gave this a miss because it is so so pink, but actually the illustrations are lovely. Gibb alternates between standard-style illustrations reminiscent of Jane Ray and Barbara Cooney and silhouettes a la Jan Pienlowski. The color pages are beautiful and detailed, and the silhouettes...
| Author | Marilee Heyer |
| ISBN | 0140505288 |
A retelling of the Chinese folktale "The Chuang Brocade"
The Weaving of a Dream is the story of a widow who provides for her sons by creating intricate brocades. One day, she trades a brocade for a beautiful painting of a palace. She then spends years lovingly recreating the scene in brocade only...
| Author | Jacqueline K. Ogburn |
| ISBN | 0803726511 |
Love and honor can overcome even the fiercest obstacles, as we see in this spellbinding fairy tale, with shades of "Beauty and the Beast." To save her father, a young woman must go to the castle of a menacing lion. She fears for her life, but finds kindness rather than danger there, for the lion by day is a...
Well, I have modern sensibilities and could never get into Arthurian lore. But I loved Saint George and the Dragon by this team, and so I had to try this. Very glad I did. Not dumbed-down for kids, not updated for feminists, it is what it is. And it does set up the scene, tone, atmosphere, values... well enough...
| Author | Virginia Hamilton |
| ISBN | 0590473786 |
Please note that this review of Virginia Hamilton's exquisite The Girl Who Spun Gold is going to be a bit different in set-up and scope, in so far that I am mostly posting general musings about both The Girl Who Spun Gold and also concerning Rumpestilzchen types of folk and fairy tales in global lore and...
| Author | Barbara Rogasky |
| ISBN | 0823404544 |
Okay, so I really liked how this retold the semi-original tale. But unfortunately, Rapunzel as a story kind of creeps me out and I don't think Rogasky did much retelling as just editing the original. I didn't care more about characters. That's what I really look for in these sorts of books. HOWEVER, the...
| Author | E. Nesbit |
| ISBN | 0763607177 |
This delightful "modern" fairy tale describes the trials of a royal family beset with too many traditions from "historical" fairy tales. Borrowing themes from Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Melisande is a tale of traditional fairytale and mathematical logic. Unexpected things happen to characters...
| Author | Jay Williams |
| ISBN | 0590072846 |
Why is this not more widely known? The illustrations have much the same whimsy as Mayer's famous "Little Critter" series, but are much more finely done, absolutely lovely to look at, to find all the details in, to look at again. There are several 'morals' in the story, all valuable. Williams' writing...
| Author | Katrin Hyman Tchana |
| ISBN | 0316387010 |
I've just read this quickly before sending it to my niece. I'm disappointed that the prose doesn't sparkle. Tchana is a pedestrian stylist and there are certainly better-written folktales. But the content is fabulous. The 'princesses' are bright, curious, patient, physically courageous, thoughtful,...
| Author | Wilhelm Grimm |
| ISBN | 0060543124 |
These illustrations are beautiful, a scary version of William Morris telling a dark fairytale of a girl and her mother that live by the woods. Soldiers come to their village so the mother takes the little girl to the woods and tells her to hide and return to her in three days. The little girl waits for three...
| Author | William H. Hooks |
| ISBN | 0027443558 |
This simply wonderful Appalachian adaptation of the globally popular and celebrated Beauty and the Beast folktale type actually also contains many many elements of the Norwegian East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and it reminds me at least somewhat of the Russian folktale of Finist the Falcon Prince...
A young girl triumphs over the Queen of Faeries to reclaim her ancestral home and free her true love in this haunting retelling of an old Scottish ballad. “Mikolaycak’s illustrations...attract attention yet do not overpower the story, making the book one that could be easily used as a picture story...
