Grimm's Fairy Tales

July 4, 2016
A talented cast of veteran audio narrators brings this classic collection of fairy tales to life. For generations, children have been captivated by the tales set down by the Grimm brothers. Twenty-one classics are represented here. Some, such as “Rapunzel,” “Cinderella,” “Hansel and Gretel,” are well-known, while others such as “The Goose Girl,” “The Six Swans,” and “The Sea Hare” are not. But each story is given star treatment by the eclectic roster of readers. Jim Dale is delightful bringing his vocal talents to bear in the retelling of “Rumpelstiltskin,” giving the story’s namesake a perfectly evil, raspy, wizened voice, and Janis Ian provides a simple but effective reading of the shortest of short stories, “The Riddling Tale.” Scott Brick, Simon Vance, Bahni Turpin, Alfred Molina, and the other readers present these stories of talking animals, wicked stepmothers, evil queens, shoe-making elves, and princes and princesses with professional aplomb. Each brings their own unique storytelling skills to their respective stories, making for a captivating listen. Ages 10–up.

August 1, 2001
Old-fashioned, often broken typeface and Arthur Rackham's gloriously reproduced original artwork accompany 22 stories in a new edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales, originally published in 1909. A sepia-toned illustration for "Red Riding Hood" shows the cloaked girl meeting the bristly wolf, dwarfed by endlessly tall, bare trees. A caption in "The Bremen Town Musicians" recalls the bygone era: "They came upon a Cat, sitting in the road, with a face as long as a wet week."