Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Sandra Dieckmann
Walker Books

Inspired by her childhood in Germany, Sandra Dieckmann presents twenty of Grimm’s fairytales. most of which are well known, such as Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin, Hansel and Gretel and Cinderella, others less so. The latter includes Jorinda and Joringel – about two lovers and a wicked sorceress, and one new to me, The Star Talers wherein a little orphan girl wanders the forest with just the clothes on her body and a piece of bread in her pocket. One day the lonely child meets a poor old beggar man asking for something to eat. She gives him the whole piece and then on coming upon a little girl who declares that she’s freezing, gives the little girl her hat. The third child she meets has no dress and the little girl gives hers to child three leaving herself clad in just an undershirt. Come nightfall, alone in the forest the kind girl stands staring up at the sky

and suddenly something magical happens: she’s clad in a new shirt of the finest linen and has sufficient gold coins to make her rich for life.

Strikingly illustrated throughout with a mix of presentations from a double spread devoted to a single picture of Sleeping Beauty to beautiful borders, with its subtle feminist twist, this is a wonderful book to buy, to treasure and to give.