In a breezy play on The Princess and the Pea, a young princess goes searching for a prince who will perhaps mend her palace that looks like a pigsty. She finds a prince who tests her royal sensibilities with the proverbial pea under a stack of mattresses. The Princess has a restless night, but rejects the prince for playing such a nasty trick. Instead she marries the pizza guy who knows how to fix up her peeling palace and make her happy. Both the story and art are cartoonish.

Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2010. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

If you are expecting the usual mild toddler style tales from Lucy Cousins – this is not it! These are not watered down versions of Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Pigs, or Henny Penny, among others. As in many Grimm tales the Hungry Wolves and foxes do their grim deeds and Cousins paints it all in her usual bright palette. So, look closely before you bring this home to the usual Cousins' audience. This is a better choice for kids from 7 & up.

Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

An abbreviated version of the classic, Snow White, is told on the fold out flaps of this stunning, 3-D book. Paper engineered to resemble a theater set, the delicate cut-outs are intricately layered and are worth a thousand words. This is not your Disney version of Snow White, nor is it exactly the classic version. Indeed, it is notably different as it ends with a bi-racial prince waking Snow White, an image that probably would not have been marketed five years ago.

Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Six of the best known Princess stories are in this lovely collection. Each story opens with an enchanting pop-up and is illustrated with dreamy impressionistic paintings. This is one of those books that will be enjoyed first as a read aloud and again as a read alone. It includes:  The Princess and the Pea, The Wild Swans, Snow White, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and the Frog Prince.  

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

A 20th Anniversary edition of a classic Ukranian folktale. Nickie wants his grandmother to make him mittens that are white as snow. She fears they will get lost, but makes them anyway. Sure enough, Nickie loses a mitten and it becomes a cozy place for one creature after another...until a small mouse arrives and upsets the balance. Another version of this tale was released this season with charming illustrations by Barbara McClintock and a slightly different telling by Jim Aylesworth. It might be fun to share both tellings with young listeners, asking them to tell what is different and what is the same. Comparing the same story helps children understand how folktales have a way of evolving...and even gives them the idea that they too can retell famiiar stories in their own words and way.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2009.

A classic Aesop fable told without words by a master painter! You really do not need words, as Jerry Pinkney's paintings in this oversized book are just waiting for parents and children to "read" together. A wonderful way to encourage children to interpret and tell their own stories from the images on the pages. Pinkney's lush illustrations are full of details that will invite looking at again and again. A stunning picture book that takes you to the African Serengeti of Tanzania and Kenya while it says much about mutual respect between the biggest and smallest of us and how we need to depend on each other.
 

Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

An old Ukrainian folktale is retold in lively fashion that just begs to be read outloud! The charming wintery scenes and the ever expanding lost mitten with all the creatures who inhabit it make for an 'Oh, no!' moment. A classic tale refreshed for another generation. This version is somewhat different from the familiar Jan Brett telling. The creatures in this telling are more familiar. Also the lost mitten in the new telling is red, not white and when the little mouse arrives on the scene the mitten does more than expand. But not to worry. As in the Brett telling, grandmother is a kindly soul. It might really be fun to read both versions to children and talk about how they are the same and how they differ.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

A delightful Rosh Hashanah story by I.L. Peretz about a rabbi who disappears every year before Rosh Hashanah. The people in his village think he is going to heaven to talk to God, but one non-believer follows him and discovers where he really goes. Wonderfully retold and illustrated to look like A Fiddler On the Roof set.   

Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2009. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2001.

Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2001.