On the subject of fairy tales

I have long been smitten with fairy tales, especially the various visual concepts of the illustrators of them. In my collection of picture books, I have several beautifully rendered fairy tales. Below are two I would love to see on my shelves.  There are other gems here, here and here.

I was detoured from my plans for the day with another post from the ever-fascinating Brainpickings, which has now made my top 5 favorite places to visit. (I am supporting Maria's site with donations. It is an awesome place.)

Hardly any other form of storytelling honors children’s inherent intelligence more than the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, which have been extending a luminous invitation into the dark for more than two centuries.   (Quoted from Brainpickings, Maria Popova

Here is a sample illustration from a new Grimm's fairy tale book. The illustrator is Lisbeth Zwerger. I love their choice of wallpaper, don't you?

Lisbeth Zwerger

Ms. Popova continues: 

J.R.R. Tolkien famously asserted that there is no such thing as writing “for children” — something that has since been echoed by C.S. Lewis, who admonished against considering children a special species, E.B. White, who insisted that one should write up to children rather than down, and Neil Gaiman, who believes that we do a disservice to children by shielding them from darker elements.

Here's another creative artist in a fairy tale format. The artist is Shaun Tan who created exquisite sculptural illustrations in Philip Pullman's take on Grimm's fairy tales. 

The Frog Prince. Shaun Tan. 

Rapunzel.  Shaun Tan. 

I really, really admire this kind of creativity.

My friend Gigi told me that I should really watch Once Upon a Time, the TV series. So I've hunted it down on Netflix and will do some catching up to see if I agree. Anybody else out there watch it?