10 for 10 -- Folk and Fairy Tale Variants

First of all, can I just say how much I love the number TEN?
I love it almost as much as I love the magical numbers THREE and SEVEN!!

SOOOoooo...for this year's 10 for 10 Picture Books event at Reflect & Refine and Enjoy and Embrace Learning, I have chosen 10 Favorite Folk and Fairy Tale Variants -- TEN books that might feature the magical numbers of THREE or SEVEN (3+7 does = 10, after all!!).

These first two are

Yummy: Eight Favorite Fairy Tales by Lucy Cousins
This one's the anchor for the set -- 8 familiar fairy tales, told in short form, with big, bold illustrations. Good for reference, good for students who've gotten to 4th grade without knowing some basic fairy tales, good for ELL students and other readers who need that picture support. A big, thick picture book.





Fairly Fairy Tales by Esmé Raji Codell
This book follows a pattern of asking the reader about three fairy tale elements or characters from familiar stories ("Red hood? Yes. Wolf? Yes. Grandma? Yes.") followed by something that might not fit the story ("Shampoo? NOOOOO!") and an illustration that shows how it might ("Well, maybe." -- and we see Little Red's Grandma's Beauty Salon, serving wolves, with the woodcutter as the shampoo guy.




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Next, we've got a pair of books that riff on the same variant -- in both these books, the Dish and the Spoon run away, with different results.

And the Dish Ran Away With the Spoon by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel

The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon by Mini Grey

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These two give us the world of fairy tales in poetry form:


Mirror Mirror  by Marilyn Singer












You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Fairy Tales by Mary Ann Hoberman

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What would fairy tales be without princesses? Here are two that give us, first, a very non-traditional look at princesses, and second, a mashup of lots of familiar princesses, all in the same story.


The Secret Lives of Princesses by Philippe Lechermeier











There's a Princess in the Palace by Zoë B. Alley

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Here's that magic number THREE! Three osos/bears, and three dassies/pigs:



Rubia and the Three Osos by Susan Middleton Elya











The 3 Little Dassies by Jan Brett












Last year, I shared 10 Picture Books I've Loved for More Than 10 Years. It was fun to gather another 10 to share this year. I can't wait to see everyone else's lists!