Little Hoot

Look at this!  A new book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace:  Little Hoot (Chronicle, 2008).  It was well-reviewed by Elizabeth Bird at A Fuse #8 Production yesterday (1/16/08), but we would have wanted it anyway:  we loved Little Pea, Milly especially.  The two books do seem to have a parallel plot structure, don't they?

little Pea : little Hoot
must eat candy : must stay up late
prefers spinach : wants to go to bed

Well, it wasn't broken.  And Little Hoot ups the ante with the adorable owls.  Corace's illustrations (rendered in ink and watercolor) are more detailed here than in Pea, though there's still plenty of white space, and the book is beautifully designed.  I think we may love it even more.

Is it possible to feel sorry for a pea?

[Milly has a small collection (it numbers 5, mostly noneditioned) of Jen Corace letterpress prints, which we started for her after we discovered Little Pea.  Our favorites came from Mahar Drygoods; see also Tiny Showcase.  Not affiliated, etc.]

My Newbery Pick [updated to add: It won!]

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!  Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz, illustrated by Robert Byrd (Candlewick, 2007).

Saint George and the Dragon [updated!]

We attended "An Elizabethan Festival" given by the Washington Revels ("Celebrating tradition through music, dance and drama") this morning.  If you like this sort of thing, you'll love the Revels.  Leo and Milly were enraptured.  Their favorite part was the mummers' play of Saint George and the Dragon; so we read this classic edition, retold by Margaret Hodges and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman (Little, Brown; 1984), when we got home.  Hodges's text, adapted from Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene, is lovely but a little wordy (can you blame her?).  Hyman's illustrations, however, are magnificent.  This book won the Caldecott in 1985.

I'm still looking for a picture book about Saint George and the Dragon that captures the comic feel of the mummers' play, though.  Any suggestions?

[Updated to add:  Many thanks to Debbie of the Washington Revels, who commented with a link (scroll down) to Saint George and the Dragon:  A Mummer's Play by Revels founder John Langstaff with woodcuts by David Gentleman (Atheneum, 1973; OOP but available at the Revels Store).  It includes the script with music, instructions for performing the sword dance (look out, Milly!), stage directions and costume suggestions.  In short, exactly what I was looking for.  Thanks again!]

Little Neighbors on Sunnyside Street

Let's pretend that three-year-old Milly were guest-blogging here at bookstogether.  She would definitely want to write up Little Neighbors on Sunnyside Street by Jessica Spanyol (Candlewick, 2007).  With good reason:  it's the perfect book for preschoolers.  They get to meet some of the little neighbors who live at numbers 4, 5, 6, and 7 Sunnyside Street and drop in on them doing their everyday activities.  Philip the cow lives at number 7; he likes making things.  Kelly the pig likes messy play.  The Bugs like driving.  And Ian the dog likes to do lots of things (music, painting, cooking) with his little sister Baby Jade.  Everybody likes reading, of course.  At the end of the day, they all have a party at Ian's house (yeehaw!); then they go to bed.  Night-night, little neighbors!

What we like best about Little Neighbors on Sunnyside Street (besides Spanyol's flat, candy-colored pen and gouache illustrations) are "all the different stories."  Sunnyside Street itself is a little like the residential area of Richard Scarry's Busy Town.  And from a preschooler (and her mom), there is probably no higher praise than that.

Poetry Friday: Bronzeville Boys and Girls

The 34 concise poems in this collection, Bronzeville Boys and Girls by Gwendolyn Brooks, illustrated by Faith Ringgold (Amistad, 2007) were first published in 1956.  They are just as fresh and appealing today; maybe even more so in this newly illustrated edition by Ringgold, whose paintings of the neighborhood houses and children are a perfect match for Brooks's poems [compare the cover of the original edition below].  I love that each poem has a name (Keziah, Nora, Tommy):  the name of the child it speaks for or about.  Ringgold, in "About Bronzeville Boys and Girls," says "[Brooks] reminded us that whether we live in the Bronzeville section of Chicago or any other neighborhood, childhood is universal in its richness of emotions and new experiences.  We are all Bronzeville boys and girls."  I think she's right:  at least I recognized myself (child and adult) in more than one of these poems.

From "Eunice in the evening:"

What is so nice in the dining room
Is--Everybody's There!
Daddy on the long settee--
A child in every chair--
Mama pouring cocoa in
The little cups of blue.
(And each of us has leave to take
A ginger cookie, too.)

Highly recommended. 

[The original cover art by Ronni Solbert.]

Jen Robinson at PBS Parents

Jen Robinson of the eponymous Book Page is this month's expert (on children's literature, of course) over at PBS Parents.  She's written a short introductory essay on "The Power and Wonder of Children's Books" and is moderating a great discussion over there, all about books and encouraging reading.  Bring your questions and your comments!  Jen is incredibly knowledgeable and generous; and (as she's pointed out elsewhere) it's a good opportunity to show the folks at PBS how interested we are in book-related content.  Congratulations and thanks, Jen!

Math and music (and picture books)

Leo and I went to the Kennedy Center on Sunday to see (and hear) an NSO Ensemble program for families called Connections:  MORE Math and Music (reviewed in the Washington Post today, 1/8/08).  The program was a good fit (maybe a little advanced) for Leo, who likes math and is just starting his second year of violin.

We also re-read two of our favorite picture books about music with Milly, who stayed home with her dad.  Surprise!  Both of them are also in some way about math, although I wouldn't have thought of either of them if asked to recommend a math-related picture book.

Caldecott Honor winner Zin! Zin! Zin! a Violin by Lloyd Moss, illustrated by Marjorie Priceman (Simon and Schuster, 1995) is also counting book:  it starts with a trombone playing alone (solo) and adds orchestral instruments one by one (duo, trio, etc.) until it has "a chamber group of ten."  Moss's well-written rhyming verses are perfectly attuned to the isntruments they introduce.  And Priceman's illustrations, done in gouache, contribute an energetic and colorful cast of musicians.

And in The Philharmonic Gets Dressed by Karla Kuskin, with illustrations by Marc Simont (HarperCollins, 1982), 105 members of the Philharmonic Orchestra (92 men and 13 women) get dressed for work.  Kuskin's quiet, precise text tells us how many take showers or baths (or bubblebaths); how many of the men stand up or sit down to get into their pants; etc.  I think Simont's spot illustrations of the various members of the orchestra are delightful, too.

Oh, and another thing these two books have in common:  great last lines.  But I can't quote them here, because you have to read the book first!

2007 Cybils: Finalists II and another reading list

More Cybils!  Finalists in the remaining four categories were posted on the Cybils blog this morning.  My plan is to read and review at least one new (to me) book from each category before the winners are announced on February 14.  Unfortunately, some of the books I picked last week aren't available at the public library yet (I know! I've placed a purchase suggestion), so I may have to make some last-minute substitutions.

Here's the rest of my Cybils reading list:

Young Adult Fiction.  I just finished The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Little, Brown; 2007).  I'm making it count, even if I have to read it again.  It's that good.

Nonfiction Picture Books.  We read all the egg books.  Last year's winner in this category, An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long (Chronicle, 2006) is a family favorite.  This year I'm going with Guess What Is Growing Inside This Egg by Mia Posada (Millbrook, 2007).

Graphic Novels.  I'm new to graphic novels, so I'll start with a finalist in the elementary and middle grade group:  The Courageous Princess (I'm so predictable) by Rod Espinosa (Dark Horse, 2007).

Middle Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction.  I love this category of book and am already familiar with a few of the short-listed titles.  I really want to see Smart-opedia by Eve Drobot (Maple Tree, 2007); I think Leo's going to like that one, too.

Now, if only the library held any of these (they do have Part-Time Indian), I would be all set!  Thanks again to the panelists who had the enviable job of reading all of the nominated titles, and the difficult one of narrowing them down to these short lists.  I'm looking forward to reading my way through them.

Three Kings Day: Federico and the Magi's Gift

Today (January 6) is Three Kings Day.  In keeping with Spanish and Latin American tradition, we always celebrate this day with a visit from los reyes magos.  The kids leave their shoes by their beds (along with a small box of sweet grass or hay for the camels), and the three kings leave them a small and special gift.  Which is as it should be:  after all, it's the kings who bring the gifts in the Christmas story, too.

There are not many picture books that tell about this tradition. One very beautiful one that does is Federico and the Magi's Gift, a Latin American Christmas story by Argentine author and illustrator Beatriz Vidal (Knopf, 2004).  The story itself is sweetly simple:  Federico is worried that the three kings won't leave him any gifts.  Vidal's exquisite watercolor and gouache illustrations (painted using a magnifying glass and very, very small brushes) are anything but.  They're magical.  I also love the tropical setting: a nice contrast to all those wintry Christmas books.  And not to worry, the Magi leave the coveted toy horse for Federico.

Perhaps they've left something for you?  Feliz Dia de los Reyes!

Listmaking

2008 is not even a week old and already I've lost track of what I've read this year.  Not quite, maybe, but that's where I'm headed.  Now is the time to set up some sort of system, but what?  I could try:

• A website like Goodreads or Library Thing
• An unpublished blog post
• Pen-and-paper.  Tricia keeps a list of titles in a notebook in her purse [see her helpful comment for how she keeps track of different kinds of books: picture books, teaching-related books, her own reading.  Thank you, Tricia!]
• Christie recommends BookCat, a database program designed to catalog book collections [see her helpful comment for more on how she uses BookCat to catalog picture books.  Thank you, Christie!]
• She also recommends keeping an annotated list with links (saves time later)
• Something else entirely

How do you do it?  Please advise.

[Oh, and what about picture books?  I read hundreds (upon hundreds, probably) of picture books.  I don't think it makes sense to keep track of all of them:  maybe just new releases and books we love?]

Poetry Friday: From the Gargoyle's Den

We spent last Saturday morning at the Gargoyle's Den, a workshop for families held every week from 10-2 in the crypt classroom of the Washington National Cathedral.  Lots of projects:  Leo and Milly loved it.  The classroom has a nice collection of cathedral-themed picture books, too.  This poem is from A Gargoyle on the Roof by children's poet laureate Jack Prelutsky; pictures by Peter Sis , whose distinguished work as an author and illustrator I admire (Greenwillow, 1999).

Mother Gargoyle's Lullaby

The moon and stars have vanished,
The long dark night is through,
Another day is dawning,
The sky is clear and blue.
The morning sun is rising,
It's climbing overhead.
My precious baby gargoyles
Should snuggle into bed.  [continues]

Other picture books about gargoyles:

god bless the gargoyles by dav pilkey (Voyager, 1999).  Look at this book for the gorgeous paintings (made with acrylics, watercolors, and India inks).  One was inspired by Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.

Night of the Gargoyles by Eve Bunting; illustrated by David Wiesner (Clarion, 1994).  Gargoyles on a museum building come to life at night in Wiesner's black-and-white charcoal drawings.

Our National Ambassador

Congratulations to Jon Scieszka, our first National Ambassador for Young People's Literature!  I know, you did not read it here first, but more details about the National Ambassador program and Scieszka's appointment have been trickling in from various sources all day.  I got to share the news with the kids at breakfast:  this article was in the Washington Post (1/3/08).  Then I got an email from PW Children's Bookshelf that included this article.  Press releases have been popping up all over the place, too.  It's exciting.

Scieszka's platform will be "Reaching Reluctant Readers."  It dovetails with Guys Read, Scieszcka's web-based literacy program (est. 2001) designed to help guys (young, middle, and older) find stuff they like to read (and I quote).  Will Scieszka's focus on reluctant guy readers leave ravenous girl readers out?  I don't think so (I hope not).  I was a ravenous girl reader once; now I'm the mom of a little guy reader, and I could use the help.

[See this post at Jen Robinson's Book Page for some of Scieszka's suggestions on how to encourage reluctant readers.  I need to work on number 4.]

[And the Horn Book's January 2008 monthly special features recently published books for reluctant readers (none of which I've read).  Reluctant readers are hot!]

2007 Cybils: Finalists I

I love children's-book-award season.  This is the second year for the Cybils (Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards); finalists in four categories were posted on the Cybils blog this morning.  Many thanks to the panelists who read and reviewed all of the nominated books and came up with such interesting lists.  I was pleasantly surprised by how many of the finalists I had never even heard of (I confess; and I read a lot) and wanted to rectify that right away.

I'd like to read and review at least one new (to me) book from each category before the winners are announced on Valentine's Day.  Who knows?  Maybe I'll even pick the winners!  Anyway, here are the books I've chosen to read from among the first group of finalists:

Science Fiction and Fantasy.  There are so many appealing books in this category.  I'm starting with Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst (Razorbill, 2007), because of the fairy tales.  Then Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury, 2007).  The finalists in the SFF category were split into middle-grade and YA this year, which makes sense to me.

Fiction Picture Books.  I think I can manage at least two (very different) picture books:  Leaves by David Ezra Stein (Putnam, 2007), and The Incredible Book-Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers (Philomel, 2007).

Poetry.  I want to read everything Laura Amy Schlitz has ever written (including last year's Cybil award-winning middle grade novel, A Drowned Maiden's Hair).  Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! : Voices from a Medieval Village (Candlewick, 2007) was already on my list; I was so pleased to see it on this one, too.

Middle Grade.  The story of Helen Keller's teacher, Annie Sullivan:  Miss Spitfire by Sarah Miller (Atheneum, 2007).  I like books that tell the other side of a familiar (and in this case, true) story.

Finalists in the remaining categories (nonfiction picture books, graphic novels, young adult novels, and middle grade/young adult nonfiction) will be posted next week.  I'll be waiting!

The End

We love this clever book:  The End by David La Rochelle; illustrated by Richard Egielski (Arthur A. Levine, 2007).  And we're not the only ones:  it received four starred reviews.  The droll and deadpan text (hand-lettered by Georgia Deaver) begins with "And they all lived happily ever after" and proceeds backwards until it arrives at "Once upon a time...", encountering knights, princesses, dragons, bunny rabbits, giants, and enormous tomatoes along the way.  Egielski's illustrations, done in sepia ink and watercolor, are brilliant, matching the offbeat fairy tale feel of the text, enriching and extending the story (look for the elf on the flying blue pig).  The book design by Elizabeth B. Parisi is also exceptional:  even the copyright information and title page are relocated to the back of the book.  We've read this thing forward and backward multiple times, and it still feels fresh.  The perfect read for the the end of one year--or is it the beginning of the next?  Happy new year!

[See David LaRochelle's website for a terrific teaching guide, too.]

Poetry Friday: Good King Wenceslas

Good King Wenceslas; original carol by John M. Neale; illustrated by Tim Ladwig (Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2005).

"Good King Wenceslas look'd out

on the feast of Stephen,

when the snow lay round about,

deep and crisp and even."

Ladwig, working in watercolor, liquid acrylic, and oil on paper, beautifully illustrates Neale's carol about the tenth-century Bohemian king who goes out with his page to give alms to a peasant on St. Stephen's Day (the second day of Christmas, December 26).  I like Ladwig's framing device, a little boy looking at the statue of Wenceslas in Prague and "imagin[ing] a long time ago..."; the same little boy (and his dog) appears in the story as Wenceslas's page.  A "Historical Note" at the back of the book tells us that Neale wrote the carol in 1853 to inspire children to be generous on St. Stephen's Day: it's not too late!

See this article in Wikipedia for the full text of the carol and notes on its form (it was set to the melody of a thirteenth century Swedish spring song).  There is also another picture book about Wenceslas by Geraldine McCaughrean (whose work I very much like); illustrated by Christian Birmingham (Transworld, 2007); this one appears to be a prose retelling of the Wenceslas legend.

[Leo is finally interested in knights, kings, and castles, much to the delight of his medievalist mother (me); he especially liked Ladwig's warm illustrations of the castle interiors.]

Unwrapped

For the record.  Thank you, Santa and our generous relatives.

Olivia Helps with Christmas by Ian Falconer (Atheneum, 2007).  Another one for the Christmas book basket.  Olivia is not always my favorite, but even I can't resist her when she gets tangled up in the lights.

First the Egg by Laura Seeger (Roaring Brook, 2007).  We loved Lemons Are Not Red (I think it was the first book Milly could "read" all by herself; with lots of expression).  This one is good, too.  You can page through both of them at LookyBook.com (with this caveat).

Hug Time by Patrick McDonnell (Little, Brown; 2007).  Very, very sweet.  Maybe even a little too sweet for me, but Milly likes it.

Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary by Beverly D'Onofrio; illustrated by Barbara McClintock (Schwartz and Wade, 2007).  Santa must have read this post.

Scholastic Children's Encyclopedia (2004).  We have a freecycled 1951 World Book Encyclopedia that sees a surprising amount of use from me and my second-grader.  I would love to upgrade to a new(er) set, but in the meantime Leo can learn to use this single-volume encyclopedia on his own.  So far: no entry for Armor, but some relevant information under Knight.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves:  Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference! by Lynne Truss; illustrated by Bonnie Timmons (Putnam Juvenile, 2006).  Insert clever sentence with comma variations here.

The Boy Who Drew Birds by Jacqueline Davies; illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Houghton Mifflin, 2004).  Look for an upcoming post about this lovely book, a story from the life of John James Audubon.

The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill.  Instead of The Lemonade Wars (also by Jacqueline Davies; see above), which will have to wait until Leo is a little older.  He and his dad read 11 chapters of Toothpaste Millionaire last night; they really like it.

The Chronicles of Narnia with pop-ups by Robert Sabuda (HarperCollins, 2007) and Winter's Tale.  With many thanks to my mother-in-law (who must have read this post).

I didn't receive any gift books this year (I'm not complaining; I got a great new camera), but a big stack of books to review did arrive in the mail for me on Christmas Eve....

New (to me) Christmas books for the basket

We have a big Christmas book basket (not to be confused with the seasonal book basket for winter) and check out lots more from the library.  Every year I like to add one or two Christmas books to the basket, the ones I'm already looking forward to reading next year.  These were my favorite "new" books this year:

A Christmas Like Helen's by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock; illustrated by Mary Azarian (Houghton-Mifflin, 2004).  "To have a Christmas like Helen's, you'll need to be born on a Vermont hill farm, before cars, or telephones, or electricity, and be the youngest of seven children."  This gorgeous book is the next best thing.  Be sure to read the author's note (she's one of Helen's 32 grandchildren).

A Clever Beatrice Christmas by Margaret Willey; illustrated by Heather M. Solomon (Atheneum, 2006).  We love Clever Beatrice.  This time Beatrice promises her friends that she will show them a bell from Pere Noel's sleigh, a button from his cape, and a curl from his beard on Christmas morning.  Perhaps Pere Noel will leave some of those things behind at our house this year, too?  We'll leave him a big piece of the buche de noel just like Beatrice and her mother did.

Santa's Littlest Helper by Anu Stohner; illustrated by Henrike Wilson (Bloomsbury USA, 2004).  For my littlest helper, who loves forest animals.  I love that Santa's helpers look...just like Santa!  Makes sense to us.  And I just noticed that there is a sequel:  Santa's Littlest Helper Travels the World (Bloomsbury USA, 2007).  All of these author-and-illustrator teams have other books I haven't yet seen yet.  It's like a Christmas present!

Are any of you adding a Christmas book to your basket this year?

Poetry Friday: Saint Thomas

The Christmas shelves at our branch library have been picked over by now.  This book was (not surprisingly, sorry to say) one of the ones that was left:  Christmas Folk by Natalia Belting; illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969).  Barbara Cooney illustrated some of our favorite Christmas books (The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston [Dial, 1988] and The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden).  I had never heard of Natalia Belting, though.

Christmas Folk is blank verse about the Christmas folklore of the Elizabethan period (mumming, wassailing, etc.); if it were published today, it would probably include some interesting background information.  For the record, last night was Saint Thomas Eve.  Girls would put a peeled onion under their pillow and pray:

Good St. Thomas, do me right,
Send me my true love tonight;
In his clothes and his array,
Which he weareth every day,
That I may see him in the face. 

hoping to dream of their future husband.  Sorry if this comes too late for some of you, but maybe you could try it next year!

Today, then, is Saint Thomas Day, when girls and women would go from house to house, collecting flour for their Christmas baking ("thomassing").  Maybe it would be a good day to deliver your gifts of baked goods, instead?

Saint Thomas Day is also the winter solstice:

St. Thomas gray, St. Thomas gray,
The longest night and the shortest day.

Happy Solstice!  We will be taking our recycled aluminum can lanterns on a long walk this evening.  I'll be back in this space after Christmas (with a list of books given and received).  Merry happy holidays!

The Newbery Project

I just joined The Newbery Project (thank you, Alicia).  Participants are reading books that have won the Newbery Medal, awarded by the ALA since 1922 for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.  The goal is to read all of the Newbery winners; there is no time limit (thanks again!).  Reviews and responses are posted on the project website, indexed by book.  It's interesting to see which of the older winners are being (re-)read first.

This is actually my second Newbery Project; the first was in elementary school.  Our library kept the Newbery Medal winners on a special shelf under the windows, lined up by publication date.  There was also a poster where our librarian, Miss Herwig, kept track of who read and reported on which book(s) with little gold stars.  By the end of the sixth grade, I had earned a star for every single Newbery winner to date.  Granted, there were significantly fewer then (it was 1983; Dicey's Song won that year).  I still have the dictionary I was awarded at the end-of-the year assembly (a red clothbound edition of Webster's Ninth New Collegiate; I keep it on my desk).  And the certificate, too.

Carnival: Alterna-Princess

The theme for December's Carnival of Children's Literature, hosted by Kelly Herold at Big A little a, is gift books.  If you have a little princess on your list (Disney or otherwise, but probably Disney; I hear those princesses are pretty popular), these suggestions are for you--but also for anyone, big or little, who loves fairy tales.

Consider giving a beautifully retold and illustrated edition of a favorite fairy tale.

One of our favorites is Cinderella, retold and illustrated by Barbara McClintock from the Charles Perrault version (Scholastic, 2005).  McClintock's illustrations (in pen, india ink, and watercolor with gold endpapers) were inspired by a trip to Paris; the prince's palace is based on Versailles and the Paris Opera, and the clothes and hair are from the Louis XIV period.  Cinderella's dresses are gorgeous, dripping with flowers or covered in tiny pink ruffles ("The ladies studied her so that they could copy her hair and dress the next day").  McClintock's retelling is as lovely as the illustrations.  And there is a little gray cat on almost every page.

Look for retellings of the familiar princess stories from other cultures, too.

Cinderella again.  I think there are more Cinderella stories than any other fairy tale.  This year's Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal:  A Worldwide Cinderella by Paul Fleischman; illustrated by Julie Paschkis (Henry Holt, 2007) proves my point.  Fleischman's text weaves strands of many (17, by SLJ's count) multicultural Cinderellas into one story; Paschkis's illustrations keep them (or rather you) from getting tangled up.  I haven't seen this book yet and am curious about how, exactly, it works.  The reviews say it does, splendidly.  I hope it also includes good source notes, in case I'm compelled to seek out one of the Cinderellas for myself (n.b., I love source notes).

Or introduce a new princess (one who doesn't have a movie contract. Yet).

The Princess and the Pea is my favorite of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales.  This retelling by Lauren Child, captured (photographed) by Polly Borland (Hyperion, 2006) is wonderful: literally full of dollhouse (1/12) scale wonders.  A note at the back of the book explains how Child created the sets (out of cornflake boxes!) and drew, cut out, and dressed the characters: it might inspire some small set designers and photographers at your house, too.  Child's text, which stays close to Andersen's original, is charming and clever; best of all, it points out that "any real princess has such impeccable manners that it would be impossible for her to tell her host...that it was the most uncomfortable night that she had ever had, in all her life."

Finally, a good collection of fairy tales, including those familiar and new, is always welcome.

SurLaLunefairytales.com is an excellent resource for all things fairy tale (and some folklore, too).  The work of Heidi Anne Heiner, SurLaLune features 47 (and counting) annotated fairy tales.  Especially helpful in the context of this post (what was that again?  oh yes, gift books for princesses and people who love fairy tales!) are the picture book galleries for each fairy tale (here's Cinderella's).  Which are your favorites?