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Hansel and Gretel

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Hansel and Gretel, illustrated by Charles Robinson (A classic fairy tale with a bit of  twist) This story was published in The Big Book of Fairy Tales, edited by Walter Jerrold. The publisher was Blackie & Son in 1911. Hansel and Gretel live with their father and stepmother. Father is a poor woodcutter. They are all hungry. Stepmother gets the idea to take the kids into the woods and leave them there so there would be two hungry mouths at the house. Father doesn't like the idea but she persists. Hansel tells this to his sister. He has a plan. He sneaks out of the house and fills his pockets with white pebbles so he can drop them on their way to the forest, and the kids can later find their way home. The plan works. Hansel and Gretel are left in the woods but return home following the trace of the pebbles. Unfortunately, their stepmother insists on taking them to the forest again. This time, the door is locked, so Hansel can't take the pebbles. He tries to mark the way with
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Jack and the Beanstalk

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Jack and the Beanstalk, illustrated by Charles Robinson The story about a boy who challenges a giant is among the best-known tales in the world. Less known is the fact that writers tried to improve the plot for centuries. What is the obvious problem? Jack enters the giant's castle and starts stealing stuff. While our sympathies are obviously with the boy and not with the man-eating giant, his actions are still questionable from a moral point of view. What gives him the right to take the giant's possession? Are we sending the wrong message to our children? Will they grow up believing that stealing is okay? So several writers and editors tried to improve the fairy tale by adding a so-called pre-story. Jack wasn't a poor boy or at least he shouldn't be. His father was rich and good-hearted. But the evil giant who was jealous of his good heart and possessions took everything from the family including the life of Jack's father. Yes. Such an explanation looked all right t
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Happy Prince

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The Happy Prince and Other Tales  Written by Oscar Wilde, illustrated by Charles Robinson When Oscar Wilde became a father, he wanted to offer his son a few good stories for children. Unfortunately, none of the books on the market suited Wilde's exquisite taste, so he decided to write a book of stories for kids himself. His wife Costance very likely helped him at work, at least with the editing part (after all, she already had some experience with writing fairy tales) but we'll never know how much of her wit is in the five tales presented below. (frontispiece)      Anyway, Oscar Wilde definitely infused some of his best intellectual powers in this work which, by the way, was never popular among children. But it's still a masterpiece and we will explore it with illustrations by Charles Robinson. The illustrator made great effort as well. He didn't just create pictures of the scenes from the tales but approached to the project as a decorative artist and designer so the b
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