Andrew Lang's Fairy Tale books -- certain order to read them in?

[Mama2Three]

Hi there! I've been meaning to pick up some of these for my DC. I'm just wondering, are some of them better for certain ages? Are there certain publishers that do a better job with the stories (and illustrations, if they have them)? A preferred order to read them in?

 

Thanks!

[Guest Cindie2dds]

We are currently reading the Blue Fairy book with Ambleside's schedule for Year 1. We are just choosing random stories from the Red Fairy book since it's a free read. My dd is almost 7 and she really enjoys it. My four year old comes in and out, it doesn't keep her interest yet. I would say 6 and up on average because of the older style of writing and language.

[nmoira]

We start with Blue, for no better reason than it came first and the stories are more familiar. After this we jump around according to whim.

 

We're very happy with the Dover editions. There is at least one all-in-one edition out there which looks like a good bargain, but its print is microscopic and it lacks both illustrations and functional TOC. The Dover editions come to about 4500 pages, a quantity not easily compressed into an all-in-one. There are a number of other in-print editions, for the most part poorly formatted and lacking illustrations.

[eloquacious]

I've always assumed that if we read them, we'd follow this order, as put out by the folks at the Great Books Academy ("Good Books" Reading List).

 

http://www.greatbooksacademy.org/curriculum/good-books-list/

[lisabelle]

Even though ds wouldn't be interested in them, I've asked the dh to get me the complete set of Lang's fairy tales for Christmas. I've been reading The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt and have a hankering for fairy tales.

[Dmmetler]

The Blue Fairy Book is the one which is the most familiar to most children, so is a good place to start. My turning 6 yr old LOVES these. I like the Dover editions as well (not only for Lang, but for other fairy/folk tales), and ITA with getting the single books so that they're not intimidatingly big.

[Melissa B]

I've found blue, red and yellow are best with younger kids. The stories seem shorter and more familiar. The others all seem the same in length and difficulty and we read them in any order. However, dds just told me pink is their favorite. :)

[Guest missyintx]

You can get them as free downloads at Gutenberg. If you don't have an e-reader you can download Kindle for PC from Amazon and read them on your computer.

 

Missy

[eloquacious]

Fantastic! I just downloaded Kindle for Mac. I knew I could get them for free, but reading them in Adobe Acrobat Reader was ... meh.

 

 

I would still prefer to have everything in lovely hard covers, but until then, this will do. ;)

[watertribe]

Get free downloads at amazon too

 

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&node=2245146011&ref_=amb_link_40669842_101&bbn=2245146011&rh=n%3A133140011%2Cn%3A!133142011%2Cn%3A2245146011%2Cn%3A154606011

[Mama2Three]

I've always assumed that if we read them, we'd follow this order, as put out by the folks at the Great Books Academy ("Good Books" Reading List).

 

http://www.greatbooksacademy.org/curriculum/good-books-list/

 

Thanks everyone for your responses -- I always learn a lot when I ask a question on these boards. This list is just what I was looking for. :)

[Hathersage]

Or you could use the fairy tale of the day site for inspiration:

http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/