Classic Adaptation

"The Flying Trunk" is a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. A young man squanders his inheritance until he has almost nothing left. A friend sends him a trunk with directions to pack up and be off. Having nothing to pack, he gets into the trunk himself, only to discover that the trunk is enchanted and carries him to the land of the Turks.

Geoffrey Chaucer, born around 1340, was the first great English poet. The immense popularity of the "Canterbury Tales" is shown by the number of manuscript copies still in existence. It was one of the first books printed in England. The vividness with which the author describes scenes and events and people, as if he had them before his eyes, is one of his greatest charms as a writer. Those who know him best, place him second only to Shakespeare as a writer of delightful English.

Blanche-Neige inculpée ! Les dessous de l'affaire Cendrillon ! Le prince charmant démasqué ! Le scandale des contes de fées ! Voici "Le petit chaperon rouge", "Les trois petits cochons" et autres contes classiques revus et corrigés avec humour par Roald Dahl et Quentin Blake. Reconnaîtrez-vous ces contes étonnants et épouvantablement comiques ?

Cursed by an angry fairy, the little princess Briar Rose is doomed to a life spent in eternal slumber - until one day when a handsome prince happens to pass by the kingdom. Can his love break the spell and rescue Briar Rose from her sleeping reverie?

The Brothers Grimm relay the story of a woman who was never satisfied even though her wishes were granted over and over again. When she dared to become as like God she discovers that contentment comes when you learn to like what you have and stop loving what you don't. A wonderful short story from the world of Grimm. Narrated by Glenn Hascall.

This little milkmaid has a bucket of milk on her head and some big plans on her mind. That is not, she finds, a good combination. "The Milkmaid and Her Pail," is one of Aesop's best known fables. In this retelling, master storyteller Rand Whipple creates a loveable young dreamer who can't manage to find the right word for 'milk' much less the way to make it safely to market with her goods.

Little Red Riding Hood is a young girl, so called because of the red cloak she wears. One day her mother asks her to take some food to her sick grandmother, who lives in a clearing in the nearby forest. On the way to her grandmother, she meets an apparently friendly wolf, and since she had many friends in the animal kingdom, sees no harm in stopping to talk with him. But the wolf is not as he appears to be!

Harold draws an enchanted garden, only to discover that nothing can grow there because of the machinations of a Giant Witch.

Some stories are so timeless we can't wait to share them with our children. You'll find five such classics in this collection from PlainTales, including the tales of the naughty Gingerbread Boy, the clever Billy Goats Gruff, the enchanted Frog Prince, the stalwart Little Red Hen, and the courageous Bremen Town Musicians. All are told with simple, engaging language perfect for the littlest listeners.

This is a story from the Andersen's Fairy Tales collection.

Imagine a tiny boy, small as a finger; that's Tom Thumb! A woodman and his wife long for a child and very soon a son is born to them. But as the years pass, Tom grows hardly at all! Tiny he may be, but he has the heart of a lion. Tom decides to go and help with father chop wood and this is where his adventure begins. Follow Tom's adventures through the forest; he rides on a horse's ear, is eaten by a cow, swallowed by a wolf as all the while he tries to foil a pair of country robbers!

This is a story from the Grimm's Fairy Tales collection.

This is the magic story of Mary's child told in rhymes for your delight.

Sleeping Beauty has enchanted generations, young and old alike. The king and queen have a fervent wish; to bear a son or daughter. Their wish is answered when a beautiful princess is born. Unfortunately, at the banquet to celebrate the daughter's birth, an evil fairy places a curse on the child, when she is 15 she will be pricked by a spinning wheel and fall into a deep slumber. But such is the joy of the occasion that the curse is forgotten and seldom recalled as the child grows up.

An evil queen wishes to be the fairest in all the land, but her enchanted mirror tells her that there is one fairer: her step-daughter, Snow White. The classic fairy tale of jealousy, seven dwarves, and a handsome prince comes to life in this delightful favorite.

This is a story from the Grimm's Fairy Tales collection.

A cat, smart and cunning, clever and mischievous but very helpful: he is just the sort of friend we'd all like by our sides. The youngest of three orphan brothers is left destitute after his parents' death. But such an apparently sad situation takes a quite unexpected turn for the better when he inherits what appears at first to be a small, quite ordinary cat. But it turns out to be the greatest inheritance of all! Our cat is not only clever and brave, but he is also a talking cat!

Six brothers have been turned into swans by their evil stepmother. They can only take their human forms for 15 minutes every evening. In order to free them, their sister must make six shirts out of starwort for her brothers, and neither speak nor laugh for six years.

Imagine a tiny little girl, no bigger than the size of a thumb! Now imagine how strange and scary the world must seem to her. Thumbelina is snatched from her home by a toad, who wished to marry her off to his son. But this is not the end of her misfortune; upon her adventures she meets beetles, a catfish, a butterfly, a mouse, a bird and many others. Some of the animals are kind and friendly, while others are decidedly less so. What will happen to poor tiny Thumbelina? Will she ever find her way home?

Hansel and Gretel is the classic tale of a brother and sister who get lost in the forest with some surprising results. After being abandoned by their wicked stepmother in the forest, the two children try to find their way home. Suddenly they stumble upon every child's dream: a cottage made of candy! But inside lives a wicked witch who she is not as nice as she at first pretends to be and has an evil plan! Can Hansel and Gretel escape from the dastardly witch and find their way home?