The Twelve Dancing Princesses: A Folk Tale from the Brothers Grimm

by Freya Littledale (Retold By), Isadore Seltzer (Illustrator)

Every night, the king locks his 12 daughters in their room. Every morning, he finds them looking pale with their new dancing slippers in tatters. Can a young gardener solve the mystery without becoming bewitched himself?

Genres: Picture Books, Fairy Tales, Childrens, Fiction, Classics

32 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1988

About the author

Freya Littledale (1929 - 1992) was a children's book author, adapter, and editor. Most of her works were retold fairytales.

Reviews

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the only version of the tale I have ever read and now I'm curious to read others. I've always enjoyed this tale, but after reading some other children's book reviews I do have a few issues with this version.

Every morning the King wakes to find his daughters dancing shoes "worn to pieces" after he had locked them in their room overnight. The King puts out a message "far and wide" that who ever can discover the secret of the 12 princesses will be able to marry one of them and be King one day. Each man is given 3 days to discover what the ladies are up to or they will lose their heads. No man is successful unit a "poor soldier" comes into the picture. He is given some wise advice from an old woman in the forest along with an invisibility cloak. The soldier is welcomed into the kingdom and dressed like a prince by the King. For 3 days he follows the princesses into this magical land where the women have been dancing all night. At the end of the 3 days the soldier is able to tell the King where the women are going. The soldier chooses a princess to marry and will one day be King.

Here are a couple of my issues: Once the soldier explains to the King where the women have been going they completely fess up with no prompting, which is odd since they were so tight lipped about everything in the first place. These women are a bit spoiled because not only do they laugh at the men who loose their heads, but they are active participants in their beheading since they are the ones drugging the men at night. There is no way the solider would have been successful if he had not been given the advice by the old woman in the forest. I think the old woman's role could have been expanded a little bit because she seems very random and as if her whole purpose was to help him, but why would she want to?

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a picture book retelling of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" by the Brothers Grimm.

Twelve princesses travel to a magical world each night where they wear out their shoes dancing, and their father the king promises the kingdom and his daughter's hand in marriage to the man who can discover their secret. Countless men tried and failed, but an old soldier finally succeeds with the help of a magic cloak.

[Jayme · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations are unusual and not as beautiful as some other versions of the story. But this version reads more smoothly without all the wordiness of many others and is, to my knowledge, more true to the original.

[A. Mickey Perkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Twelve Dancing Princesses is one of my favorite fairy tales, and this art is so beautiful!

[Saffron Moon]

This rating is for the edition retold by Freya Littledale and illustrated by Isadore Seltzer.

[Kira Welch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this fairy tale however it is a lot different then the other fairy tales I am use too. I always forget that The Brothers Grimm are more violent than the Disney fairy tales. I liked the pictures and how they portrayed all the characters and also the pictures of the world the daughters go to to dance. I liked how it was focused on the girls and that they was a situation or mystery that was trying to be solved which I think will keep children s attention. However I felt as if it just sort of ended and that there was nothing that was really resolved at the end. It was actually a little sad because the eldest daughter (even though she was a little mean and dismissive to the youngest daughter)did not end up with her prince at the end she had to marry the soldier. I think that you can tell that this book is set a while ago and not set in present day. Not just because there is a King and they live in castles but by the values that are being displayed in this book. The daughters being locked up their rooms not being allowed to leave and being married off at their fathers will does not seem like a very appropriate fairy tale.
I am not sure if I would use these fairy tales in my classroom. They are a little more violent and address a lot of conversational topics. I enjoy them a little better I think thought because they are more real and not as predictable as the more common Disney fairy tales.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't find this version of the twelve dancing princesses on here and even the reviews on Amazon seem to be about other versions.

It gets a 4 star for me, mainly because of the illustrations by Isadore Seltzer. The story itself is an easy reader type, one of the many I got through Scholastic in my school years, and it leaves the reader with questions as well as answers at the end.

Rereading it as a semi-adult the princesses seem cruel as they laugh about the men who lost their heads over them but that's no different from any other version I've read. But I loved the trees!

Plus, I have to look up about the enchanted princes they danced with in this version it hints they continue to be under a spell.

Overall another childhood book that I enjoyed reading then and now.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the use of shadow and light in this book. I also like that the princesses dance so much that they wear holes in their shoes every night. One thing I always liked about the Grimm tales was how violent they are. But now it occurs to me that they were written in a time when that sort of violence (beheadings and whatnot) may have been more commonplace. I wonder how differently the stories were received in the time that they were written. Reality was different then, more unilateral laws and less science. Those would come together to make a world where people routinely faced life and death situations and magic seemed more possible. Oh, more royalty too. Maybe stories always seem fantastical when they are removed from our own time and or culture.

[Manda · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books as a child; I don't know if it's in print anymore which I find sad. Other fairy tale books retold by Freya Littledale are The Little Mermaid & Sleeping Beauty.

[Tasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5 The ending is pretty depressing, and it didn't really feel like anything was resolved. The story just stopped.