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Tales From Grimm Tr
PRenowned children#8217;s book author Wanda G#225;g presents these classic Grimm tales, accompanied by whimsical illustrations. Drawing on her peasant heritage and childlike sense of wonder, G#225;g translated the fairy tales in a uniquely American vernacular tongue. In Tales from Grimm we find her touch on timeless stories like #8220;Hansel and Gretel,#8221; #8220;The Musicians of Bremen,#8221; #8220;Rapunzel,#8221; and others. No other editions of Grimm#8217;s fairy tales for children can match G#225;g#8217;s richness of prose and the humor, beauty, and sheer magic of her pictorial interpretation. Best known for her Newbery Honor winner Millions of Cats, Wanda G#225;g (1893#8211;1946) was a pioneer in children#8217;s book writing, integrating text and illustration. Born in New Ulm, Minnesota, she rose to international acclaim. In recognition of her artistry, she was posthumously awarded the 1958 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award for Millions of Cats and the 1977 Kerlan Award for her body of work.
237 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1936
19 people are currently reading
131 people want to read
About the author
Wanda Gág
91 books78 followersWanda Hazel Gág (pronounced GOG) was an American author and illustrator. She was born on March 11, 1893, in New Ulm, Minnesota. Her mother, Elisabeth Biebl, and father, Anton, were of Bohemian descent. Both parents were artists who had met in Germany. They had seven children, who all acquired some level of artistic talent. Gág grew up the eldest of these, and despite their economic hardships, the family was surrounded by music, art, light, and love, making it for the most part a joyous existence.
When Gág was 15, her father died of tuberculosis; his final words to her were: "Was der Papa nicht thun konnt', muss die Wanda halt fertig machen." ("What Papa couldn't do, Wanda will have to finish.") Following Anton's death the family was on welfare, and some townspeople thought that Gág should quit high school and get a steady job to help support her family. Despite this pressure, Gág continued her studies. After graduating in 1912, she taught country school in Springfield, Minnesota, from November 1912 to June 1913.
In 1917, she illustrated A Child’s Book of Folk-Lore, following which she worked on many different projects and became a well-known artist and author. Her art exhibition in the New York Public Library in 1923 was the true beginning of her fame. She gained a reputation as an illustrator for socialist publications such as The New Masses, and she considered herself a feminist and advocate of free love in the 1920s. She did not marry her lover until later in life, for instance, although she lived with him before they wed.
She was especially esteemed for her lithographs, though today if her name is known at all it is usually from her children's books, specifically the classic Millions of Cats, which won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958. Gág also received the Newbury Honor Award for this book, and the combined effects of it and her exhibition gave her the funds she needed to carry on her work without stress.
She died in New York City on June 27, 1946.
When Gág was 15, her father died of tuberculosis; his final words to her were: "Was der Papa nicht thun konnt', muss die Wanda halt fertig machen." ("What Papa couldn't do, Wanda will have to finish.") Following Anton's death the family was on welfare, and some townspeople thought that Gág should quit high school and get a steady job to help support her family. Despite this pressure, Gág continued her studies. After graduating in 1912, she taught country school in Springfield, Minnesota, from November 1912 to June 1913.
In 1917, she illustrated A Child’s Book of Folk-Lore, following which she worked on many different projects and became a well-known artist and author. Her art exhibition in the New York Public Library in 1923 was the true beginning of her fame. She gained a reputation as an illustrator for socialist publications such as The New Masses, and she considered herself a feminist and advocate of free love in the 1920s. She did not marry her lover until later in life, for instance, although she lived with him before they wed.
She was especially esteemed for her lithographs, though today if her name is known at all it is usually from her children's books, specifically the classic Millions of Cats, which won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958. Gág also received the Newbury Honor Award for this book, and the combined effects of it and her exhibition gave her the funds she needed to carry on her work without stress.
She died in New York City on June 27, 1946.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
October 28, 2018
Wanda Gág's 1936 Tales from Grimm is NOT in any manner an exhaustive (read a complete) translation of Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm's Kinder- und Hausmärchen in so far that it features just seventeen chosen and selected tales (and an interesting melange of some of the most well-known of the Grimms' fairy tales, such as for example Rapunzel and Hansel and Gretel, but also less universally popular offerings like Spindle, Shuttle and Needle and Lazy Heinz). And by the way, there is also a sequel, the 1946 More Tales from Grimm (which I have not yet read but which will probably be very similar to Tales From Grimm in scope and style and also counts as Wanda Gág's last book, supposedly even remaining a bit unfinished and unpolished, as Gág unfortunately died of lung cancer whilst putting the finishing touches to More Tales From Grimm).
Now even though I usually do tend to prefer literal translations with regard to rendering folk and fairy tales from one language into another, with Wanda Gág's Tales From Grimm, I have actually very much both liked and appreciated how with some of the featured tales, she textually presents them as literal translations from the original German, whilst for others, she has chosen to engage in some mild but in my opinion usually necessary adaptations (especially since Wanda Gág has in her extensive introduction always meticulously shown which of the seventeen Grimms' stories she has chosen to keep as literal translations and which she has changed and altered a bit and of course also and appreciatively the reasons as to why). And from a translation point of departure, I have certainly found it interesting (and personally appealing) to peruse Wanda Gág's own methodology, of how she originally did a literal word-for-word translation of the tales from German into English and then decided which of the translated stories still according to her required adaptations, which needed additions, subtractions and/or stylistic alterations in order to render them more readable, less potentially confusing and more relatable (to and for an English speaking audience).
And truth be told, ALL or at least the vast majority of the adaptive strategies employed by Wanda Gág in and throughout her Tales From Grimm I generally do both support and very much condone, even cheer, and especially for instances where she has left out, where she has erased story details from the original Grimms' tales that could be deemed as being superfluous and/or possibly confusing. Now a very good example of this is the Grimms' Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich, where the bit about Iron Henry (even though he is indeed mentioned in the title) really does seem just kind of tacked on at the end. And considering that personally, I have actually always found the Iron Henry part both somewhat confusing and unnecessary (both as a child and now as an adult) and that my grandmother even started leaving the latter out whenever she read Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich to me (when I was a youngster in Germany) after I had pointed out to her that the story itself only really features Iron Henry right at the end and seemingly at random (well, not in exactly those words, of course, as I was a young child at that time but I certainly did get my objections across so to speak), I am totally and utterly in agreement with Wanda Gág simply omitting the entire Iron Henry episode altogether from The Frog Prince both to avoid confusion and also, much more importantly, because Iron Henry himself does not really have all that much if in fact anything to do with how the princess releases the enchanted prince/king from the curse of having been turned into a frog.
Four very much glowing and shining stars for Wanda Gág's Tales From Grimm, for a lovely and readable (as well as of course also very much read-aloud-able) rendition of a collection of seventeen Grimms' folk and fairly tales into English (sweetly and gracefully accompanied by Gág's distinctive artwork, by black and white illustrations that provide a delightful decorative trim to and for the texts, to and for the translated/adapted Grimms' stories but without and thankfully so never in any manner overtaking or overshadowing the written words). And the only reason why I am ranking Tales From Grimm with four and not five stars is that personally, I would have liked it, had Wanda Gág also presented the original German language titles of the stories alongside of the English ones (mostly and in particular because as already mentioned above, there are at least seven tales included in Tales From Grimm that are not all that universally famous and well known both in English and indeed also in the German original).
Now even though I usually do tend to prefer literal translations with regard to rendering folk and fairy tales from one language into another, with Wanda Gág's Tales From Grimm, I have actually very much both liked and appreciated how with some of the featured tales, she textually presents them as literal translations from the original German, whilst for others, she has chosen to engage in some mild but in my opinion usually necessary adaptations (especially since Wanda Gág has in her extensive introduction always meticulously shown which of the seventeen Grimms' stories she has chosen to keep as literal translations and which she has changed and altered a bit and of course also and appreciatively the reasons as to why). And from a translation point of departure, I have certainly found it interesting (and personally appealing) to peruse Wanda Gág's own methodology, of how she originally did a literal word-for-word translation of the tales from German into English and then decided which of the translated stories still according to her required adaptations, which needed additions, subtractions and/or stylistic alterations in order to render them more readable, less potentially confusing and more relatable (to and for an English speaking audience).
And truth be told, ALL or at least the vast majority of the adaptive strategies employed by Wanda Gág in and throughout her Tales From Grimm I generally do both support and very much condone, even cheer, and especially for instances where she has left out, where she has erased story details from the original Grimms' tales that could be deemed as being superfluous and/or possibly confusing. Now a very good example of this is the Grimms' Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich, where the bit about Iron Henry (even though he is indeed mentioned in the title) really does seem just kind of tacked on at the end. And considering that personally, I have actually always found the Iron Henry part both somewhat confusing and unnecessary (both as a child and now as an adult) and that my grandmother even started leaving the latter out whenever she read Der Froschkönig oder der eiserne Heinrich to me (when I was a youngster in Germany) after I had pointed out to her that the story itself only really features Iron Henry right at the end and seemingly at random (well, not in exactly those words, of course, as I was a young child at that time but I certainly did get my objections across so to speak), I am totally and utterly in agreement with Wanda Gág simply omitting the entire Iron Henry episode altogether from The Frog Prince both to avoid confusion and also, much more importantly, because Iron Henry himself does not really have all that much if in fact anything to do with how the princess releases the enchanted prince/king from the curse of having been turned into a frog.
Four very much glowing and shining stars for Wanda Gág's Tales From Grimm, for a lovely and readable (as well as of course also very much read-aloud-able) rendition of a collection of seventeen Grimms' folk and fairly tales into English (sweetly and gracefully accompanied by Gág's distinctive artwork, by black and white illustrations that provide a delightful decorative trim to and for the texts, to and for the translated/adapted Grimms' stories but without and thankfully so never in any manner overtaking or overshadowing the written words). And the only reason why I am ranking Tales From Grimm with four and not five stars is that personally, I would have liked it, had Wanda Gág also presented the original German language titles of the stories alongside of the English ones (mostly and in particular because as already mentioned above, there are at least seven tales included in Tales From Grimm that are not all that universally famous and well known both in English and indeed also in the German original).
November 19, 2018
A lovely selection of the Grimm Brothers' fairy tales, mostly lesser known ones (I could count with one hand how many of them I'd known previously). Wanda Gág is a new artist to me, she has a lovely illustration style, though I think it's more aimed at the taste of a younger audience as it's a bit childlike for mine, and I'd have wanted more illustrations, too.
November 5, 2024
A nice collection of well told and gorgeously illustrated fairy tales.
May 14, 2019
I don’t know how i can give a review for this. I read it in one afternoon and i enjoyed it. It had some of the most well known stories like Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, and Rapunzel and some that I had never heard before like The Three Brothers, The Dragon and his Grandmother, and Clever Elise (the last two being my favorites). I really liked reading the more crazy endings that the original stories had in comparison to their disney adaptations, and i’m looking forward to reading more of the Tales of Grimm.
December 10, 2018
I bought Tales from Grimm when I was 10 or 11 at my school's library sale and I instantly fell in love with it. I have read it numerous times over the years as Wanda Gág's translation of the tales are engaging and funny and so different from the "prim" tales I had read prior. I read with my sons every night and as my oldest son just started kindergarten, I thought this could be a special "more-grown-up" book we could read together just the two of us. He loved it too! I'm so glad I purchased this book 25+ years ago as otherwise I would never have heard about it.
February 23, 2018
I am a latecomer to the brilliance of Wanda Gág. After reading a New Yorker profile of her ("Juicy As a Pear: Wanda Gág’s Delectable Books," 2014) I sought out this volume of Grimm's fairy tales and they do not disappoint. No one drew like her but the illustrations all support the words and it also turns out that no one wrote like her! She knew the märchen from hearing them in the original German and in this book she re-creates her childhood sensations when hearing them, of "a tingling, anything-may-happen feeling … the sensation of being about to bite into a big juicy pear."
In the book's introduction, Gág describes how she preserved the Low German dialect of the original stories, using a rhyme from The Fisherman and his Wife as an example.
The original Low German dialect:
"Manntje, Manntje, Timpe Te,
Buttje, Buttje in der See,
Myne Fru de Ilsebill
Will nich so as ik wol will."
Gág’s translation:
"Manye, Manye, Timpie Tee!
Fishye, Fishye in the sea!
Ilsebill my wilful wife
Does not want my way of life."
Skip any other translation and bite into the big, juicy pear.
In the book's introduction, Gág describes how she preserved the Low German dialect of the original stories, using a rhyme from The Fisherman and his Wife as an example.
The original Low German dialect:
"Manntje, Manntje, Timpe Te,
Buttje, Buttje in der See,
Myne Fru de Ilsebill
Will nich so as ik wol will."
Gág’s translation:
"Manye, Manye, Timpie Tee!
Fishye, Fishye in the sea!
Ilsebill my wilful wife
Does not want my way of life."
Skip any other translation and bite into the big, juicy pear.
April 13, 2010
I have long wanted to read Grimm's fairy tales in their original state (or at least a close translation!) but have never gotten around to doing so...until now. This compilation of short stories doesn't leave the gory bits out that Disney did, but it doesn't dwell on them either. For example, Cinderella's stepsisters cut off bits of their feet so they can fit into her slipper, but it's stated in a very matter of fact manner. Because of this, these stories are fun for both children and adults. I recommend them to anyone interested in reading Grimms' tales in as close a manner as possible.
February 15, 2010
I loved reading fairy tales while growing up, but our books were by Hans Christian Andersen, so it was fun to read some by the Grimm brothers. An author of German upbringing translated the stories in this particular book, and it was interesting to read her introduction about them. Sorry, Dayna, the pictures were not extraordinary, but I still liked the book.
August 11, 2010
The fairy "godmother" in Cinderella is actually a fairy dove in the original. That was awesome. I liked the lesser known story "The Spindle the Shutter, and the Needle".
October 10, 2012
Notes::
Love Wanda Ga'g
Mostly words, few pictures
Lovely translations from original German
Love Wanda Ga'g
Mostly words, few pictures
Lovely translations from original German
October 29, 2021
I read this in a single sitting as part of my research on Gag for my Caldecott blog. Although I certainly didn't hear these tales told to me in the original German as she did, Gag captured that experience for me. I could almost imagine my own German grandmother using several of the turns of phrase that appear in the book ("In the old days when wishing was still of some use"; ". . .as the years flowed on, she became too old to work. At last, she was too old to live any longer...."). Illustrations appear at key points to enhance the retelling and often add humor. It was a fun way to be a kid again -- albeit one in a different era.
April 9, 2024
Read this book with Jubilee, although the boys put their independent lessons off to be able to listen in. I absolutely loved Wanda Gag’s retelling of these fairy tales - many of them already familiar to us from the Blue Fairy book. Jubilee is still growing in narration and this was the perfect dose of fun narratives to keep her engaged and provide good practice in telling back!
October 21, 2020
I just don’t love Grim so maybe my review is lacking. Some of the stories in this compilation seemed like such odd picks to highlight. Reads well for younger kids though. We blew through it during our read aloud time.
July 27, 2023
My children love fairytales and they especially loved this book. They consistently asked for me to read more after I’d finish one story. I recommend if you are looking to add fairytales into your read aloud time.
October 23, 2019
I enjoyed this book because there were stories that I knew and some that I have never heard of before. I like the fact that this book provided a variety of folktales.
March 28, 2025
Fun stories. I was not familiar with most of them.
May 27, 2025
This was a great collection that I read to my kids. It's written in a way that makes it a little more accessible for children. But still stays true to the original Grimms.
January 8, 2026
Great fairy tales. some completely new. Some old ones, but written in different ways. Easy to read.
June 30, 2009
While I have an immense respect for Wilhelm and Jakob as students, researchers, linguists, etc., I've never really been a fan of the Grimms' folk tales. Okay, so they didn't "create" them, they just collected them. Kudos for preservation efforts. But the stories are so far fetched and so full of icky characters that they just turn me off. Still, I think it necessary to familiarize my kids with many of them just for cultural reference education.
*I checked the book out because my kids were involved in Nibley Children's Theatre's production of "The Goose Girl" this summer and I wanted them to know more about who the Grimms were and see that many of the stories they've heard have an association with the Grimms.
*I checked the book out because my kids were involved in Nibley Children's Theatre's production of "The Goose Girl" this summer and I wanted them to know more about who the Grimms were and see that many of the stories they've heard have an association with the Grimms.
May 2, 2016
Chapter 10: Recommended Reading
Read
September 12, 2016Short Tales, different from red book. Rapunzel had twins, Hansel and Gretel's step-mother ran away.
May 1, 2017
not the best adaptation I've come across...
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews