Grimms' Fairy Tales - Sandra Dieckmann - ★★★.¾

ORIGINAL COMPILERS: Brothers Grimm

AUTHOR: Sandra Dieckmann

GENRE: Fairy Tale Collection

PUBLICATION DATE: September 23, 2025

RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: A collection of some of the best-known and not-so-known fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm works. Many tales updated, some mostly the same. Some are light, some dark. Good for fairytale-loving kids. Parental guidance advised.

This collection has twenty fairy tales from the compilations of the Brothers Grimm. Most of the tales are popular ones such as ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ and ‘Sleeping Beauty’, but there are also a couple of relatively uncommon tales such as ‘Sweet Porridge’ and ‘Jorinda and Joringel’. A few of the tales were known to me under other names. For instance, ‘The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces’ always appeared as ‘The Twelve Dancing Princesses’ in my fairytale story books.

Now you might wonder if we really need yet another fairytale collection based on the Grimm compilations. Aren’t there too many of them in the market already? I agree. But the stories in this book come with a twist. Or rather, as the blurb calls it: “a gently modernized twist”.

While almost all the stories will be familiar to most (adult) readers, the book changes a few details. For instance, there is no “true love’s first kiss” at all in ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘Little Snow White’. One key character in ‘ Little Snow White’ and Little Red Cap (or as we know it more popularly, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’) is a woman instead of the man in the originals. Even the ending of two stories (‘Little Red Cap’ and ‘The Frog Prince’) is slightly different. There are some more stories with changes, but let me not spill all the beans here.

Of course, many of the stories retain the original Grimm content, which means it is *grim* content, not the frothy Disney version. Expect darkness. (The worst in this regard was ‘The King of the Golden Mountain’. I had never read this story before, and now that I read it, I know why it isn't a common inclusion in children’s fiction. What a horrible ending!) There are also a good number of tales where daughters end up being given in marriage as a reward; this is a shortcoming of the original stories and not of this particular collection.

The illustrations, sketched by author Sandra Dieckmann herself, are wonderful. There are the usual smaller mid-page illustrations and also full-page sketches. All are in full colour and complement their story and the mood of the book perfectly. While the graphics obviously need to match the stories and hence can't experiment much, they still try to be inclusive wherever possible, especially in terms of the characters’ skin tones and ethnic appearance. I love how one of the ballroom dance scenes showed two men dancing with each other.

Overall, while classic fairy tales haven’t necessarily aged well, this book does a commendable job of updating at least some of the hackneyed details without killing the essence of the original stories. Having both known and not-so-known fairytales in a single volume is also a great idea. The diversity in the illustrations is a bonus.

Recommended to children interested in fairytales. The official target age is 4-8 years, but some of the tales would be quite horrifying for littler readers. I think the book would better suit slightly older children, so perhaps 7-10 years. The book would also a great gift option during this festive season thanks to its colourful illustrations.

My thanks to Candlewick Press for providing the DRC of “Grimms' Fairy Tales” via Edelweiss+. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.