Looking for fairytale book from childhood.

March 9, 2005 7:48 PM

When I was younger my mom had a fairytale book she read to me all the time, and it has since been lost. What's the name/where can I find it again?

What I remember about it was that it had a navy blue cover, and an Aladdin story that was different than the Disney one with the bad guy being an uncle? Also that it had these great illustrations in that style that is watercolor picture with droplet splatters everywhere. There were lots of stories but I can't remember any of them anymore.

posted by nile_red to Writing & Language (7 answers total)

You are probably talking about "The Blue Fairy Book" by Andrew Lang (part of a series of different "color" fairy books). This antique booksellers' page has one older version of the cover, though it's had many different covers over the years. Here's one example of an illustration from an early Blue Fairy Book. You can read the stories online here.
posted by taz at 8:42 PM on March 9, 2005

Response by poster: no, that's not it. thanks though. it's watercolor with lots of white space, and splatters of color watercolor-drops everywhere.
posted by nile_red at 9:06 PM on March 9, 2005

Does this sound like the Alladin story you remember, nile_red?
posted by taz at 9:17 PM on March 9, 2005

Response by poster: That's the story, but the artwork is half the reason I wanted the book. But it is nice to know I didn't make up the different Aladdin : )
posted by nile_red at 9:23 PM on March 9, 2005

Your Aladdin is the original Arabian Nights version. What print version you had is another question. I quite like the original tale.
posted by Goofyy at 9:49 PM on March 9, 2005

yes... That's the thing; if it was The Blue Fary Book, well, these Andrew Lang editions have been printed in different formats for over a hundred years, with all sorts of different covers and illustrators (here's an early one). You could ask around at used book shops, and keep an eye on Ebay to try to find this particular version. Did the cover have any kind of illustration, or was it plain blue?
posted by taz at 10:05 PM on March 9, 2005

Response by poster: no, it wasn't plain, it was one of those covers that have plastic on them (like textbooks?) and not a dust cover, and I can't remember what illustrations, but there were some.
posted by nile_red at 7:51 AM on March 11, 2005