21 Enchanting Fairy Tale Picture Books to Read Aloud (Free PDF!)

This post contains a list of our favorite, best fairy tale picture books to read aloud together, as well as encouragement for homeschool moms that reading fairy tales is well worth our time! I’ll also share a bonus section with our favorite folk tales that we’ve been reading and loving.

Do you read fairy tales to your children? One year ago I didn’t. Sure, we had read a few here and there, but it wasn’t something that I searched out or naturally gravitated towards. However, that was before I listened to a series of fascinating podcasts that motivated me not just to read fairy tales, but to intentionally make this a high priority in our homeschool; and not only that, but to tell others about it too!

This whole past year I have made it my mission to find and read as many fantastic fairy tales as possible. Of course, reading aloud to our children is worth our time, no matter what we may be reading, but these podcasts made me realize the unique value of fairy tales in our children’s (and our own) lives. So, in the past year we have read probably hundreds of different fairy tales – not all entirely different stories, but at least different versions of the same stories.

Some stories have become special favorites, that our kids have requested over and over again, and so we have searched for as many different versions as we can find.

Fairy tales are an essential part of childhood. If you are not sure whether or not this is true, please read this post I wrote answering the question “why read fairy tales?” – and then let me know what you think! I will also add that, after a year of reading dozens and dozens of fairy tales, I am even more convinced that this is true. They are beautiful, soul-filling, truth-laden stories, and I have no regrets for the time we’ve spent with them.

How to Read Fairy Tales

This might seem obvious – you sit down, read it together, and enjoy the pictures – but I would like to point out that many of these fairy tales are long. There is no rule that says you must read the entire story in one sitting; in fact, the younger your children are, the more likely it is that they would be better served by breaking the story up into two different readings so that they are about to think about and process the storyline without being overwhelmed.

Or, perhaps you need to break it up even further and just read one or two pages each morning during your Morning Time! That is perfectly fine too. I often have to remind myself that the point is the reading, not the finishing – so although we do indeed want to finish the book, it’s not worth rushing through the reading simply in order to check it off our list.

Now, I am a bit particular – perhaps even a bit snobbish – when it comes to fairy tale picture books, and these are all very particular versions that we have personally read and loved. I do not like the super-simplified/sanitized versions, including any Disney versions – they tend to strip the story of all its beauty and power. I also do not usually like the ones with cartoon-y illustrations (with a few notable exceptions), as they often seem to be patronizing the children – “despising them,” albeit with good intentions, as Charlotte Mason would say. So, please know that the following books are all carefully chosen and curated!

Best Fairy Tale Picture Books

1. The Fisherman and His Wife by Randall Jarrell
2. Hansel and Gretel by Will Moses
3. Hansel and Gretel by Paul Zelinsky
4. The Snow Queen by Bagram Ibatoulline
5. The Gingerbread Boy by Paul Galdone (and all the many others by him too!)
6. The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Mac Barnett (I’d recommend reading a different version of this one first, perhaps the one by Paul Galdone, and then your children will catch the humor of this one even more!)
7. Little Red Riding Hood by Jerry Pinkney
8. The Tortoise & The Hare by Jerry Pinkney
9. Rumpelstiltskin by Paul Zelinsky
10. The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett
11. The Elves and the Shoemaker by Jim Lamarche
12. Rapunzel by Paul Zelinsky
13. An Illustrated Treasury of Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Daniela Drescher
14. Jack and the Beanstalk by E. Nesbit
15. Cinderella by K. Y. Craft
16. Beauty and the Beast by K. Y. Craft
17. King Midas and the Golden Touch by K. Y. Craft
18. Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs by Nancy Burkert
19. The Emperor’s New Clothes by Virginia Burton
20. Finn McCool and the Great Fish by Eve Bunting
21. The Sleeping Beauty by Trina Schart Hyman

Bonus: Favorite Anansi Stories!

These books probably fall more under the “folk tale” category than the fairy tale category, but we have been reading as many as we can get our hands on and they are so much fun! The basic premise is that Anansi is a clever trickster (usually a spider but sometimes a man) who gets into all sort of mischief – sometimes fooling his friends, and sometimes having the trick backfire on himself! Our kids have loved these and perhaps yours will also.

1. Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock by Eric Kimmel
2. Anansi and the Talking Melon by Eric Kimmel
3. Anansi Goes Fishing by Eric Kimmel
4. Anansi and the Magic Stick by Eric Kimmel
5. Anansi’s Party Time by Eric Kimmel
6. The Pot of Wisdom: Ananse Stories by Adwoa Badoe
7. Anansi Does the Impossible! by Verna Aardema
8. A Story, A Story by Gail Haley

There you have it, plenty of inspiration for your fairy tale/folk tale/fable reading at home. Let me know how your kids like them, and please leave a comment with any other favorite versions of fairy tales that I may have missed! We would love to get more recommendations and add them to our reading list for this year.

Psst: don’t forget to download the PDF of this booklist so that you’ve got it on hand when you need it!