Once Upon a Golden Apple

Once Upon a Golden Apple by Jean Little, Maggie de Vries and Phoebe Gilman

Are you familiar with this book?  It’s 25th Anniversary Edition is about to be released (October 4th), which means it’s been around 25 years and somehow I missed it!  How could I have missed it?!  This book is adorable!  The cover and premise really caught my attention and I knew I had to check it out.  I am so glad I did because now I know that it will become one of those books that we just can’t do without.

It is the sweet story of a father telling a fairytale story to his 3 children.  He is making it up as he goes along and can’t resist throwing in some silly parts.  For example, he suggests that maybe the the princess in the story kisses Humpty Dumpty.  However, his kids aren’t to be fooled out of the traditional style fairytale they desire and insist that he tells the story “correctly”.  It is also loads of fun because sometimes the revisions he settles on don’t please both his son and daughter, so it is so fun to see their reactions.  For example, in the end he decides on the  princess kissing a frog which delights his son and disgusts his daughter.

This playful fractured fairytale is one that will have your child in giggles.  The illustrations are whimsical and charming and done with the pages split up almost, but not quite, like a comic book.  Plus the illustrator added some talk bubbles to make it fun and framed the illustrated bits of the fairytale so that it is all very well organized and not the least bit confusing when all is said and done.  Unlike this explanation probably is! haha!  Don’t just take my word for it then, check out a few of the illustrations below.

Click here to pre-order Once Upon a Golden Apple  *affiliate link