These are fairy-tale-ish stories that I've enjoyed, but aren't as long or complicated as actual fairy tales, nor as short and simplistic as nursery rhymes. Halfway between.
Knick Knack Paddy Whack
SteveSongs, illustrated by Christiane Engel
ISBN: 9781846861444
Lively collage village full of people and activity.
This doesn't keep to the original rhyme, and the last stanza is horribly out of meter, but regardless, it's cute and fun, and a good simple introduction to this sort of nursery-rhyme song. And yes, I do sing. Badly today, as I'm suffering a bit of a cold, but it was sung.
The Wee Little Woman
Byron Barton
ISBN: 0060233877
Blocky shapes, thick black outlines, and bright primary colors identify this as a Barton book.
I love the simple message of this story - words have power. A wee little woman has gone and gotten milk from her wee little cow (I'm eliding the many wee little implements and steps this process takes) but her wee little cat snitches the milk that she left on the table. She yells, he flees, and they're both sad until he returns to find her waiting with a bowl of milk just for him. Perfect narrative structure, perfect amount of conflict and peril (kitty looks very sad in a black page full of stars), and perfect simple reconciliation.
Big Bad Wolf
Claire Masurel, illustrated by Melissa Iwai
ISBN: 0439282438
Die-cut holes reveal aspects of the "Big Bad Wolf" who really isn't so bad in person.
The villagers live in fear of the big bad wolf, but he's really a sweet dad wolf who works and plays in the woods all day, then goes home for dinner with his cubs and then transforms into a super-scary wolf to chase them all into bed and give them kisses. Adorable, and a nice short big-bad-wolf story. (Another excellent one is Wolf's Coming (Joe Kulka, ISBN: 9781575059303), which is a LOT more ominous in tone - I've actually made kids cry with that one.)
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