I struggle sometimes with the whole princess thing that Jocelyn has got going on. I think having a boy first has really ruined me as a mother to a girl. Boys have such hands on play. Concret. Action. Point A to Point B. Dumping, pushing, scooping, driving, tooting, building… it’s all very simple really. When Jocelyn’s 2nd christmas rolled around, I honestly had no idea what to get her. Clueless, was I. What do girls DO, ANYWAY, was what I thought.

Storytime Treasury, A McCall Book Sleeping Beauty
The Wolf and the Seven Baby Goats
 

Now, of course, I have a much better idea, but it still seems to me that her playing is much less concrete. Much less action oriented. She’s quite content to put on a twirly dress and then kind of wander around. The most action oriented playing she does is when she plays in her kitchen or with her dolls. I realize that this type of playing is fine, it’s just harder for me to wrap my head around it. You’d think having BEEN A LITTLE GIRL MYSELF, with a huge interest in dressing up like a princess and dancing around the house would clue me in to the inner workings of my daughter’s head, but I think I’ve been abducted by aliens and lost that part of my brain or something.

Fratelli Fabbri Editori Publishers
I love the stars!
 

She has a very strong fascination with disney fairy tales. Now don’t get me wrong, I love fairy tales. LOVE THEM. I have collected fairy tale books all my life and read and re-read many different ones. I actually kind of took my older sister’s favorite fairy tale book when I went off to college and she had to nag at me for 5 years before she finally was visiting once and outright took it (damn her!)

Baby Princess, before her christening
I love the fabric all through the book, how it folds and trails.. ahh so beautiful!I wanted that hair long before I ever saw Princess Leia, and here’s why!
 

It’s just the disneyification of fairy tales that bugs me. And I’m lucky! My daughter is in love with CINDERELLA, and that was back in the golden age of disney before it started to change around the story! Don’t even get me started on The Little Mermaid and how they messed THAT up! (She dies. At the end, “Ariel” dies. Talk about taking liberties!)

All the fairies gathering at the christening
More stars! and look at those headdresses – don’t you just want to die, they’re so lovely?
 

Anyway, I don’t mind the fact that for the last month, she will often inform us, “I’m Cinderella!” and insist that we address her so. I don’t mind that she has changed the names of all her dolls and stuffed animals to Cinderella as well. I can understand watching a certain movie over and over and internalizing it to such an extent that you want to BE that character. I personally, wanted to be the Lady Amalphia and run around as a unicorn, and that was only when I wasn’t spinning around in a circle pretending to be Wonder Woman while wearing my Wonder Woman under-roos.

The fairies giving their gifts to the baby princess.
I used to pore over this page, and the one above, just studying each fairy and their apparel.
 

I don’t even mind the disney Cinderella movie that much.. But I decided to take some pains to introduce her (and Ethan, by default) to the other sides of fairy tales. The side that doesn’t have mice scampering around making dresses and birds dressing the main character. The disney movies don’t ever transport me to that magical place of times old and past of kings and queens and princesses..

I broke out my most beloved fairy tale book from when I was a girl. My grandmother must have ordered these books from a magazine. They are in a series called “McCall’s Treasury” and the copyright is for Fratelli Fabbri Editori –which i think is just the publishing house name, not the illustrator’s name.

She was my favorite – again, I love the fabric, falling away from the headdress, and also sheathing the princess.
Oh, and don’t forget the stars! Love the stars!
 

Each book contains 2 stories, and though my grandmother gave them to all my siblings, my brothers weren’t all that interested. I have the ones given to me, some of the ones given to my brothers, and some I’ve purchased on eBay.

The witch has done her worst, and now the youngest fairy will try to undo it.
Look at that sweet little baby face.. It’s hard to tell in this picture, but there are halos and halos of ruffles all around the baby’s head – so sweet!
 

This book was my favorite, and if you could see the actual book, you’d be able to tell – the binding is completely shot and one of the pages is ripped significantly. It originally was given to my brother Larry, and my grandmother even wrote a little note to him on the inside cover, with the date as 1972 (2 years before I was born). I’ve been meaning to scan pages from this book for a while, and was going to do it right when my computer died.

The princess as a teen, just after she pricks her fingers.. the material of the clothes – gorgeous!
 

I loved these books as a child, and I think I love them even more as an adult. These illustrations are simply breathtaking. I, of course, loved to pore over the fairies, especially their dress and their headwear. I love the way there are little stars in almost all of the pages, giving it that magical glamourous aura.

Love the teeny kingdown in the distance..
 

So far, the reception of this book has been met with all around approval. They’ve both requested it to be read to them at bedtime. Because of it’s condition (falling apart) and it’s value to me, it is kept away from other books out of their reach, but if they ask for it, I’ll sit down and look through it with them, and then put it away again when we’re done.

Stunning 2-headed dragon!
 

This page is so beautiful! It’s laid out over 2 pages and I had to scan the 4 corners separately and then try to fit them together. This is the last one I scanned, as the “wake up” scene is also on the title page it seemed pointless to scan it again. I strongly urge you to click and look at the bigger versions – they are even more stunning and you can see more detail.

I was thinking I may get some prints of the illustrations framed and put them up on the wall.

Anything to counteract this, currently on the wall above Jocelyn’s bed:

-amy needs a headdress like those just to wear around the house and wash dishes in.