Fairy tales have a remarkable way of traveling. Long before they reached printed pages, they moved across borders by word of mouth, shared beside hearth fires, passed along in fields and marketplaces, shaped and reshaped with each retelling, and carried forward by generations of storytellers.
This week’s selection is Favorite Fairy Tales Told in Czechoslovakia, retold by Virginia Haviland and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. Our first edition was published in Boston by Little, Brown and Company in 1966. Part of Haviland’s international Favorite Fairy Tales series, the volume gathers traditional stories from Czechoslovakia and invites readers into a landscape of enchanted woods, clever shepherds, mischievous spirits, and a touch of that peculiar fairytale logic that makes the impossible feel perfectly ordinary.
Since March is Women's History Month, it feels especially fitting to highlight the women behind this volume. Virginia Haviland (1911-1988) was not only a writer but also an influential librarian and scholar of children’s literature. During her career at the Library of Congress, she helped expand international children’s book collections and championed stories from around the world. Through collections like this one, she introduced generations of young readers to folklore far beyond their own borders.
The illustrations are by Trina Schart Hyman (1939-2004), one of the most celebrated illustrators in children’s publishing. Known for her richly detailed artwork and careful research into historical costume and folklore, Hyman brought a vivid sense of atmosphere and authenticity to the tales she illustrated. Her work would later earn her the Caldecott Medal along with multiple Caldecott Honors.
Together, Haviland and Hyman offer a reminder that fairy tales are wonderfully adaptable travelers. They cross languages and centuries, carrying pieces of cultural memory with them, proof that a good story rarely stays in just one place for long.
--Melissa (who suspects fairy tales are happiest when wandering the world), Distinctive Collections Library Assistant
-View previous Fairytale Friday posts
--View more from our Historical Curriculum Collection
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