Presented in this book is a collection of twenty classic children's fairy tales from mostly European folklore. In addition to the twenty stories that have delighted generations of children, the author has included a scholarly look at the worth of the "fairy tale" as a literary genre. In the fairy story, individuals are not set entirely free from their limitations, but, by the aid of fairies, genii, giants and the like, they are put in command of unusual powers and make themselves masters of the forces of nature. No one can understand the modern world without the aid of the imagination, and as the frontiers of knowledge are pushed still further away from the obvious and familiar, there will be an increasing tax on the imagination. Thus, the stories presented in this book are as relevant today as they were five hundred years ago. In addition, there is background information about the particular stories, those who recorded them, and the artists who illustrated the stories. The book is appropriate for children in that it tells classic "fairy-tales" in a spell-binding manner with vividly colored (if read on a color e-reader) pictures; it is also appropriate for those who are studying the "fairy-tale" as a literary device.