Bilingual Bedtime.
Grimm · Perrault · Andersen · Twenty-Six Fairy Tales in German and English
Twenty-six classic fairy tales told twice on every spread: the Grimms' own German on the left page, clear modern English on the right, with a small gloss under every word so a family can read the same story aloud in both languages.
436 pages · Paperback · Ages 4 to 8
the opening of “Rotkäppchen” (Little Red Riding Hood)
Twenty-six tales, in order.
Grimm, Perrault and Andersen in one big storybook, with the shorter treasures placed so there is always a one-more-story ending to hand.
Open the book anywhere and you find the same moment of a fairy tale twice. The left page carries authentic German: the Grimms' own 1857 text for their tales, alongside Bechstein, Bertuch and a nineteenth-century Andersen translation. The right page carries a clear modern English telling of that very same passage. The two pages move paragraph by paragraph in step, with small matching numbers, so you can read one aloud, cross the spread, and find exactly the same moment in the other language.
Beneath every word sits a tiny helper. On the German page each German word carries a small English gloss; on the English page each English word carries a small German gloss. Wherever the two texts share a word, the gloss deliberately reuses the vocabulary from the facing page, so both pages teach one set of words rather than two.
The tales are told kindly for bedtime. They keep their magic and their mischief, but the very grimmest moments are softly rounded off. Every tale opens with its own watercolour frontispiece and closes with a full-page painting, more than fifty in all, created for this edition.
- 01Die WichtelmännerThe Elves and the Shoemaker
- 02RotkäppchenLittle Red Riding Hood
- 03Der süße BreiSweet Porridge
- 04Der gestiefelte KaterPuss in Boots
- 05Die SterntalerThe Star Money
- 06Frau HolleMother Holle
- 07Die drei BrüderThe Three Brothers
- 08Die Prinzessin auf der ErbseThe Princess and the Pea
- 09Hänsel und GretelHansel and Gretel
- 10Der Fuchs und die GänseThe Fox and the Geese
- 11Die BienenköniginThe Queen Bee
- 12Die FeenThe Fairies
…and fourteen more, among them Aschenputtel, Dornröschen, Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten, Des Kaisers neue Kleider and Schneeweißchen und Rosenrot.
Why this edition.
The same moment, on both pages
German left, English right, matched paragraph by paragraph with small numbers. Read a line aloud, cross the spread, and hear the same line again. Children love hearing the story twice, and that repetition is how a language settles in.
One vocabulary, taught twice
Where the two texts share a word, the glosses reuse the same vocabulary on both sides. The German words a child meets on the left are the very words printed under the English on the right.
Gentle enough for bedtime
The stories keep their magic and their mischief, but the very grimmest moments have been softly rounded off. The wicked are still punished. Nobody has nightmares.
Painted for this edition
More than fifty original watercolours: every tale opens with its own frontispiece and closes with a full-page painting and a bilingual The End page. The German is set in its own typeface, so a child can see at a glance which world each page belongs to.
the opening paragraph of “Rotkäppchen”, as it appears on the German page
The details.
- Series
- Bilingual Bedtime
- Language pair
- German and English, on facing pages
- Format
- Paperback
- Print length
- 436 pages
- Trim size
- 8 × 10 in
- Source text
- The Grimms' 1857 text, Bechstein and Bertuch, lightly modernised
- Illustrations
- 50+ original watercolours
- Level
- Ages 4 to 8
- Published
- July 2026
- ASIN
- B0H928QKB5
More in German.
Every edition is glossed by hand, word by word, and printed on demand by Amazon.
Read the same fairy tale twice at bedtime, once in German, once in English.
Buy paperback