Here are 100 books that Puss in Boots fans have personally recommended if you like
Puss in Boots.
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As the author of The Cat Who Ate Christmas, I love a book about a cat who is cunning, quirky, perhaps calamity-prone, but also a cutie. There are plenty of books about loving pets, but their characters all seem to be too earnest, too driven to do the right thing. Not with cats! They will lie, cheat and do what it takes to get what they want… as long as it doesn’t get in the way of nap time. Cats are anti-heroes by nature, aren’t they? That’s why they make the best animals to read about – and an absolute dream to write about.
Mog is a sweet old cat. She’s very loving to her family – The Thomas’s – but very dim. She doesn’t understand the human world and her hilarious misunderstandings get her into a lot of hot water. Occasionally, she accidentally saves the day too – usually from a disaster of her own making.
The combination of this lovable cat who gets it wrong is a perennial winner. The first Mog book was written over 50 years ago and has never been out of print.
Share in fifty years of a really remarkable cat...
Everyone's favourite family cat first appeared fifty years ago and is loved by children everywhere for her funny and warm-hearted escapades.
Mog the Forgetful Cat was first published in 1970 and has never been out of print! The classic picture book story of a very forgetful cat, her family, and a very exciting adventure is the perfect gift for families, boys, girls, and anyone who has ever known or loved a cat.
From Judith Kerr, the bestselling author of The Tiger Who Came to Tea, the beloved Mog stories still delight…
As the author of The Cat Who Ate Christmas, I love a book about a cat who is cunning, quirky, perhaps calamity-prone, but also a cutie. There are plenty of books about loving pets, but their characters all seem to be too earnest, too driven to do the right thing. Not with cats! They will lie, cheat and do what it takes to get what they want… as long as it doesn’t get in the way of nap time. Cats are anti-heroes by nature, aren’t they? That’s why they make the best animals to read about – and an absolute dream to write about.
Gobbolino is a cat-out-of-water; he doesn’t want to be a witch’s cat. But born with magic, he’s not much good at being a house cat either. After being rejected by the witches he tries his paws at being a farm cat, a ship’s cat, a show cat, or even a princess’s cat, but his magic always lands him in trouble.
This might be the perfect concept for a children’s book (I wish I’d thought of it!); the reader gets the wish-fulfillment of seeing the magic, but we can all relate to just wanting to be normal, just wanting to be part of a loving family. It helps that the kitten is a cutie too!
With his sparky whiskers and magic tricks, no one could mistake Gobbolino for a simple kitchen cat, but that's just what the witch's kitten wants to be. Instead of learning how to turn mice into toads for the witch's brew, Gobbolino sets out on an adventure to find a family and a home of his own.
Gobbolino has been delighting readers since 1942.
With glorious illustrations by Catherine Rayner, a ribbon marker and a foreword by Joan Aiken, this beautiful hardback edition of Ursula Moray Williams's Gobbolino the Witch's Cat is a truly special gift to treasure.
As the author of The Cat Who Ate Christmas, I love a book about a cat who is cunning, quirky, perhaps calamity-prone, but also a cutie. There are plenty of books about loving pets, but their characters all seem to be too earnest, too driven to do the right thing. Not with cats! They will lie, cheat and do what it takes to get what they want… as long as it doesn’t get in the way of nap time. Cats are anti-heroes by nature, aren’t they? That’s why they make the best animals to read about – and an absolute dream to write about.
I loved these comic strips as a kid. I had the extended graphic novels too. What’s so appealing about Garfield is that he’s such a realistic cat: he can be loving, he can be selfish, he can be needy, and he can be cruel. Sometimes he just wants to sleep. At other times he’s out all night singing on the fence, keeping the neighbourhood awake. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to his moods.
Sounds like many of the fickle felines I’ve known in real life.
This rollicking collection includes three books in one: Garfield Rounds Out, Garfield Chews the Fat, and Garfield Goes to Waist.
Get ready for a triple dose of laughs with the world's funniest fat cat.
Garfield's back in all his gut-busting glory: catching his tongue in the electric mixer; revealing his distate for milk (he was once frightened by an udder); pranking Jon for serving him a rubber pizza; and bobbing for croutons.
When it comes to humor, forget the rest, you've found the best—Garfield!
The GARFIELD FAT CAT 3-PACK series collects the GARFIELD comic-strip compilation books in a new, full-color…
As the author of The Cat Who Ate Christmas, I love a book about a cat who is cunning, quirky, perhaps calamity-prone, but also a cutie. There are plenty of books about loving pets, but their characters all seem to be too earnest, too driven to do the right thing. Not with cats! They will lie, cheat and do what it takes to get what they want… as long as it doesn’t get in the way of nap time. Cats are anti-heroes by nature, aren’t they? That’s why they make the best animals to read about – and an absolute dream to write about.
Slinky Malinki might be the perfect picture book: the illustrations are exquisite and detailed, the text rattles along in a perfect rhythmic rhyme.
Pride always comes before the fall in great works of fiction, and one night Slinky Malinki gets greedy; and his midnight excursions are rumbled by the family and he ends up in hot water. He learns his lesson: ‘Never again does he answer the call’ of wickedness.
It’s a shame really, because of all of these frisky felines Slinky Malinki is my favourite. But only when he’s being a ‘rapscallion cat.’
Slinky Malinki steals anything from a clothes peg, to a slipper, to a string of sausages, to a clock! Our hero is a BAD cat! The story is told in wonderful rhyme and through pictures full of life and movement. Other Slinky Malinki books to collect: Slinky Malinki Early Bird Slinky Malinki Catflaps Slinky Malinki's Christmas Crackers
My favorite books as a child were the ones where kids went off on wild, impossible adventures alone, figuring things out, learning important lessons, and finding they were more capable than they thought. Wisdom, truth, insight, inspiration… those are the treasures found in these fantastical places. I’ve written (and told) stories all my life, but it wasn’t until I was in my fifties that my goal of publishing a book was realized. And now I have four more coming out (Lord willing!) within the next year and a half. It’s never too late. Unless you’re dead, then you blew it. So don’t stop trying, whatever your goals are.
Not the new, watered-down versions, mind you. The original, dark ones that you read now and think, “Who in their right mind would let a kid read this?”
These stories were insane, and I couldn’t get enough of them. And the thing about these stories is that they’re real. There are monsters living among us (we read about them in the news). There’s a reason to be cautious and aware of our surroundings. Life isn’t all sunshine and lollipops, and I think it’s not a bad idea to let kids know that bad things happen, but that children can be stronger than they think. After all, Hansel and Gretel sent the witch into the oven instead of themselves.
The Brothers Grimm: The Complete Fairy Tales is a collection of more than 200 tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.
FREE AUDIOBOOKS INCLUDED.
The Brothers Grimm, Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Carl Grimm (1786–1859), were Hessian academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers and authors who together collected and published folklore during the 19th century. They were among the first and best-known collectors of German and European folk tales.
Among the most popular tales: "Cinderella" ("Aschenputtel"), "The Frog Prince" ("Der Froschkönig"), "The Goose-Girl" ("Die Gänsemagd"), "Hansel and Gretel" ("Hänsel und Gretel"), "Rapunzel", "Little Red Riding Hood" ("Rotkäppchen"), "The Wolf and…
GK Chesterton reportedly said that "fairytales are more than true: not because they teach us that dragons are real, but because they teach us dragons can be beaten." This rings true to me; I've been fascinated by the darker side of fairytales since childhood, when I used them to escape and make sense of my own dark experiences. Stories that began as oral traditions are my favourite, a blend of entertainment for long nights around a fire, and cautionary tales that teach us to fear the wolf, and beware of that which seems too good to be true. Old stories teach us what it means to be human. I hope you enjoy these.
Snow, Glass, Apples is my all-time favourite Gaiman story, which is quite staggering given how much of his work I adore, but I'd only seen it in short story form before, in Smoke and Mirrors. Then I was given a copy of just Snow Glass, Apples, illustrated by Colleen Doran. The artwork is stunning, beautifully dark with a tight palette and rich, intricate detailing. Every page is a work of art, allowing you to linger and slowly digest the tale as it unfolds. This story is a huge influence for me, in particular for my collection Once Upon A Twisted Fairytale, because it flips the story of Snow White on its head. All of the elements of the traditional tale - the huntsman, the stepmother queen, the dwarves, the glass coffin - are there, but put together from the perspective of the queen, totally changing the story. I love…
Winner of the 2020 Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel!
A chilling fantasy retelling of the Snow White fairy tale by New York Times bestselling creators Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran!
A not-so-evil queen is terrified of her monstrous stepdaughter and determined to repel this creature and save her kingdom from a world where happy endings aren't so happily ever after.
From the Hugo, Bram Stoker, Locus, World Fantasy, Nebula award-winning, and New York Times bestselling writer Neil Gaiman (American Gods) comes this graphic novel adaptation by Colleen Doran (Troll Bridge)!
I’m an American author and writing teacher both at Harvard and Oxford’s online programs. I've mostly written poetry and nonfiction, then in 2021 I published my first novel, She Never Told Me about the Ocean. I started writing the book when my daughter was born as a way to explore the complicated feelings and fears that suddenly washed over me. The book—like a daughter—outgrew my plans and expectations for it. It became, unexpectedly, a mythology of mothers and daughters. For two decades I've studied fairy tales and myths. Fairy tales deal in fears and the stories we tell ourselves to feel safe—which is why I read them and use them in my writing.
This book is almost too beautiful for words, and reading it you feel like you are falling into a haunted magic mirror where identity and race are explored alongside a host of deep simmering emotions: anger and forgiveness, fear and vanity. A sort of dizzying intergenerational retake on Snow White.
As seen on the cover of the New York Times Book Review, where it was described as “gloriously unsettling… evoking Toni Morrison, Haruki Murakami, Angela Carter, Edgar Allan Poe, Gabriel García Márquez, Chris Abani and even Emily Dickinson,” and already one of the year’s most widely acclaimed novels:
“Helen Oyeyemi has fully transformed from a literary prodigy into a powerful, distinctive storyteller…Transfixing and surprising.”—Entertainment Weekly (Grade: A)
“I don’t care what the magic mirror says; Oyeyemi is the cleverest in the land…daring and unnerving… Under Oyeyemi’s spell, the fairy-tale conceit makes a brilliant setting in which to explore the alchemy…
My life quest has been to find true magic. Once believing it could only be uncovered in ruins or cathedrals continents away, I ended up discovering it in my own backyard under the Big Sky. When I was young, I read everything science fiction and fantasy to feel like that magic was real and bask in worlds far different from my own. Now, as a professional editor and author based in the West… I still read everything science fiction and fantasy, but now I get paid to do it.
I read this when my son was born, looking for a familiar story in more ways than one. This imported classic European fairy tale has our gunslinging Snow White escaping to the wild west and feels like a new comfort fable… if replacing dark twisted forests for a wind-whipped big sky can be comforting. It’s a story that doesn’t know how to end, or even if it should end—making it another facet to join numerous retellings. The Huntsman becomes a Pinkerton, the dwarves now a band of women on the run, and the Prince a melancholy expression of America’s history where many have no voice. It’s a bit cerebral and reveals heart-wrenching lessons when reflected on current times. Which, I suppose, is the purpose of a fable, right?
A New York Times bestselling author offers a brilliant reinvention of one of the best-known fairy tales of all time with Snow White as a gunslinger in the mythical Wild West.
Forget the dark, enchanted forest. Picture instead a masterfully evoked Old West where you are more likely to find coyotes as the seven dwarves. Insert into this scene a plain-spoken, appealing narrator who relates the history of our heroine’s parents—a Nevada silver baron who forced the Crow people to give up one of their most beautiful daughters, Gun That Sings, in marriage to him. Although her mother’s life ended…
Since I can remember, I’ve loved fairy tales. Stories that start once upon a time, somewherefar, far away. Those words are both comforting and exciting. I am fascinated by their evolution and prevalence in different cultures and genres. That same story can be told in a million different ways that are familiar, and completely new. I used a fairy tale to complete my writing minor, then submitted that same story for a Masters writing program, transforming it into my thesis, which became my first published book. I’ve spent a career reading and writing fairy tales, and I hope this list helps you love them as much as I do.
Ever wonder what would happen if you mixed up traditional fairy tales with noir fiction? This graphic novel series answers that question, as it moves those familiar fairy tale characters from the storybook forest to a gritty urban landscape called Fabletown. Now, you’ll follow a reformed Big “Bad” Wolf as he tries to solve the murder of Snow White’s party girl sister, Rose Red. It’s a fun read with compelling illustrations and an unexpected twist on both the fairy tale and detective genres.
When a savage creature, known only as the Adversary, conquered the fabled lands of legends and fairy tales, the famous inhabitants of folklore were forced into exile. Disguised among the normal citizens of a modern New York, these magical characters created their own peaceful and secret society, which they called Fabletown. But when Snow White's party-girl sister, Rose Red, is apparently murdered, it's up to Fabletown's sheriff -- the reformed Big Bad Wolf, Bigby -- to find the killer. Meanwhile, trouble of a different sort brews at the Fables' upstate farm, where non-human inhabitants are preaching revolution...and threatening the carefully…
I’ve loved reading ever since I learned how. Sometimes, that can be inconvenient. I now own over 8000 books, not including ebooks, so storage space is an issue. Fortunately, my heart space is not as constrained as my physical space. Anyway, given my keen interest in reading, it’s no surprise that I began to write. Though my reading tastes are wide, I mostly write in fantasy, my favorite genre. It’s an opportunity to explore new worlds and to use them to reflect upon our own. We may not make literal pacts with demons, but we all face temptation. Figuring out how to navigate our desires is a crucial part of life.
I like how C. Gockel leads me to expect one type of story but then gives me another. I thought that Snow So White was going to be a retelling of a fairy tale. While the book does allude to the fairy tale, “Snow White” is just a nickname for Jack Frost, which in turn is a nickname for an identity the character himself can’t quite remember.
I’m also a big fan of the world-building. The story is set in a time when old technology has collapsed, replaced by a resurgence of magic. Other planes of existence now intersect with ours so that unwary travelers can meet anything from animal spirits to old gods.
The characters are equally diverse and include my personal favorite, a vampire who retains her humanity, likes to play with dogs, and reminisces about her long-dead family. It’s hard to make a vampire heartwarming, but Gockel…
