September 16, 2018

Favorite Snow White Picture Books


                   
click on a book cover to see more

Other favorite fairy tale lists to check out:

                         


Written by Chloe Perkins and illustrated by Misa Saburi

Part of the Once Upon a World board book series, Snow White tells readers the traditional tale of "Snow White" through a Japanese culture lens. Saburi's illustrations mirror Japanese brush-and-ink drawings, so the lines are bold and dark, taking precedence over the colored areas. The colored areas are also magnificent, though, with bright patterns and splotchy pink cherry blossoms. 




Snow White 360°

Illustrated by Yusuke Oono and Seigensha

The cut-outs of this carousel book are exquisite, and the book sticks with a simple color palette of green, white, and red to keep everything universal and concise. See more here.

Illustrated by Matt Phelan

Matt Phelan takes Snow White into the Roaring Twenties in this comic. Our Snow White is a flapper named Samantha who works with seven street urchins to uncover the mysterious evil doings of her stepmother, the Queen of the Follies. A mysterious stock ticker holds captivates the stepmother and urges her to kill the other person in town who is "more beautiful" than she is, and Samantha barely escapes with her life. The illustrations are pencil, ink, and watercolor, giving the images a mysterious and cinematic tone.








Illustrated by Camille Rose Garcia

True to form, Camille Rose Garcia provides a darker, more twisted look at the fairy tale. Featuring a mixture of full-bleed illustrations, smaller vignettes, impeccably designed fonts that take up whole pages, and gold-leaf embellishments, this version of the tale stands out as a a favorite for me. The painted illustrations are as bright as they are dark, with strong contrasting colors that give Snow White the lead in every image but allow for more sinister drawings in the backgrounds.






Snow White and the 77 Dwarfs

Written by Davide Cali and illustrated by Raphaëlle Barbanègre

In this fractured fairy tale, Snow White is on the run from an evil witch when she comes across some dwarfs in the forest. Only instead of seven dwarves, there are seventy-seven and they are wearing Snow White out fast! Maybe it's worth taking a chance with the witch...The colors are vibrant, Snow White's facial expressions are laugh-out-loud funny, and the ending has a twist you won't see coming!











Illustrated by Momo Takano

Takano's illustrations are reminiscent of creators like Jutta Ash and Pamela Zagarenski, with large characters and intricate backgrounds. Takano definitely has a quirky style, though: the evil stepmother wears a fish hat on her head, the seven dwarfs are little woodland foods and animals (like a banana and a lion), and all of the characters have highly disproportionate bodies, with large heads and tiny hands. She embellishes every bit of her illustrations, which are all full-bleeds and extend past the borders of each spread, and the colors are very dense, soaking into the pages they're on and drawing readers in with them.













The Poisoned Apple: A Fractured Fairy Tale

Written and illustrated by Anne Lambelet

This fractured version of Snow White tells the story of the witch's plan gone awry as she watches her poisoned apple make the rounds without Snow White taking a bite. But it's anyone's guess where the apple will end up! In true Lambelet fashion, the images are heavily texturized, and the humor comes through the illustrations even without the aid of the text.






Written and illustrated by Xavier Deneux

This is a chunky touch-and-feel board book with thick die cuts on every spread for small hands! Generally there are large blocks of color (whits, yellows, reds, and blacks chief among them) but Deneux does mix in some gradients along with the denser hues.





This post contains affiliate links. For more information, visit my policies & disclosures page.