Originally published in 1893, The Green Fairy Book is a compilation of fairy tales from all around the world.  In his preface, Lang explains that it’s not a book about fairies, but about fairy tales, stories that have a magical quality.  Also, it’s not a ‘green’ fairy, but it is simply his way of making the books separate, and has titled his volumes according to colors: blue, red, green, and yellow, and so on, rather than I, II, III or IV.  The stories can be centuries old, from anonymous sources, from many different countries, and also from the Grimm Brothers.  What makes these fairy tales stand out from our more modern, traditional published fairy tales is the quality and quantity of language.  Many of the fairy tales are familiar and well known, yet still vastly different.  The basic story is the same, but the descriptions of the settings, actions, and characterizations are much more embellished.  These embellishments give readers a much better understanding of the characters and locales and paints us a better picture of the story.  Today’s children are used to ‘Disney-fication’ of fairy tales and many haven’t been read the original fairy tale.  The Green Fairy Book gives children language from which to learn by.  How wonderful!  This book has been in my library for over 50 years, and this fresh new copy will be here for another 50.