Best Spanish Fairy Tales & Fables

In this post: A round-up of our top children’s Spanish fairy tales and fables books. ~ Cuentos de hadas. Fairy Tales and Fables have always been a magical and timeless way to bond with children. They are often the stories we remember our whole lives and pass down for generations. Like J.K Rowling said “I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.” From illustrated classics, to more modern adaptions, this round-up of Spanish Fairy Tales has you covered.

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Table of Contents

28 Bilingual English-Spanish Fairy Tales & Fables

From the best selling author, Adam Beck ~ I highly recommend his book Maximize your Child’s Bilingual Ability, this collection of bilingual fairy tales and fables contains 28 stories, from very familiar ones like Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs, to timeless classics like Rumplestiltskin, The Three Wishes and Stone Soup. The stories are simplified and concise, yet clever and very meaningful. The length makes them more accessible to second language learners, whilst the brevity helps learners predict the text better.

The stories cover a double spread, with English on the left and Spanish on the right. This makes for easy reference as a non-native. There is also Spanish and English audio for all the stories available online. This is a huge support for families needing pronunciation support. There are no pictures in this book, which was a little disappointing for my little ones! So we use it for bedtime stories, when I am reading softly as they close their eyes. You can grab a copy of 28 Bilingual English-Spanish Fairy Tales & Fables here.

Illustrated Fairy Tales

Another beautiful collection (in Spanish only) is this Usborne Books edition of illustrated fairy tales. The illustrated originals are some of my favorite books to collect in my Usborne Books & More bookshop.

The Cuentos de Hadas Ilustrados collection is absolutely beautifully illustrated and makes the most wonderful family read aloud. Great for ages 6+. Whereas the Cuentos de Hadas para Peques is very similar for slightly younger readers: 2-5! From “Caperucita Roja”, “Ricitos de oro”, “Cenicienta” and “La princesa y el guisante”, the simple, yet magical text make these titles very accessible to young readers. I think these fairy tale collections are a must for all bookshelves! I know we will treasure ours for decades!

Peek Inside a Fairy Tale

Without a doubt, my absolute favorite fairy tale series is the ‘Entra en un Cuento‘ also with Usborne Books & More. They have 5 titles available in Spanish, and even more in English, called ‘Peek Inside a Fairytale‘.

What I love most about each of these titles, is the incredible intricacies in the design. They are so detailed with cut-through pages which are simply stunning to the eye. The familiar fairy tales are so engaging and we have the whole collection!

11 Bilingual Fairy Tales in Spanish and English

This collection has a really awesome range of very familiar tales. I particularly love that it includes some that don’t feature elsewhere, like the Spanish translations of Puss in Boots and The Emperor’s New Suit.

The layout is unique in that each paragraph is translated into English underneath the Spanish, as opposed to having the text completely separate. The fairy tales are written with a mix of dialogue and description – which is perfect for adult learners looking to improve their reading comprehension. I would recommend this title for adult learners only because there are no illustrations and the Spanish is a little more advanced than Adam Beck’s collection (#1 in this post). The book also comes with a free audio accompaniment, available in both Spanish and English. See it here.

5. The Fable Cottage

I stumbled upon this website recently and WOW! What an awesome resource for children! The Fable Cottage is a membership based resource, although you can access some stories for free.

With 5 languages to choose from and membership starting at $4.95 a month or $39.95 for an annual pass, you can access a bank of famous fairytales, including all the native speaker audio AND videos! If you want to check it out first, you can access Pollito Tito for FREE here. Finally, this collection of fairy tales in English is our #1 all time favorite and a best seller in my bookshop! Usborne Books & More just released a brand new title called Cuentos olvidados de chicas valientes. It is a stunning, diverse collection and I highly recommend you grab a copy for read alouds. I hope you enjoyed this round-up of our favorite Spanish Fairy tales and fables!