Children's ✦ Penny’s Take
Hilary McKay’s Fairy Tales
Hilary McKay · 2017
84/100
👍 Worth It
Hilary McKay is a genuinely gifted children's author, and her touch on these classic tales — layering in empathy, consequence, and quiet wit without bulldozing the original stories — makes this a cut above most fairy tale collections. Sarah Gibb's illustrations and the gift-book presentation give it real staying power on a shelf. It's conservative in how much it reinvents the source material, but the literary quality is evident and the age-fit is excellent.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety85
substance80
craft88
originality68
accuracy82
hype70
age-fit88
human-eye85
Penny’s verdict84
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