Let me introduce you to The Fairytale Hairdresser. Kittie Lacey is the best hairdresser in all the land and all fairytale characters go to her to have their hair washed, cut, curled, groomed and styled at her salon. Are you intrigued?
My two oldest daughters have been entranced by these books by Abie Longstaff and Lauren Beard for a while now. We started off with The Fairytale Hairdresser and Rapunzel, then quickly found The Fairytale Hairdresser and Cinderella and then The Fairytale Hairdresser and Snow White. A while later we got a few more until we managed to get the entire series. Yes, we were a little obsessed!
Let me explain why we’ve been so enchanted by these gorgeous retelling of popular fairytales. First of all the princesses and Kittie are the heroes of these stories, the princes do feature but they certainly do not save the day, which is so refreshing. After all, finding a ‘prince charming’ shouldn’t be the girls’ main focus when they’re 3 and 6! The books are also beautifully illustrated with modern touches, bright colours and lots of glitter, which my girls love!
I think the key to getting kids reading is to find books and stories that interest them, tales that capture their imagination and make them want to read. These books do just that for Lili and Poppy. They both love anything to do with fairies, magic, princesses and witches, and these books are full of them all. Most nights when we’re getting ready for bed I ask them to pick a book to read, and most nights they choose one of the “Kittie Lacey” books. I must adit I don’t mind at all because they’re so magical and always have us asking different questions at the end.
Last week we were excited to receive the latest edition to the series, The Fairytale Hairdresser and the Princess and the Pea, which is launching this week on Thursday 8th September. Again this is a modern retelling of the famous story, intertwined with Kittie and her hairdressing salon. Here the princess is called Penelope and she’s a chef who’s travelling the world. She meets Prince Peter at the salon and agrees to cook for him and the royal family at the palace as their usual chef is ill. That gives you an idea of how the stories are designed to be modern and very different to the originals, while staying faithful to the key points.
This morning I asked the girls to pick their favourite Fairytale Hairdresser book, Lili chose The Fairytale Hairdresser and the Little Mermaid and Poppy chose The Fairytale Hairdresser and the Sugar Plum Fairy (which happens to be my favourite too) but they both agreed that the latest book was also great!
We then did this cute little Fairytale Hairdresser quiz to find out which princess they’d be, Lili came out as being Rose the Sleeping Beauty and Poppy was Rapunzel.
Disclaimer: This is a contributed post.
Oh this is so lovely! Thank you very much for following the series and for posting the gorgeous photos of your girls reading the books 🙂 Abie x