McKinley's: Spindle's End

This nap inducing retelling of the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty takes us through 21 long years of the well-known cursed princess' life. The original, very simple, tale is drawn out here with long explanations of repeated foreshadowings and roundabout recollections in very long convoluted paragraphs filled with never-ending sentences. Lengthy chapters sprinkled with uncommon words seem to end randomly at times. Characters are often plagued by foggy memories and extended dreamlike experiences sometimes clouding what little action there is. For those who like magic, McKinley's Spindle's End certainly is crammed with it, but "magic can't do everything." It did however help McKinley give us an uncommon but expected ending to the classic tale.

Hale's: Rapunzel's Revenge

Shannon and Dean Hale turn Rapunzel, damsel in distress, into Rapunzel, action hero with illustrator Nathan Hale. Presented in graphic novel format, Rapunzel teams with Jack of beanstock fame to take down the evil witch who destroyed the land of Gothel's Reach. This volume told in four parts is packed with action and adventure, just enough backstory, and high quality full color comic book style illustrations.

Fairy Tales Revisited

Diane Stanley writes a sequel to Rumpelstiltskin in Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter. The miller's daughter is now married to Rumpelstiltskin and has a wise daughter. The king is back to his greedy ways and his kingdom is impoverished. The daughter takes him on and tricks him into giving away his gold. Some very nice details in the illustrations including some clever and comical homages to many master painters. Readers will likely find that more was removed from the original tale than was actually added here, including much of the charm.

Virginia Hamilton relates a West Indian version of the little gold spinning man in The Girl Who Spun Gold. Told in simplified colloquial speech patterns of the West Indies this tale too has a greedy king and rich detailed illustrations with shiny gold accents by Leo and Diane Dillon. The patterns in the woven cloth are beautiful and the angry little man explodes in an extravagant display in the end.

An illustrator/writer Kevin O'Malley teams up with two more illustrators, Carol Heyer (princess illustrations) and Scott Goto (motorcycle dude illustrations), to create Once Upon A Cool Motorcycle Dude. With this battle of the sexes, 3rd grade style, the story of a pony loving Barbie-esque Princess Tenderheart is introduced by a little girl. It seems a giant is stealing away her ponies making the poor princess distraught. The story turns from pink and lavender melodrama to black and orange action adventure when voiced by her little boy partner. And in if-you-can't-beat-'em-join-'em spirit the story goes from wacky to over the top volcano-exploding silly...the end. But wait, there's more...

Napoli's: The Prince of the Pond

Donna Jo Napoli has created more than a fairy tale revisitation in The Prince of the Pond; she may have created a whole science lesson on frogs and pond life. I definitely learned a few things about frogs I did not know before. The Frog Prince in this version needs to be taught the ways of a frog through the voice of a female frog friend. It is very easy to separate factual elements from fiction and will inevitably lead to discussions of such as well as issues brought up in the story: life cycle, food web, survival, fertilization. This is definitely a good choice for 2nd and 3rd grade read-alouds.

Shusterman's: Dread Locks

The first and probably the best of Neal Shusterman's darkfusion series, Dread Locks marries the story Goldilocks with a familiar mythical tale. This story provides at least one worth while shock, while some of the fun was actually pre-guessing which story Shusterman was going to choose for the supernatural element. The familiar opposites motif (too hot, too cold; too hard, too soft) is repeated playfully throughout the story of main character Parker (baby) Baer told in the first person voice. Of the three books in the series, this one feels the most natural and organic in composition while the other two tale pairings seem a bit overly contrived. A lack of development in some of the secondary characters leads the reader to care not too much about their eventual fate conspicuously detracting from the plot. Although the story revolves around teenagers of privilege, the theme of teenage boredom is explored in detail and probably made accessible to a wider range of readers.

View Book Trailer

Napoli's: Zel

In her re-imagining of the fairy tale Rapunzel, Donna Jo Napoli stays true to the Grimm's version. She expands the story by developing in greater detail the characters of the prince, Rapunzel, and the witch (stepmother). She also explores themes of loneliness, love, obsession, rejection, and sacrifice. The only departure Napoli takes from the original here is that the prince meets Rapunzel before she is imprisoned in the tower. This allows for the witch's and the prince's obsession with Rapunzel to be juxtaposed throughout the story. She also explains the origins of the witch's power and the reason for Rapunzel's rapid hair growth. Should be fairly satisfying for those who appreciate novel-length fairy tales.

Vande Velde's: The Rumpelstiltskin Problem

For fans of the fairytale rewrite, there is a buffet here from the world of Rumpelstiltskin. Vivian Vande Velde offers six versions of the troll's tale, including one version without any mention of the troll at all, in an attempt to reconcile problems or questions she was left with from the original version. All six versions are different (some opening a few holes of their own), each with different main characters (sometimes the troll, the king, the miller, or the daughter) but each with its own satisfying conclusion. A fun light read.

Flinn's: Beastly

Alex Flinn updates the Beauty and the Beast tale in her novel Beastly. Told in first person from the perspective of Kyle, the teenaged beast living in modern day Manhattan, this version is replete with spoiled not-so-intelligent vindictive teenagers attending private school, high school parties lacking any adult supervision, and magic. Flinn gives her main characters typical teen novel neglectful parents, one, an abusive father addicted to drugs. The present day setting for this version may help to catch the reluctant teen reader's attention. Flinn matter-of-factly inserts a few recognizable minor characters into a chatroom subplot: a frog, a mermaid, a grizzly bear, Snow White ("not that Snow White" (?)), and Rose Red (not that Rose Red?). The chatroom conversations work somewhat as book part interludes despite my biggest nagging question concerning how a mermaid is able to type on a computer. Once I had just decided to let it go, the chatroom characters start questioning each other's access to the internet. The mermaid had conveniently left the chat before that conversation. In an author's note, Flinn ironically goes on to describe her motivation for rewriting fairy tales as the need to resolve "inconsistencies in the traditional tales." Note: this title is not in CLC's library.

Shusterman's: Red Rider's Hood

Grandma stockpiles hunting weapons loaded with silver ammunition. A mysterious slayer comes to town on a black Harley. Red Rider infiltrates a gang of teenage troublemakers known as the wolves. The wolves hunt monthly on the full moon, so does Grandma. In this second less engaging book of the darkfusion series, Shusterman combines the fairytale Red Riding Hood and a couple of legendary monster types now traveling in gangs. Shusterman is able to build some suspense in Red's feeling's of envy as he travels among the "Wolves" and is accepted by their leader. The allusions made to the original fairytale all but slap the reader in the face in highly corny delivery. The main character now has to be male because werewolves cannot be female?

Hale's: Goose Girl

I love this book. Intrigue, murder, romance and humor combine here with a touch of magic to retell Grimm's story of the same name. Shannon Hale builds a world with gentle language and dialogue which is convincingly old world at least enough for the purposes here. With a somewhat slow beginning Hale gradually pulls her readers through the Crown Princess's joys and miseries showing how happiness can be found in life's simple gifts. A diverse cast of well-developed primary and secondary characters work their way in and out of the princess's life learning lessons about prejudice, courage, and loyalty. An uplifting, feel-good read.

Watch a trailer

McKinley's: Beauty

A first person account of the tale of Beauty and the Beast from the perspective of the muddy hazel eyes of the title character Beauty. In other retellings, this tale is about the transformation of Beast; this take focuses on the physical, emotional, and mental changes of Beauty as she grows to love Beast. Gentle, kind, and noble fully-developed characters populate Robin Mckinley's graceful world. McKinley delicately weaves magic into the story effortlessly with such aplomb that it seems almost a part of the natural world. She is deftly able to build and release tension as well as provide a few laugh out loud moments from Beauty's two enchanted chamber maids. I look forward to reading other titles from this author.

Another review