Just
Ella by Margaret Haddix (Author), Rene
Milot (Illustrator). ISBN:
0689831285
Extreme Intellect Favorite
From Amazon:
In Just Ella, Margaret Peterson Haddix puts a spin on the
traditional tale of the glass slippers. In her version, Ella (sans
"Cinder") finds her own way to the ball (there was no fairy
godmother, despite the rumors) and wins the heart of the prince. But now
she is finding that life at the palace as Prince Charming's betrothed is
not as great as she thought it was going to be. In fact, it's downright
boring for a self-reliant and active girl to do needlework all day or
listen to instructions on court etiquette from the strict and cold
Madame Bisset. Worst of all, Ella is beginning to suspect that
Charming's beautiful blue eyes and golden hair are attached to a head
with nothing in it. Her young tutor Jed, however, talks with her about
serious things that really matter. Ella finally gets up the courage to
announce to Charming that she doesn't want to go through with the
wedding, but when she finds herself locked in the dungeon she realizes
it's not that easy to walk away from a politically arranged marriage. In
the end, as in all good fairy tales, our heroine and hero do manage to
live happily ever after--but with a twist. --Patty Campbell--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Ella
Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine (Author). ISBN: 0064407055 Ages 9-12.
Extreme Intellect Favorite
From Amazon:
At birth, Ella is inadvertently cursed by an imprudent fairy named
Lucinda, who bestows on her the "gift" of obedience. Anything
anyone tells her to do, Ella must obey. Another girl might have been
cowed by this affliction, but not feisty Ella: "Instead of making
me docile, Lucinda's curse made a rebel of me. Or perhaps I was that way
naturally." When her beloved mother dies, leaving her in the care
of a mostly absent and avaricious father, and later, a loathsome
stepmother and two treacherous stepsisters, Ella's life and well-being
seem in grave peril. But her intelligence and saucy nature keep her in
good stead as she sets out on a quest for freedom and self-discovery,
trying to track down Lucinda to undo the curse, fending off ogres,
befriending elves, and falling in love with a prince along the way. Yes,
there is a pumpkin coach, a glass slipper, and a happily ever after, but
this is the most remarkable, delightful, and profound version of
Cinderella you've ever read.
Gail Carson Levine's
examination of traditional female roles in fairy tales takes some
satisfying twists and deviations from the original. Ella is bound by
obedience against her will, and takes matters in her own hands with
ambition and verve. Her relationship with the prince is balanced and
based on humor and mutual respect; in fact, it is she who ultimately
rescues him. Ella Enchanted has won many well-deserved awards,
including a Newbery Honor. (Ages 9 to 14) --Emilie Coulter
Cinderellis
and the Glass Hill by Gail
Carson Levine (Author), Mark Elliott (Illustrator).ISBN: 006028336X
Appropriate for Ages 7 to 12.
Ralph
said, "Rain tomorrow."
Burt said, "Barley needs it. You're covered with cinders,
Ellis."
Ralph thought that was funny. "That's funny." He laughed.
"That's what we should call him-- Cinderellis."
Burt guffawed.
In this unusual spin on
an old favorite, Cinderella is a boy! He's Cinderellis, and he has two
unfriendly brothers and no fairy godmother to help him out. Luckily, he
does have magical powders, and he intends to use them to win the hand of
his Princess Charming-- that is, Marigold. The only problem is--
Marigold thinks Cinderellis is a monster!
Gail Carson Levine is the
author of Ella Enchanted, a spirited retelling of the
"real" Cinderella fairy tale and a 1998 Newberry Honor Book.
In this fourth of her Princess Tales, Levine brings new life and new fun
into a little-known tale and proves that determination, imagination, and
kindness can carry the day.
Confessions
of an Ugly Stepsister : A Novel by Gregory Maguire (Author).ISBN: 0060987529
From Amazon:
Gregory Maguire's chilling, wonderful
retelling of Cinderella is a study in contrasts. Love and hate,
beauty and ugliness, cruelty and charity--each idea is stripped of its
ethical trappings, smashed up against its opposite number, and laid bare
for our examination. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister begins in
17th-century Holland, where the two Fisher sisters and their mother have
fled to escape a hostile England. Maguire's characters are at once more
human and more fanciful than their fairy-tale originals. Plain but smart
Iris and her sister, Ruth, a hulking simpleton, are dazed and terrified
as their mother, Margarethe, urges them into the strange Dutch streets.
Within days, purposeful Margarethe has secured the family a place in the
home of an aspiring painter, where for a short time, they find
happiness.
But this is Cinderella,
after all, and tragedy is inevitable. When a wealthy tulip speculator
commissions the painter to capture his blindingly lovely daughter,
Clara, on canvas, Margarethe jumps at the chance to better their lot.
"Give me room to cast my eel spear, and let follow what may,"
she crows, and the Fisher family abandons the artist for the upper-crust
Van den Meers.
When Van den Meer's wife
dies during childbirth, the stage is set for Margarethe to take over the
household and for Clara to adopt the role of "Cinderling" in
order to survive. What follows is a changeling adventure, and of course
a ball, a handsome prince, a lost slipper, and what might even be a
fairy godmother. In a single magic night, the exquisite and the ugly
swirl around in a heated mix:
Everything about this
moment hovers, trembles, all their sweet, unreasonable hopes on view
before anything has had the chance to go wrong. A stepsister spins on
black and white tiles, in glass slippers and a gold gown, and two
stepsisters watch with unrelieved admiration. The light pours in,
strengthening in its golden hue as the sun sinks and the evening
approaches. Clara is as otherworldly as the Donkeywoman, the Girl-Boy.
Extreme beauty is an affliction...
But beyond these familiar
elements, Maguire's second novel becomes something else altogether--a
morality play, a psychological study, a feminist manifesto, or perhaps a
plain explanation of what it is to be human. Villains turn out to be
heroes, and heroes disappoint. The story's narrator wryly observes,
"In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and
rats into human beings. When we grow up, we learn that it's far more
common for human beings to turn into rats." --Therese Littleton--This text refers to the Hardcover Edition.
Beauty and
the Beast
Beast by Donna Napoli
(Author), Rafal Olbinski (Illustrator). ISBN:
0689835892
From Amazon: In
a narrative as glittering and richly detailed as a Persian miniature,
Donna Jo Napoli interprets and amplifies the tale of Beauty and the
Beast with startling originality. We've seen her keen psychological
insights, surprising viewpoints, and clever twists on traditional fairy
tales in previous novels: Hansel and Gretel in The Magic Circle,
Rapunzel in Zel, Jack and the Beanstalk in Crazy Jack, and
Rumpelstiltskin in Spinners. Here she uses the intriguing setting
of ancient Persia in a glorious retelling of the now-Disneyfied
favorite--a bold undertaking with which authors from Robin McKinley to
Francesca Lia Block have also challenged themselves.
Napoli, however, brings a
fresh slant to the story through the eyes of the Beast, Prince Orasmyn,
who has been transformed by a curse into a lion--and can only be
redeemed by the love of a woman. From this four-footed perspective, the
young prince struggles to learn how to survive as a beast while
retaining his humanity in devotion to Islamic moral principles. Fleeing
his father's hunting park, he travels as an animal across Asia to
France, where he at last finds an abandoned chateau. There, using paws
and jaws, he plants a rose garden and prepares the castle for the woman
he hopes will come to love him. Enter the merchant, the plucked rose,
the brave Beauty, and the story wends to its traditional end--but this
time with compassion and a new vividness. Into this sumptuous tapestry
Napoli has woven a wealth of lore about Persian literature, the tenets
of Islam, rose culture, animal behavior--even a leonine mating scene.
This level of detail makes for a leisurely pace and a novel that may be
more appropriate for older teens who are willing to savor the journey
rather than the destination. After all, we all know how the story ends.
(Ages 14 and older) --Patty Campbell
Rose
Daughter
by Robin McKinley. ISBN: 0441005837
Appropriate for Ages 12 and Up.
Beauty:
A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley
(Illustrator). ISBN: 0064404773
From Amazon: This
much-loved retelling of the classic French tale Beauty and the Beast
elicits the familiar magical charm, but is more believable and complex
than the traditional story. In this version, Beauty is not as beautiful
as her older sisters, who are both lovely and kind. Here, in fact,
Beauty has no confidence in her appearance but takes pride in her own
intelligence, her love of learning and books, and her talent in riding.
She is the most competent of the three sisters, which proves essential
when they are forced to retire to the country because of their father's
financial ruin.
The plot follows that of
the renowned legend: Beauty selflessly agrees to inhabit the Beast's
castle to spare her father's life. Beauty's gradual acceptance of the
Beast and the couple's deepening trust and affection are amplified in
novel form. Robin McKinley's writing has the flavor of another century,
and Beauty heightens the authenticity as a reliable and competent
narrator.
This was McKinley's first
book, written almost 20 years ago. Since that time she has been awarded
the Newbery Medal for The Hero and the Crown and has delighted
her fans with another retelling of the Beauty and the Beast
fable, Rose Daughter. Still, McKinley's first novel has a special
place in the hearts of her devoted readers, many of whom attest to
relishing Beauty time and again. (Ages 11 to Adult) --This
text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Rumplestiltskin
Spinners by Donna Jo Napoli, Richard Tchen, S.
November (Editor) ISBN: 014131110X
From Amazon: Fairy tales touch something deep within us, and Donna
Jo Napoli is a master at bringing those primal feelings to light. Her
retellings of ancient tales such asThe Magic Circle (based on "Hansel
and Gretel"), Zel (based on "Rapunzel"), and Crazy
Jack (based on "Jack and the Beanstalk") flesh out the
age-old stories in unexpected ways, imbuing them with psychological
resonance for contemporary teens. One of the marks of Napoli's skill is
that her stories draw us into the characters' predicaments long before we
figure out their original source in folklore. In Spinners, she and
coauthor Richard Tchen weave a tale of a young tailor who cripples himself
while spinning gold thread on a magic wheel to win his beloved's hand.
Spurned for his ugliness, he watches her marry the miller and die giving
birth to the child he knows is his own. The girl grows up to become a
master spinner, but only when the cruel young king commands her to spin
straw into gold do we begin to sense a creeping familiarity. When a
deformed man demands her firstborn child as a return for spinning the
gold, we are almost sure. But not until the very last, when to save her
baby the young mother must guess her unknown father's secret name, do we,
like her, know that this is Rumpelstiltskin, of whom we've heard tell long
ago. In Napoli's story-spinning hands, however, Rumpelstiltskin is not a
spiteful dwarf but a lonely outcast yearning for the love of his
grandchild; rather than a hand- wringing victim, the young queen shows
herself to be a strong and resourceful survivor given to imaginative
solutions. (Ages 12 to 16) --Patty Campbell--This text
refers to the Hardcover edition.
The
Rumpelstiltskin Problem by Vivian Vande Velde (Author) ISBN:
0618055231
From Amazon: Why
did the miller tell the king his daughter could spin straw into gold in
the first place? The story of Rumpelstiltskin is full of holes, says young
adult fantasy writer Vivian Vande Velde in the author's note to this
delightful group of tales. For instance, why was the dwarf was willing to
accept the girl's ring as a bribe when he already knew how to spin
unlimited quantities of gold? And why did he want a baby at all? Not to
mention the very peculiar ending in which he stamps on the floor, catches
his foot in a crack, and in a fit of rage tears himself in two. Excuse me?
says Vande Velde.
The skeptical author sets
out to remedy these flaws in six different imaginative retellings full of
sassy humor that teens will relish. Sticking closely to the spirit and
setting of the original, she changes only one or two building blocks in
the plot structure and comes up with some surprising results. In one
story, the miller's daughter is an obnoxious groupie pursuing the polite
and gentle king; in another, Rumpelstiltskin is female; and in a third,
the dwarf appears as a troll with a yen to eat human baby who sets up the
whole scenario as an attempt to get his hands on a toothsome infant.
("Tastes just like chicken," scoffs his brother-in-law.)
Teen readers will
appreciate the wit and freshness of these smart-mouth renditions of a
traditional story. (Ages 10 to 14) -- Patty Campbell
Rapunzel
Zel
by Donna Jo Napoli ISBN: 0141301163
Young Adult
Hansel and
Gretel
The
Magic Circle
by Donna Jo Napoli. ISBN:
0140374396
Ages 12-up.
Jack and
the Beanstalk
Crazy
Jack (Laurel-Leaf Books)
by Donna Jo Napoli. ISBN: 0440227887
From Amazon: Donna Jo Napoli's fiction for teens often puts a
contemporary twist on old fairy tales, offering new depth and
psychological insight. In previous young adult novels she has retold
"Hansel and Gretel" from the point of view of the witch (The
Magic Circle) and the story of "Rapunzel" from a multitude of
perspectives (Zel), and has turned the tale of "Rumpelstiltskin"
inside out (Spinners). Here she follows the traditional story of
"Jack and the Beanstalk" pretty closely--the cow traded for
magic beans, the vast beanstalk reaching up a cliff, and the
cannibalistic giant chanting "Fee, fi, fo, fum" are all
present. But Napoli enriches the tale with a romance between Jack and a
neighbor girl and the mysterious disappearance of Jack's father, all
told in vibrant poetic language and studded with authentic details of
country life in the 1500s. On another level, she adds resonance to the
narrative by creating an oedipal dimension--a disturbing buried
suggestion that the devouring giant is a dangerous aspect of Jack's
otherwise loving father. In the same manner, the giant's wife, who feeds
Jack luscious food and hides him from the giant, recalls his own mother
in the aspect of temptress. All this is very subliminal, but even
younger readers will feel the mythological power as they devour this
exciting story. (Ages 10 to 14) --Patty Campbell--This
text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Having been turned into a frog by a hag, a frog-prince makes the best of
his new life as he mates, raises a family, and instills a new kind of
thinking into his frog family. Appropriate for Ages
8-12.
Jimmy, the froglet son of an enchanted frog-prince, tries to save his
pond from the evil hag and in the process finds himself transformed into
a human boy. Appropriate for Ages 8-11.
Sleeping
Beauty
Princess
Sonora and the Long Sleep
by Gail Carson Levine (Author), Mark Elliott (Illustrator). ISBN:
0060280646
Princess Tales Series
Appropriate for Ages 12 and Up.
Spindle's
End by Robin McKinley. ISBN:
0698119509.
From Amazon: Renowned
fantasy writer Robin McKinley, author of the lush "Beauty and the
Beast" retellings Beauty and Rose Daughter, has
produced another re-mastered fairy tale, this time about the dreamy
Sleeping Beauty. Much like in the original story, the infant princess,
here named Rosie, is cursed by an evil fairy to die on her 21st birthday
by pricking her finger on a spindle. That same day, Rosie is whisked
away into hiding by a peasant fairy who raises her and conceals her
royal identity. From that point on, McKinley's plot and characterization
become wildly inventive. She imagines Rosie growing up into a strapping
young woman who despises her golden hair, prefers leather breeches to
ball gowns, and can communicate with animals. And on that fateful
birthday, with no help from a prince, Rosie saves herself and her entire
sleeping village from destruction, although she pays a realistic price.
In a final master stroke, McKinley cleverly takes creative license when
the spell-breaking kiss (made famous in "Sleeping Beauty")
comes from a surprising source and is bestowed upon the character least
expected.
Although the entire novel
is well written, McKinley's characterization of Rosie's animal friends
is exceptionally fine. Observations such as "...foxes generally
wanted to talk about butterflies and grasses and weather for a long time
while they sized you up," will spark reader's imaginations. It
won't be hard to persuade readers of any age to become lost in this
marvelous tale; the difficult part will be convincing them to come back
from McKinley's country, where "the magic... was so thick and
tenacious that it settled over the land like chalk dust...." Highly
recommended. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Briar
Rose by Jane Yolen (Author).
ISBN: 0765342308.
Enchantment by Orson Scott Card. ISBN:
0345416880.
From Amazon: Enchantment
is the story of a Ukraine-born, American grad student who finds himself
transported to the ninth century to play the prince in a Russian version
of Sleeping Beauty. Early in the story, he muses that in a French
or English retelling of the tale, the prince and princess would live
happily ever after. But, "only a fool would want to live through
the Russian version of any fairy tale."
Although his fears turn
out to be warranted, as he and his cursed princess contend with the
diabolical witch Baba Yaga--easily Russia's best pre-Khrushchev
villain--to save the princess's kingdom, Enchantment is
ultimately a sweet story. Mixing magic and modernity, the acclaimed
Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game) has woven threads of history,
religion, and myth together into a convincing, time-hopping tale that is
part love story, part adventure. Enchantment's heroes,
"Prince" Ivan and Princess Katerina, must deal with
cross-cultural mores, ancient gods, treacherous kinsmen (and fianceés),
and ultimately Baba Yaga herself.
Card has a knack for
coming across like your nerdy dad at times, when he runs on too long or
makes some particularly wince-inducing observation or reference ("Daaad,
Bruce Cockburn is not cool!"). But, as you might expect of a
good dad, as uncool as he might be, Card still manages to tell a good
bedtime story. --Paul Hughes
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
The
Princess and the Pea
The
Princess Test
by Gail Carson Levine (Author), Mark Elliott (Illustrator). ISBN:
006028062X
Princess Tales Series
Appropriate for Ages 8-11.
Toads and
Diamonds
The
Fairy's Mistake
by Gail Carson Levine (Author), Mark Elliott (Illustrator). ISBN:
0060280603
Princess Tales Series
Appropriate for Ages 7-10.
The Golden
Goose
The
Fairy's Return
by Gail Carson Levine (Author). ISBN: 0066238005
Appropriate for Ages 7-11.
Firebird
Firebird by Mercedes
Lackey. ASIN: 0812550749
From Amazon:
Mercedes Lackey never puts a foot wrong in this confident, funny
fairy-tale adaptation. Tsar Ivan has eight sons; all are brutes like
himself except for happy-go-lucky, least-favored Ilya. Cast out through
the machinations of his jealous, competitive brothers, Ilya stumbles
onto an enchanted castle, distressed damsels, a garden of questing
princes turned to stone, and the secret of the shapeshifting woman
called the Firebird. In love with a captive princess, Ilya enlists the
Firebird and a charming, crafty vixen to help him battle the sorcerer.
But is settling down with a princess what "happily ever after"
really means?
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