The project was a matter of cultural and national record – it was not intended for children. These were not, as has been supposed, the tales of the masses, but stories gathered from among the bourgeoisie. The Grimms – who also, as part of the same mission, compiled a dictionary – began to collect folk stories. Their book began as a philological project at the birth of a unified Germany. Philip Pullman's retellings of Grimm, published two years ago and since brought to life in the theatre, are masterpieces of haunting clarity. In other words, it has never really stopped: fairy tales shape our worldview and stalk our literature – not just in Calvino and Carter but in Byatt and Rushdie too. Marina Warner – whose new short book about fairy tales, Once Upon a Time, is just out – wrote her seminal work From the Beast to the Blonde in 1994. By the time Carter turned the form inside out with her own stories in The Bloody Chamber (1979), the historian Jack Zipes was at work on his many unearthings of fairy tale history. The psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim – who had survived two concentration camps – wrote his influential study The Uses of Enchantment in 1976 Angela Carter was translating Charles Perrault from French then too, and she compiled two volumes of fairy tales from all over the world for Virago. Parents may be concerned with the passionate same-sex kiss and the author’s apparent disdain for marriage.After the war, radical German writers objected, for obvious historical reasons, to the conservative groundwork they felt had been laid by the Grimms. Chris Riddell has won the Kate Greenaway award. Gaiman's narrative about strength, sacrifice, choice, and identity is no simple retelling.Īuthor Neil Gaiman: New York Times bestseller with Newbery and Carnegie Medals. The inventive tale is accompanied by intricate ink drawings, gilded with gold and packed with details-vines claustrophobically twist everywhere and expressions convey far more emotion than the words let on. The crazy adventure reminds the queen that she does, indeed, have choices. You guessed it, the old hag fell asleep and became the beautiful princess who was awakened by the queen’s kiss. Turns out the “Old Woman” was a princess, too, whose youth was robbed form her and given to an old hag. Yup – the queen delivers a “long and hard” kiss to the princess. The queen's kiss, shown in a sumptuous spread, wakes the princess. Yup – this tale also includes creepy zombies! They reach the castle to find a beautiful sleeping princess and an old woman. On their way, they encounter throngs of cobweb-covered sleepers who talk in their sleep and eventually begin to lumber after them. The queen, already feeling that marriage means the end of her ability to make choices in her life, gladly postpones her wedding, grabs her sword, and sets off with the dwarfs to get to the bottom of the magical curse. When three dwarfs learn of a sleeping plague spreading throughout the land, they alert their queen. Rate how much you enjoyed this book: Quite a lotįor which gender would you recommend this book? Femaleįor which age group would you recommend this book? Grades 5 to 8Ī reimagined fairy tale: a Snow White-like queen meets a Sleeping Beauty-like princess in this mash-up where things are not what they seem. Genre (check all that apply): Adventure folktale/myth/legend Author: Neil Gaiman/ Illustrated: Chris Riddell
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