Review by New York Times Review
with their violent excesses and winning magic, fairy tales once entertained adults and children together. As John Updike said, they were the television and pornography of an earlier age, and they rarely pulled punches, even when the young were listening in. Today, fairy tales move on two different tracks: films like "Snow White and the Huntsman" and television series like "Once Upon a Time" add existential torment, surreal plot twists and macabre special effects for their adolescent and adult audience, while adaptations for children tame the tales' original melodrama and impose moral lessons on their plotlines. Lisbeth Zwerger's "Tales From the Brothers Grimm" and Michael Hague's "Read-to-Me Book of Fairy Tales" draw children into nostalgic fairy-tale worlds with the seductive beauty of their illustrations. "Fairy Tale Comics," edited by Chris Duffy and animated by 17 cartoonists and illustrators, by contrast, refashions classic tales with bold creativity, reminding us that, as Italo Calvino put it, a fairy tale is always "more beautiful" (and more interesting) when something is added. And then there is "Princess Tales," adapted by Grace Maccarone and illustrated by Gail de Marcken, which enlivens the stories with rhymes, seek-and-find pictures, busy illustrations and unusual settings. This last volume takes a sentimental turn and is the safest choice for parents anxious about what Bruno Bettelheim, endorsing the therapeutic value of the unforgiving violence in fairy tales, called the uses of enchantment. Some of the stories in Zwerger's "Tales From the Brothers Grimm" reveal just how hard it is to cover up the primal energy of fairy tales. In one, a young queen takes out a contract on her husband who, despite many heroic feats, remains "nothing but a tailor." "Hans My Hedgehog" features a hero - half-boy, half-hedgehog - who is so vexed with a young woman who refuses to marry him that he takes off her beautiful clothes and pricks her with his quills until she bleeds. Then he chases her back home, where no one has "a good word for her all the rest of her days." This is followed by "The Children of Hamelin," a version of "The Pied Piper" that bluntly declares: "In all, a hundred and thirty children had been lost." A poignant final illustration shows adults wandering the streets, one holding the hand of a limp doll, another pushing an empty carriage. Though Zwerger's watercolors are sometimes disturbing, the decorative beauty of her work also functions as an antidote to the violent content of the tales. This dynamic is reversed in Hague's "Read-to-Me Book of Fairy Tales": Allison Grace MacDonald's gentle prose mitigates the ferocity of some of Hague's illustrations. MacDonald uses an abundance of caution in retelling the tales, making sure, for example, that Rumpelstiltskin does not tear himself in two, as was the case in the Grimms' version, but simply stomps his foot in anger and disappears. In adult reworkings of fairy tales, almost anything goes, and in a creative flash, the girl in red can turn into Red Hot Riding Hood. When it comes to versions for children, the urge to preach becomes almost irresistible. We put tight constraints on improvisation, insisting on morals, even when they do not square with the facts of the story. MacDonald turns the audacious Jack into a repentant rogue who "knew he shouldn't have risked his life like that." Adventurous and beauty-loving Little Red Riding Hood is portrayed as disobedient (for talking to the wolf) and wayward (for picking flowers). In the end, she promises "never to stray from the path again," just as her mother had told her in the beginning. All versions of "Little Red Riding Hood" in these collections make the same point, even though staying on the path would not have changed a thing. In "Fairy Tale Comics," Little Red Riding Hood vows never to talk to strangers again, an update to the story, making it about stranger danger but ignoring the fact that conversation was never the real problem. Not surprisingly, "Fairy Tale Comics" is the most inventive and daring of the books, remaking the old tales and infusing them with manic liveliness and antic art. By including less familiar stories like "The Boy Who Drew Cats," "Give Me the Shudders" and "The Small-Tooth Dog," the collection reminds us that such tales can be refashioned because they shape-shift with such ease, never losing their edgy entertainment value, even when we work hard to domesticate them for the younger crowd. Once we orient fairy tales toward children, we forget that they were engineered for entertainment, less invested in sending messages than in producing shock effects so powerful that to this day we feel compelled to talk about them, reinvent them and pass them on. "If you want intelligent children," Einstein is said to have remarked, "read them fairy tales." He was surely less interested in simplistic morals than in how these stories use the sorcery of words to shock us into thinking about the terrible, complicated things that can happen before "happily ever after." That was the true educational value of the fairy tale. And he affirmed it by adding, "If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." MARIA TATAR directs the Program in Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [November 10, 2013]
Review by Booklist Review
Part storybook, part picture puzzle, this collection features 10 of the most popular princess tales, including Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty. Each is told in verse in a spread or two and is accompanied by astonishingly intricate watercolor paintings. The brief retellings are serviceable as an introduction to or refresher in the traditional tales; unfortunately, some rhymes feel forced or fall in awkward spots in the sentence, throwing off the cadence, such as in Thumbelina : From a seed of barleycorn, / Thumbelina would be born. / The seed was planted. Then in two / months' time, a yellow flower grew. Each spread includes a list of items readers will find as they examine the atmospheric illustration. In fact, children will discover many details to delight them, such as characters and scenes from other familiar stories and rhymes. The creators cleverly switch up the settings in a couple of cases, too, placing The Princess and the Pea in an African palace and The Princess and the Frog in China. Inventive and engaging.--McDermott, Jeanne Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Fairy tales often involve transformation, and Maccarone converts 10 familiar stories into swiftly moving and skillfully constructed iambic tetrameter poems. Despite the brevity of the retellings, Maccarone retains subtle moments of drama and humor; in "Cinderella," she writes, "In disbelief, the prince ran, too,/ He lost the girl, but found a shoe." Contributing delicate ink-and-watercolor paintings (which incorporate multiple objects for readers to locate), de Marcken smartly moves several of the stories outside Europe: "The Princess and the Frog" is set in China, and the African heroine of "The Princess and the Pea" is shown climbing onto a towering pile of boldly patterned mattresses. Although the rhymes can repeat themselves ("said," "wed," "wife," and "life" come up often), it's a minor quibble in what's otherwise a splendid reimagining of favorite stories. Ages 4-6. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-This inventive book pairs 10 familiar stories retold in verse with seek-and-find illustrations. For example, "Cinderella" is illustrated through one dramatic, watercolor and ink spread that depicts Cinderella running away from the ball toward her pumpkin coach. Readers are invited to find fiddlers, a wand, and a see-through shoe, among other items. Plenty of lively details, including references to other fairy tales and nursery rhymes, enliven each colorful picture, but the rhymes are abrupt and sometimes forced. ("'Be mine,' said he. 'Oh, yes,' she said./The happy couple now is wed.") The fun lies in the art. In some selections, the tale has a new locale. "The Princess and the Frog" has a Chinese setting complete with pagoda, dragon kite, and pandas, while "The Princess and the Pea" takes place in an ornate African court. The narratives are undistinguished, but this new twist on picture puzzle books should entertain a wide audience of fairy tale readers.-Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Ten classic tales, including "Cinderella"; "East of the Sun, West of the Moon"; and "Rumpelstiltskin," are retold in rhyme and illustrated with detailed spreads. The stories get just one or two pages each, and the clunky rhymes summarize rather than truly retell the tales; the lavish, jam-packed illustrations are well suited to the seek-and-find game but poor at developing story. (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
