Time to Claim Your Fairy Tale
There are a few YA and MG fairy tale retellings on the shelves now. I think these books are fun because they play with our preconceived notions of what “should” happen in the story. I recently read two fairy tale reimaginings that couldn’t be more different. A CURSE AS DARK AS GOLD by Elizabeth Bunce is a Rumpelstiltskin tale wrapped up in a well-written historical YA. RAPUNZEL’S REVENGE is a graphic novel with a Wild West setting written by Shannon Hale. (She also wrote BOOK OF A THOUSAND DAYS, a YA novel which uses the Rapunzel story in part.) By the way, Shannon Hale’s web site has a fantastic amount of information, even a script from RAPUNZEL’S REVENGE, in case you were thinking of scripting a graphic novel yourself.
I highly recommend both of these books. Despite knowing the fairy tales, I really didn’t know what was going to happen next in these new versions.
In her prologue, Elizabeth Bunce says that she wrote about Rumpelstiltskin because the story bothers her. She didn’t see how it could play out. Who would give their firstborn child away? So she wrote a story to make it plausible. You know which story has always bothered me? Hansel and Gretel. OK, their father abandons them to die, right? And to die gruesomely, starving and eaten by wolves. Yet after they kill the witch, they come back to him, and miraculously their stepmother is dead and they all hug and kiss. Wait, what? There’s got to be part of the story missing there.
What fairy tale do you think needs a rewrite?
–Kate
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
10.17.09 at 4:47 pm
I love any of the retellings of fairy tales, making them more up-to-date and, usually, funny. I even read an erotic version of Cinderella a few months ago. It was also pretty funny.
In my own WIP, I use fairy tale and folklore all over the place, but haven’t done a re-telling per se. I just steal everything I like.
For example, Rumpelstiltskin in my book is the Scandinavian version, Jtte Finn. He’s a ticked-off troll who’s griped because 1) the tales said he was a dwarf, and 2) the rotten humans tricked him out of snatching the kid. He’s had a chip on his shoulder ever since. He now serves as the Chief Advisor to Ole the Troll Mountain King.
10.18.09 at 6:18 am
Kate, I just got a few of Shannon Hale’s books from the library (Goose Girl, Princess Academy) to follow up on my reading of Book of a Thousand Days, and really enjoyed them. With a fairy tale, there is room to add so many interesting details.
I also checked out Shannon Hale’s website, and thought it was cool the way she adds “extra stuff”, e.g. early versions of a story. It’s encouraging that she does so many revisions — makes me feel there’s hope for my own stories, even with my constant rewriting.
As for my favourite fairy tale, I always loved the story of the twelve dancing princesses – something magical about that secret world under the palace and the invisible cloak the prince wears when spying on them.
10.19.09 at 3:47 pm
I love retellings of fairy tales. We study them in school each year and try to spend a week on one, reading as many different versions as we can. My boys are young, so we stick to the picture books for now. I have a retelling coming out called The Marshmallow Man in December. It’s a retelling of The Gingerbread Man.
10.30.09 at 10:36 pm
I am a big fan of fairy tale rewrites. I love them! Book of a 1000 Days was great and I liked Beast too.
Some of my favorites are also picture books with a twist on them. I read one to my boys last Christmas about the Three Bears and Santa was like Golidlocks. I can’t remember the title, but it was adorable.
LOL!
ReplyDelete"You know which story has always bothered me? Hansel and Gretel. OK, their father abandons them to die, right? And to die gruesomely, starving and eaten by wolves. Yet after they kill the witch, they come back to him, and miraculously their stepmother is dead and they all hug and kiss. Wait, what? There’s got to be part of the story missing there."
That is the very reason why I wrote my MG novel, which is a retelling of Hansel and Gretel. I'm querying agents with it now . . . I hope it will be published someday so you can read it and learn the "part of the story that's missing." LOL.