bardicbramley's review against another edition
4.0
A beautiful collection of classical European fairytales told through the mind of a modern day European.
The stories follow the traditional format of a fantasy tale with strong moral (each of which can be found as a brief introductory scented W at the beginning of the stories) but with an healthy dose of wider inclusion and diversity in characters and settings.
The stories follow the traditional format of a fantasy tale with strong moral (each of which can be found as a brief introductory scented W at the beginning of the stories) but with an healthy dose of wider inclusion and diversity in characters and settings.
heartframes's review against another edition
4.0
this book is so whimsical and kinda disturbing too. but i loved the way all the fairytales were written and enjoyed reading this book!
kaybethbookish's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
janebranson's review against another edition
5.0
Beautifully written, timeless and fresh. These are rich and clever stories. I wish I still had a class to share them, but will have to make do with reading them to my own children!
ellalouise99's review against another edition
4.0
A great collection of short fairytale style stories with both similarities and differences to the traditional fairy tales. This book would be perfect for use in KS2 as a storybook to read and enjoy but could also be used in English lessons as the descriptions in this book are beautifully detailed. Some of the stories could also be read to children in KS1 making this a perfect universal book for a primary school teacher. There are lots of opportunities for predictions to be made by the children throughout the stories as well as opportunities for questioning by the teacher. I found this book enjoyable to read and will be using it with children in the future.
I liked the fact that the book contains a collection of short stories which could help to keep children, particularly younger ones, engaged throughout the book as you wouldn’t be reading each story for very long. I also believe there are a lot of opportunities for children to write their own endings or scenes from the stories. For example, the teacher could read all of the story apart from the last chapter and then children could finish writing it in a big write session following on from a class discussion to inspire creative ideas by sharing. There are also plenty of cross-curricular links which could be included. For example, children could create their own dresses for Blackberry Blue in DT, by first designing and then making them with inspiration from the book (using natural resources or taking inspiration from the colours and textures described).
Some of the stories in this collection may not be suitable for certain children so as a teacher, this must be considered before reading the book. For example, in one of the stories, a child’s father dies and his mother ends up in a bad relationship. This story may therefore not be suitable to read to a child who has been in a similar situation as it could become quite upsetting for them. KS1 teachers would also have to consider their individual class before reading stories from this collection as some of them may be too complex for young children to fully understand or enjoy.
There are lots of patterns which appear in this book which have strong links to traditional fairy tales. For example, the princess changing from ‘ugly’ to ‘beautiful’ links to the prince changing from a frog to a prince in traditional stories, the princess looking for a prince also links very closely to.
This book would allow for many opportunities for transforming the classroom/reading area to engage the children with the book. For example, the reading area could be made into the tree that the king lived inside while in the forest and misleading paths could be created around the classroom or in the playground.
I liked the fact that the book contains a collection of short stories which could help to keep children, particularly younger ones, engaged throughout the book as you wouldn’t be reading each story for very long. I also believe there are a lot of opportunities for children to write their own endings or scenes from the stories. For example, the teacher could read all of the story apart from the last chapter and then children could finish writing it in a big write session following on from a class discussion to inspire creative ideas by sharing. There are also plenty of cross-curricular links which could be included. For example, children could create their own dresses for Blackberry Blue in DT, by first designing and then making them with inspiration from the book (using natural resources or taking inspiration from the colours and textures described).
Some of the stories in this collection may not be suitable for certain children so as a teacher, this must be considered before reading the book. For example, in one of the stories, a child’s father dies and his mother ends up in a bad relationship. This story may therefore not be suitable to read to a child who has been in a similar situation as it could become quite upsetting for them. KS1 teachers would also have to consider their individual class before reading stories from this collection as some of them may be too complex for young children to fully understand or enjoy.
There are lots of patterns which appear in this book which have strong links to traditional fairy tales. For example, the princess changing from ‘ugly’ to ‘beautiful’ links to the prince changing from a frog to a prince in traditional stories, the princess looking for a prince also links very closely to.
This book would allow for many opportunities for transforming the classroom/reading area to engage the children with the book. For example, the reading area could be made into the tree that the king lived inside while in the forest and misleading paths could be created around the classroom or in the playground.
leonardodicaprisun96's review
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
alicebennett's review against another edition
4.0
This is a captivating book filled with fairytale stories that feel familiar to traditional tales such as Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel and yet, there are new twists and unexpected endings that made me want to keep reading.It falls very much into the fantasy and fairytale genre and would be best for a KS2 class as both a storybook and a vehicle for some lovely writing in Literacy.
I really liked Gavin’s use of beautiful phrases to describe fantastical settings: and the way that the weather was used to capture the feelings and moods of the characters. For example, in ‘’ Gavin describes the sky as This could link to the use of intertextual references in each of the stories, for example ‘Blackberry Blue’ has many similarities to the story of Cinderella and children will recognise these and discuss them. As a teacher I would read the classic fairy tales to them at the same time to show the children the differences and then let them have a go at writing their own ‘twisted’ fairy tales inspired by Gavin’s book.
The use of names for each of the characters in the stories tell the reader a little bit about what kind of person they are before they read the story. For example, the King’s stepson in ‘Blackberry Blue’ is called ‘Wolf’ which immediately implies that he has animalistic traits: “leaped between them”, he likes to: “prowl around the palace” and speaks in a harsh, cutting tone “I command you to come back! He bellowed”. Children could use quotes from the book to compare and contrast the different characters and the way that they are described by Gavin.
One pattern that I noticed was Gavin’s creation of magical creatures and objects, such as Emeka’s squirrel ‘Kuckroo’ who helps Joy remember who she is and rescue her brother from the evil sorcerer ‘Abiteth’, ‘the cat Miskouri’ leads the blind Abu and helps him save his sister Leyla from the terrible ‘Purple Lady’ and the strange golden carp in the lake helps Chi to protect him and his mother from harm.
The fairy tales usually include characters who are brother and sister related by blood or by marriage, such as the opposing princes Wolf and Just in ‘Blackberry Blue’. Children could explore these relationships by finding quotes in the text to describe the characteristics of the two siblings and write diary entries from both points of review to explore the relationships between them.
Every story is also family-orientated and it is something that is highly valued by Gavin as all the ‘heros’ end up either in love or reunited with their family. For example, Princess Night sacrifices herself in the light of the sun so that her human love can live happily with his fiance. Children could discuss whether they would have done the same in each of the characters positions and explore other ways the characters could have saved their loved ones.
Personally, I felt that some of the ‘villain’ characters were only portrayed in the typical ‘bad guy’ way when Gavin could have given them a chance at redemption and show the reader their more human side. With a class, after reading the stories, I would ask them to think about creating new endings to the non-traditional tales with the idea of thinking about why characters such as the terrible ‘Purple Lady’ became to evil. This would be an interesting task and present the opportunity to develop the children’s empathy skills and use to inform their behaviour in future situations. For example, if they have fallen out with a friend in the playground they might try and think about why it happened and how the other person might be feeling to rekindle the friendship.
I would create an inviting display to bring this book to life in my classroom. I would have lots of branches, flowers, animals, fruits and a big play castle in the room to create a sense of a magical place to transport the children to another land. I would try and study this book during the spring time so that we could go out to the woods and pretend to gallop across it on magical horses to spark the children’s imagination for some fantastic creative writing. We would visit a lake and skim stones like Chi does and imagine our hopes and dreams for the future as the pebbles fall.
We could do an exercise in the hall or somewhere with lots of room where the children in pairs could explore what Abu might have experienced when he blindly visited the purple gates in ‘The Purple Lady’. One child would be blindfolded as Abu and the other would be the cat ‘ Miskouri’ leading them carefully around the room. This would help the children understand how Abu felt without his sense of sight, his emotions and what is like to have to rely completely on someone else.
Furthermore, we would collect our own blackberries and make blackberry pies in small groups just like in ‘Blackberry Blue’. I would create some mock-up props, such as a thorny cloak, a large golden carp, ‘Oddboy’s’ enchanted violin and a sorcerer's stick for the children to hot-seat each of the characters to think about their inner feelings and thoughts. We could also do a conscience alley for some of the characters to uncover their emotions in different parts of the story to help the children write some excellent descriptive stories in different perspectives.
The authors Indian heritage is also prevalent in the stories with the names, such as ‘Chi’ and ‘Petamenghi’ and the race of the characters which are usually black or mixed-race. I would teach my class about Indian culture to give them an understanding of the context in the book and further help them compare it to traditional European fairy tales. Gavin’s books also aim to teach children different lessons and values and this can be seen in all the stories, for example, in ‘The Golden Carp’ Chi listens to the teachings of his deceased father and hard-working mother so that he stays pure and unselfish, even when facing hard times and sacrifice.
I really liked Gavin’s use of beautiful phrases to describe fantastical settings: and the way that the weather was used to capture the feelings and moods of the characters. For example, in ‘’ Gavin describes the sky as This could link to the use of intertextual references in each of the stories, for example ‘Blackberry Blue’ has many similarities to the story of Cinderella and children will recognise these and discuss them. As a teacher I would read the classic fairy tales to them at the same time to show the children the differences and then let them have a go at writing their own ‘twisted’ fairy tales inspired by Gavin’s book.
The use of names for each of the characters in the stories tell the reader a little bit about what kind of person they are before they read the story. For example, the King’s stepson in ‘Blackberry Blue’ is called ‘Wolf’ which immediately implies that he has animalistic traits: “leaped between them”, he likes to: “prowl around the palace” and speaks in a harsh, cutting tone “I command you to come back! He bellowed”. Children could use quotes from the book to compare and contrast the different characters and the way that they are described by Gavin.
One pattern that I noticed was Gavin’s creation of magical creatures and objects, such as Emeka’s squirrel ‘Kuckroo’ who helps Joy remember who she is and rescue her brother from the evil sorcerer ‘Abiteth’, ‘the cat Miskouri’ leads the blind Abu and helps him save his sister Leyla from the terrible ‘Purple Lady’ and the strange golden carp in the lake helps Chi to protect him and his mother from harm.
The fairy tales usually include characters who are brother and sister related by blood or by marriage, such as the opposing princes Wolf and Just in ‘Blackberry Blue’. Children could explore these relationships by finding quotes in the text to describe the characteristics of the two siblings and write diary entries from both points of review to explore the relationships between them.
Every story is also family-orientated and it is something that is highly valued by Gavin as all the ‘heros’ end up either in love or reunited with their family. For example, Princess Night sacrifices herself in the light of the sun so that her human love can live happily with his fiance. Children could discuss whether they would have done the same in each of the characters positions and explore other ways the characters could have saved their loved ones.
Personally, I felt that some of the ‘villain’ characters were only portrayed in the typical ‘bad guy’ way when Gavin could have given them a chance at redemption and show the reader their more human side. With a class, after reading the stories, I would ask them to think about creating new endings to the non-traditional tales with the idea of thinking about why characters such as the terrible ‘Purple Lady’ became to evil. This would be an interesting task and present the opportunity to develop the children’s empathy skills and use to inform their behaviour in future situations. For example, if they have fallen out with a friend in the playground they might try and think about why it happened and how the other person might be feeling to rekindle the friendship.
I would create an inviting display to bring this book to life in my classroom. I would have lots of branches, flowers, animals, fruits and a big play castle in the room to create a sense of a magical place to transport the children to another land. I would try and study this book during the spring time so that we could go out to the woods and pretend to gallop across it on magical horses to spark the children’s imagination for some fantastic creative writing. We would visit a lake and skim stones like Chi does and imagine our hopes and dreams for the future as the pebbles fall.
We could do an exercise in the hall or somewhere with lots of room where the children in pairs could explore what Abu might have experienced when he blindly visited the purple gates in ‘The Purple Lady’. One child would be blindfolded as Abu and the other would be the cat ‘ Miskouri’ leading them carefully around the room. This would help the children understand how Abu felt without his sense of sight, his emotions and what is like to have to rely completely on someone else.
Furthermore, we would collect our own blackberries and make blackberry pies in small groups just like in ‘Blackberry Blue’. I would create some mock-up props, such as a thorny cloak, a large golden carp, ‘Oddboy’s’ enchanted violin and a sorcerer's stick for the children to hot-seat each of the characters to think about their inner feelings and thoughts. We could also do a conscience alley for some of the characters to uncover their emotions in different parts of the story to help the children write some excellent descriptive stories in different perspectives.
The authors Indian heritage is also prevalent in the stories with the names, such as ‘Chi’ and ‘Petamenghi’ and the race of the characters which are usually black or mixed-race. I would teach my class about Indian culture to give them an understanding of the context in the book and further help them compare it to traditional European fairy tales. Gavin’s books also aim to teach children different lessons and values and this can be seen in all the stories, for example, in ‘The Golden Carp’ Chi listens to the teachings of his deceased father and hard-working mother so that he stays pure and unselfish, even when facing hard times and sacrifice.
ravynreads's review
5.0
Jamila Gavin has written six beautiful fairy tales that feel as timeless as the genre they represent. Gavin cleverly utilises the familiar tropes of fairy tales and creates six new and welcome additions to the fairy tale canon - my personal favourites being the 'Blackberry Blue' of the title and 'The Night Princess' for sheer ingenuity.
mattobin's review
5.0
A collection of newly written Fairy Tales by Jamila whose themes and characters may, to some extent, seem familiar yet with added twists. Lush illustrations and encourages a re-thinking of those established tales.
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