iristhefae's review
3.0
I have mixed feelings on this book. I love it for introducing me to some fairy-tales from Poland (where my family is from), but I do feel that there are better versions of these stories out there. There are only a few tales within this book, but they are fun to read and discover. They feel cut down quite a bit to be more suitable for children; however, that doesn't make these fairy-tales any less sweet.
The biggest issue I ran into is, even with keeping in mind that these are cut down for children, they aren't retold in a way that feels cohesive. For example, in "About The Hedgehog Who Became Prince," there's dialogue that doesn't serve any purpose being there. In another story, "Krencipal And Krencipalka," it's frustratingly repetitive for four straight pages and has moments that don't make any sense.
With that in mind, I did find the last few fairy-tales within this book to be really great despite them still having some of these flaws. "The Lark, The Wolf, And The Fox" was my favorite of them all, showing just how sneaky and clever a couple of these animals can be. Another favorite was "The Jester Who Fooled A King," which is a fun little tale about a Jester and his wife finding a way to gain money to survive.
Overall, while reading this was frustrating at times, I still had fun learning of some different fairy-tales from Polish culture. Some of them really suffered from the flaws of this book, but others managed to shine through despite that. It has, also, inspired me to do even more research into fairy-tales from Poland to see what other stories await me.
The biggest issue I ran into is, even with keeping in mind that these are cut down for children, they aren't retold in a way that feels cohesive. For example, in "About The Hedgehog Who Became Prince," there's dialogue that doesn't serve any purpose being there. In another story, "Krencipal And Krencipalka," it's frustratingly repetitive for four straight pages and has moments that don't make any sense.
With that in mind, I did find the last few fairy-tales within this book to be really great despite them still having some of these flaws. "The Lark, The Wolf, And The Fox" was my favorite of them all, showing just how sneaky and clever a couple of these animals can be. Another favorite was "The Jester Who Fooled A King," which is a fun little tale about a Jester and his wife finding a way to gain money to survive.
Overall, while reading this was frustrating at times, I still had fun learning of some different fairy-tales from Polish culture. Some of them really suffered from the flaws of this book, but others managed to shine through despite that. It has, also, inspired me to do even more research into fairy-tales from Poland to see what other stories await me.
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