A review by ljrinaldi
Brave Red, Smart Frog: A New Book of Old Tales by Emily Jenkins

3.0

This is an interesting, but not terribly novel, retelling of fairy and folk tales. Like the author, I took classes on the oral tradition of story telling, and thus, like the author, I am well aware, as she points out in her afterward, that these stories were told, and retold, and tweaked with each new telling.

And that is all very well and good, but don't go reading this and hoping for a new, novel view of these classic tales of Little Read Riding Hood, or the Frog Prince, or, Snow White. There is some inside, and humor thrown in, but, as Jenkins points out, it is not her goal to add anything modern to the stories, just to explain some things, such as why step-mothers were cruel, or why fathers were thoughtless.

You might enjoy reading these. I found, although the humor was cute, that I grew boarded with how little she ended up changing things.


Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.