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A review by kingtess
A Wolf at the Door: And Other Retold Fairy Tales by Ellen Datlow
5.0
I devoured this anthology many times as a kid. It has stayed with me through several moves and life changes. Twenty years later, I thought I would revisit the individual stories afresh to see how they hold up. I tried to stay objective and not allow nostalgia to judge, although I'm still only human.
What I found most interesting upon re-reading was that 1) my tastes as a child were mostly spot-on, and 2) there is an almost startling amount of literary prose that I rarely see in kidlit these days. Masterful sentences abound, such as:
The stories are uneven in tone. Some are funnier, some are grimly serious, some are more fantastical or supernatural, some take place in the past or alternate universes while others are contemporary.
The simplest story, by far, is "Cinder Elephant" by Jane Yolen. It is a straight-forward parody of Cinderella, the shallowness of which is ironic since it is entirely about perception (of bodies).
The two stories I liked the least as a kid, and still think are sub-par in comparison with the rest, are "Ali Baba and the Forty Aliens" by Janeen Webb, and the title story, "A Wolf At The Door" by Tanith Lee. I recall reading them over and over, looking for the joke. I was certain I was missing something. Turns out they're just not very funny. This is especially disappointing since the former is the only story in the anthology based on a non-European tale.
"Mrs. Big" by Michael Cadnum and "Falada" by Nancy Farmer are semi-faithful retellings of Jack and the Beanstalk and The Goose Girl, respectively - except from different points of view. Turns out the giant's wife is fond of word play, and Falada the horse is from Fairyland. These retellings work much better if the reader is familiar with the original stories but are still enjoyable nonetheless.
An entirely faithful retelling is "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" by Patricia A. McKillip. On the surface it adds nothing new to the tale, but lovely prose and plenty of emotional stakes elevate it from mere repetition to a wonderful story in its own right. I didn't give it enough credit as a kid.
"The Seven Stage a Comeback" by Gregory Frost is more of a poem than a story (and was later adapted as a stage play). It depicts the seven dwarves grieving after Snow White goes off with her prince - there are funny lines and deeply moving lines.
"The Months of Manhattan" by Delia Sherman is a bit fluffy, but that isn't a bad thing in fairy tales for children. It is similar to Neil Gaiman's "October in the Chair" (written six years later) in that the months of the year are personified, although when it comes to what fairy tale "The Months of Manhattan" is based on, my guess is "Diamonds and Toads" by Charles Perrault. I love that the "bad" girl of the story gets - and takes! - a shot at redemption.
"The Kingdom of Melting Glances" by Katherine Vaz is, according to the author, a mix of two Portuguese folktales. As a child, I missed about half the themes and symbols because I thought it was too abstract and surreal. As a grown-up, it is still surreal, but very grounded in concrete images. The ending still feels bittersweet.
"Swans" by Kelly Link explores a girl's emotions around her mother's death and her father's remarriage... to a rather strange woman. The girl's observations of her family and life are often funny. The ending is ambiguous (which is characteristic of Ms. Link's work), yet hopeful (which is not).
"Hansel's Eyes" by Garth Nix might be my favorite retelling of Hansel and Gretel. It's the good kind of shivery-scary and the kids are badass by the end. This is the only piece in the whole collection that I wanted - and still want! - expanded into a larger story, hopefully with a sequel.
"Instructions" by Neil Gaiman was my introduction to his work, though I didn't realize this for several years. This poem was later adapted into a picture book, beautifully illustrated by Charles Vess. Not only did I memorize it at one point, I also wrote two poems imitating it. Rereading as an adult, I discovered even more details and insights which delight me.
"Becoming Charise" by Kathe Koja was exactly what I needed to read as a kid. The line "too wild for the smart kids, too smart for the wild kids" resonated more deeply than I realized at the time. The main character, smart and wild and so alone in her school, was almost perfectly designed to help me feel less alone. This is the story I might be the most biased about; I clung to its message like my sanity depended on it. It is not based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Ugly Duckling" so much as referential to it: Charise does not turn into a swan, but she understands the metaphor of it. The journey, difficult or smooth, matters less than the person on the journey. The point is to be your true self.
There are so many beautiful, poignant, funny, memorable stories in this anthology. I just wish I could say they were all wonderful, instead of merely most.
What I found most interesting upon re-reading was that 1) my tastes as a child were mostly spot-on, and 2) there is an almost startling amount of literary prose that I rarely see in kidlit these days. Masterful sentences abound, such as:
The hurt was the same, a dark, dry ache not in her center but deeper, as if she were a kind of funnel, and the emptiness before the bottom was part of the hurting, too.
(from "Becoming Charise" by Kathe Koja)
The stories are uneven in tone. Some are funnier, some are grimly serious, some are more fantastical or supernatural, some take place in the past or alternate universes while others are contemporary.
The simplest story, by far, is "Cinder Elephant" by Jane Yolen. It is a straight-forward parody of Cinderella, the shallowness of which is ironic since it is entirely about perception (of bodies).
The two stories I liked the least as a kid, and still think are sub-par in comparison with the rest, are "Ali Baba and the Forty Aliens" by Janeen Webb, and the title story, "A Wolf At The Door" by Tanith Lee. I recall reading them over and over, looking for the joke. I was certain I was missing something. Turns out they're just not very funny. This is especially disappointing since the former is the only story in the anthology based on a non-European tale.
Spoiler
Also, the moral of The Forty Aliens is "it's okay to be a horrible brat so long as there is someone worse nearby to catch consequences for you." I'm not a fan."Mrs. Big" by Michael Cadnum and "Falada" by Nancy Farmer are semi-faithful retellings of Jack and the Beanstalk and The Goose Girl, respectively - except from different points of view. Turns out the giant's wife is fond of word play, and Falada the horse is from Fairyland. These retellings work much better if the reader is familiar with the original stories but are still enjoyable nonetheless.
An entirely faithful retelling is "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" by Patricia A. McKillip. On the surface it adds nothing new to the tale, but lovely prose and plenty of emotional stakes elevate it from mere repetition to a wonderful story in its own right. I didn't give it enough credit as a kid.
"The Seven Stage a Comeback" by Gregory Frost is more of a poem than a story (and was later adapted as a stage play). It depicts the seven dwarves grieving after Snow White goes off with her prince - there are funny lines and deeply moving lines.
"The Months of Manhattan" by Delia Sherman is a bit fluffy, but that isn't a bad thing in fairy tales for children. It is similar to Neil Gaiman's "October in the Chair" (written six years later) in that the months of the year are personified, although when it comes to what fairy tale "The Months of Manhattan" is based on, my guess is "Diamonds and Toads" by Charles Perrault. I love that the "bad" girl of the story gets - and takes! - a shot at redemption.
"The Kingdom of Melting Glances" by Katherine Vaz is, according to the author, a mix of two Portuguese folktales. As a child, I missed about half the themes and symbols because I thought it was too abstract and surreal. As a grown-up, it is still surreal, but very grounded in concrete images. The ending still feels bittersweet.
"Swans" by Kelly Link explores a girl's emotions around her mother's death and her father's remarriage... to a rather strange woman. The girl's observations of her family and life are often funny. The ending is ambiguous (which is characteristic of Ms. Link's work), yet hopeful (which is not).
"Hansel's Eyes" by Garth Nix might be my favorite retelling of Hansel and Gretel. It's the good kind of shivery-scary and the kids are badass by the end. This is the only piece in the whole collection that I wanted - and still want! - expanded into a larger story, hopefully with a sequel.
"Instructions" by Neil Gaiman was my introduction to his work, though I didn't realize this for several years. This poem was later adapted into a picture book, beautifully illustrated by Charles Vess. Not only did I memorize it at one point, I also wrote two poems imitating it. Rereading as an adult, I discovered even more details and insights which delight me.
"Becoming Charise" by Kathe Koja was exactly what I needed to read as a kid. The line "too wild for the smart kids, too smart for the wild kids" resonated more deeply than I realized at the time. The main character, smart and wild and so alone in her school, was almost perfectly designed to help me feel less alone. This is the story I might be the most biased about; I clung to its message like my sanity depended on it. It is not based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Ugly Duckling" so much as referential to it: Charise does not turn into a swan, but she understands the metaphor of it. The journey, difficult or smooth, matters less than the person on the journey. The point is to be your true self.
There are so many beautiful, poignant, funny, memorable stories in this anthology. I just wish I could say they were all wonderful, instead of merely most.