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A review by ceena
How to Fracture a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen, Jane Yolen
3.0
*I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*
Fairy tales!
I absolutely love fairy tales and reading how people retell them or "fracture" them into different versions. I actually picked this book up because I recognized the author's name from picture books (that's just my life as a Children's Librarian), and wanted to see which tales she would pick and how they would be fractured.
I will say I was surprised at how many tales are featured! The last fairy tale type book I read was Language of Thorns which has longer tales, but just a few. This book has a different take with them being more fairy tale-like than full stories. Some make sense, some almost prompt an immediate re-read to more fully understand, and others were just a bit too out there for me.
These are not your children's fairy tales. Some of them are pretty intense. Others you might be able to read to your children but they might not understand the morals or what actually happened in the stories.
Ones I really liked:
Snow in Summer
The Bridge's Complaint
The Moon Ribbon
Happy Dens
One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox, and the Dragon King
Brother Hart
One Old Man, with Seals
Sleeping Ugly
Great-Grandfather Dragon’s Tale
Cinder Elephant
--These tended to be longer ones because that is the style I like.
Most of the stories featured are bittersweet, you've got to realize that going in. There are also fairy tales fractures from outside the Western world, as well as some Jewish ones or takes of tales, which gives it a nice diversity. Honestly, I found myself thinking "wow, why so religious??" then realized how religious some stories are and I just never thought about it before because of my own privilege! Learn something new every day...
After the tales, there is a section with explanations about the tales--either how they came about and/or why they were included. This section includes poems that go along with the tale's theme or as a companion piece. I'm not big on poetry, but some were pretty nice. Just... by the time I hit the poems I was already feeling melancholy. Life is cruel...
Do I recommend this? If you like fairy tales and seeing different versions of them, you should really check this out. I'd also recommend this one to people looking for fairy tale inspired poems.
Fairy tales!
I absolutely love fairy tales and reading how people retell them or "fracture" them into different versions. I actually picked this book up because I recognized the author's name from picture books (that's just my life as a Children's Librarian), and wanted to see which tales she would pick and how they would be fractured.
I will say I was surprised at how many tales are featured! The last fairy tale type book I read was Language of Thorns which has longer tales, but just a few. This book has a different take with them being more fairy tale-like than full stories. Some make sense, some almost prompt an immediate re-read to more fully understand, and others were just a bit too out there for me.
These are not your children's fairy tales. Some of them are pretty intense. Others you might be able to read to your children but they might not understand the morals or what actually happened in the stories.
Ones I really liked:
Snow in Summer
The Bridge's Complaint
The Moon Ribbon
Happy Dens
One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox, and the Dragon King
Brother Hart
One Old Man, with Seals
Sleeping Ugly
Great-Grandfather Dragon’s Tale
Cinder Elephant
--These tended to be longer ones because that is the style I like.
Most of the stories featured are bittersweet, you've got to realize that going in. There are also fairy tales fractures from outside the Western world, as well as some Jewish ones or takes of tales, which gives it a nice diversity. Honestly, I found myself thinking "wow, why so religious??" then realized how religious some stories are and I just never thought about it before because of my own privilege! Learn something new every day...
After the tales, there is a section with explanations about the tales--either how they came about and/or why they were included. This section includes poems that go along with the tale's theme or as a companion piece. I'm not big on poetry, but some were pretty nice. Just... by the time I hit the poems I was already feeling melancholy. Life is cruel...
Do I recommend this? If you like fairy tales and seeing different versions of them, you should really check this out. I'd also recommend this one to people looking for fairy tale inspired poems.