Retold Fairytales: Books

      I have always loved fairytales and folktales. The fun thing about fairytales is that since they are fictional stories with clouded histories, these stories not just one unique story. Each fairytale has analogues, it has similar stories, and it has retellings. While I do really like fleshed out versions of fairytales that stick to the original pretty well, I also love to read or watch new tellings of each story because it's amazing to see how one basic idea can turn into so many different kinds of stories while still keeping the spirit of the original in some way. Cinderella, which needs a lot of discussion, has been retold countless times, and therefore I have reserved a blog post just for Cinderella movies that I've personally seen.

     All of these are clean YA novels that were written in the last 20-40 years. (Well, I haven't actually read all of the last one-- but the first three definitely are.)


The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl).  I can't get over how excited I am that Hale wrote about *such* an obscure Grimm story. There is some romance in this book, but most of the story is more about the main character's struggles and personal growth. It's whimsical, but kind of "scary" at times. It's not as fluffy as I expected it to be. But I really did love this book. Hale stuck pretty closely to the original story while adding a lot on her own, and in a way that to me seemed pretty seamless-- no easy feat!!!

Princess of the Midnight Ball, by Jessica Day George (12 Dancing Princesses).  There is a little bit of anti-clericism/ anti-organized-religion-sentiment, which I didn't appreciate, but it wasn't bad enough that I felt I shouldn't read it. If that makes sense.

The Enchanted Sonata, by Heather Dixon (The Nutcracker, also The Pied Piper)

Spindle's End, by Robin McKinley (Sleeping Beauty- I have only just started this one)

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