retellings

(Cybils 2012) Fairy Tales

Published on November 4, 2012 | Leave a response

I love reading my son fairy tales. I particularly love fairy tales retold. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszkca (1989) was a favorite of mine when I was a kid. I love hearing a familiar story from some other characters point of view! Also, my own son has gone through his own love-phase with one fairy tale in particular, the Goldilocks and the Three Bears story. So of course the fairy tale books on the Cybils 2012 list have simply called out to me. (more…)

The Goldilocks Project: Memorable Retellings

Published on May 9, 2011 | 2 Responses

I’ve found that these retellings are more fun to read, sometimes, than the original. It goes to show that if you want your fairy tale picture book to stand out, you have to do something different to the story.

Stay tuned! Once I’m done talking books, Raisin has a puppet show for you!

Which picture book retellings have I missed? Have you read any of these?

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The Goldilocks Project: The Traditional Story

Published on May 6, 2011 | 5 Responses

The story of Goldilocks and her visit to an unoccupied house of three bears has inspired a plethora of picture books, retellings, and rewritten accounts of the story. Robert Southey first recorded the folkloric story in an 1834 collection. (See Wikipedia for a rundown of the story’s history and reincarnations).

As I mentioned when I signed up for the Once Upon a Time Challenge, Raisin loves the Three Bears story. In his honor and for the OUAT challenge, I decided to search out some of the best three bears stories to share with you. I have read at least 25 picture books for this project; below are those that I found that are memorable either for the story or the illustrations, with a listing of some of the other, less memorable ones. This is post one of two.

I think it should be noted that these are my preferences and Raisin’s preferences. I also have not read each one to Raisin. I think he was starting to get burned out of Three Bears stories!

There are so very many versions out there. If you want to find your favorites, this list and the cover images on it may give you a good idea of which illustration style works for you.

Which of these have you read? Which stories of The Three Bears are your favorites? Why?

Tomorrow, I’ll have a few more all time favorite retellings. Those are more distant for the traditional story, but I’m finding I like those a lot. It’s so refreshing after all of these. (more…)

Kids’ Corner: Fairy Tale Caldecotts and More Miscellany

Published on January 14, 2011 | 8 Responses

Today, I’m using the opportunity of not having any other reviews written to share thoughts on kid’s books I reviewed a long time ago and never posted. Some of these are ones my son loved; others he was too young for at the time we read them and we will probably visit them again in the future. (more…)

Six-Word Reviews (Plus a Little More)

Published on September 10, 2010 | 13 Responses

I went through a summer children’s and YA binge during my blogging break. These books did not take long to read, and I read them for the pure entertainment value. They also are not ones that I’ll remember for long, although they were enjoyable. It may be that I am not thinking much of them because I was in a not-thinking-much mood; after all, these were my breaks from Victorian literature.

If you are looking for a light fantasy read to fit a craving, maybe one of these will bit the bill.

I share brief thoughts below on the following books: