New twists on old tales

Fairy tales, myths and legends are rewritten: some seen through a different character's eyes, others with modern-day settings--all will give a new perspective on these old stories.

This booklist was contributed by Appleton Public Library Reference and Information Services Staff, 12/06 

Happily ever after? Modern versions of fairy tales

• Red Rider's hood by Neal Shusterman (2005)
After learning that there are werewolves in his city, a sixteen-year-old is even more surprised to discover the identities of the hunters who drove them out decades earlier, but he soon infiltrates the Wolves gang to help destroy them for good.
• Beauty sleep by Cameron Dokey (2002)
Aurore, a young tomboy of a princess, embarks on a dangerous journey alongside a prince, only to find a curse activated upon her the moment she attempts to rescue him in a battle. Their mutual love proves the key to her own salvation.
• Birdwing by Rafe Martin (2005)
Prince Ardwin, known as Birdwing, the youngest of six brothers turned into swans by their stepmother, is unable to complete the transformation back into human form, so he undertakes a journey to discover whether his feathered arm will be a curse or a blessing to him.
• Bound by Donna Jo Napoli (2004)
In a novel based on Chinese Cinderella tales, fourteen-year-old stepchild Xing-Xing endures a life of neglect and servitude, as her stepmother cruelly mutilates her own child's feet so that she alone might marry well.
• Breath by Donna Jo Napoli (2005, c2003)
Elaborates on the tale of "The Pied Piper," told from the point of view of a boy who is too ill to keep up when a piper spirits away the healthy children of a plague-ridden town after being cheated out of full payment for ridding Hameln of rats.
• Cinderella 2000: looking back-- by Mavis Jukes (2001)
Fourteen-year-old Ashley has her heart set on spending New Year's Eve 1999 at an exclusive country club party with an Almost Boyfriend, but her plan is endangered by her stepmother and two bratty stepsisters.
• Duckling ugly by Neal Shusterman (2006)
When sixteen-year-old Cara, a girl ugly enough to break mirrors, is drawn to a place where everyone can be beautiful, her deepest desire is to return home to say goodbye--and get revenge.
• East by Edith Pattou (2005)
A young woman journeys to a distant castle on the back of a great white bear who is the victim of a cruel enchantment.
• Ella enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (1997)
In this novel based on the story of Cinderella, Ella struggles against the childhood curse that forces her to obey any order given to her.
• Fairest by Gail Carson Levine (2006)
In a land where beauty and singing are valued above all else, Aza eventually comes to reconcile her unconventional appearance and her magical voice, and learns to accept herself for who she truly is.
• Goose chase: a novel by Patrice Kindl (2001)
Rather than marry a cruel king or a seemingly dim-witted prince, an enchanted goose girl endures imprisonment, capture by several ogresses, and other dangers, before learning exactly who she is.
• The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale (2003)
On her way to marry a prince she's never met, Princess Anidori is betrayed by her guards and her lady-in-waiting and must become a goose girl to survive until she can reveal her true identity and reclaim the crown that is rightfully hers. Sequel to Enna Burning.
• Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix (1999)
In this continuation of the Cinderella story, fifteen-year-old Ella finds that accepting Prince Charming's proposal ensnares her in a suffocating tangle of palace rules and royal etiquette, so she plots to escape.
• A knot in the grain and other stories by Robin McKinley (1994)
Lily. A woman with power to heal, but no powers of speech. Then she meets a mage---a man who can hear the words she forms only in her mind. Will he help her find her voice? Ruen. A princess whose uncle leaves her deep in a cave to die at the hands of a stagman. But when she meets the stagman at last, Ruendiscovers fatehas a few surprises in store for her. Erana, As a baby, she is taken be a witch in return for the healing herbs her father stole from the witch's garden. Raised alongsidethe witch's troll son, Erana learns that love comes in many forms. Coral. A beautiful young newcomerwho catches the eye of an older widowed farmer. He can't believe his good fortune when Coral consents to be his wife. But then the doubts set in---what is it that draws Coral to Butter Hill?
• Little Red Riding Hood in the big bad city (2004)
Seventeen classic fairy tales are made enchantingly modern by some of today's hottest science fiction and fantasy authors, who set these tales in urban surroundings. Authors include Tanya Huff, Jean Rabe, Jody Lynn Nye, and Michelle West.
• The magic circle by Donna Jo Napoli (1993)
After learning sorcery to become a healer, a good-hearted woman is turned into a witch by evil spirits and she fights their power until her encounter with Hansel and Gretel years later.
• Mira, mirror by Mette Ivie Harrison (2004)
Long after the disappearance of Snow White's stepmother, the witch trapped in her mirror manipulates a desperate peasant and a merchant's daughter to seek the magic she needs to gain her freedom, but the girls show her a power far greater.
• Pay the piper by Jane Yolen (2005)
When Callie interviews the band, Brass Rat, for her school newspaper, her feelings are ambivalent, but when all the children of Northampton begin to disappear on Halloween, she knows where the dangerous search must begin.
• The Phoenix dance by Dia Calhoun (2005)
Phoenix Dance battles an illness of her mind and emotions, realizes her dream of becoming shoemaker to the Royal Household, and attempts to discover what magic compels the twelve princesses of Windward to wear out their shoes each night. Based on the the fairy tale "The twelve dancing princesses."
• The princess bride : S. Morgenstern's classic tale of true love and high adventure by William Goldman (1998)
Now a cult classic, this story of pirates, evil princes, sorcerers, and, most importantly, true love is handsomely repackaged in a commemorative 25th anniversary hardcover.
• The rose and the beast : fairy tales retold by Francesca Lia Block (2000)
Nine classic fairy tales set in modern, magical landscapes and retold with a twist.
• The runaway princess by Kate Coombs (2006)
Fifteen-year-old Princess Meg uses magic and her wits to rescue a baby dragon and escape the unwanted attentions of princes hoping to gain her hand in marriage through a contest arranged by her father, the king.
• The sea of trolls by Nancy Farmer (2004)
After Jack becomes apprenticed to a Druid bard, he and his little sister Lucy are captured by Viking Berserkers and taken to the home of King Ivar the Boneless and his half-troll queen, leading Jack to undertake a vital quest to Jotunheim, home of the trolls.
• Snow by Tracy Lynn (2003)
Based upon the classic fairy tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, this retelling presents teen readers with a heroine who is not the stuff of fairy tales and legends. Born in a Welsh fiefdom, a young Snow flees her stepmother and arrives in London, where she is immediately rescued by a band of outcasts.
• Spindle's end by Robin McKinley (2000)
The infant princess Briar Rose is cursed on her name day by Pernicia, an evil fairy, and then whisked away by a young fairy to be raised in a remote part of a magical country, unaware of her real identity and hidden from Pernicia's vengeful powers.
• The tale of paradise lost by Nancy Willard (2004)
Now another poet, Newbery Award winner Nancy Willard, retells Milton's astonishing poem in a prose adaptation that faithfully captures his vivid imagery and cinematic flourish. Thrilling, gorgeous, suspenseful, and yes, even funny -- here is the tale of Lucifer's rebellion, the war between Heaven and Hell, the creation of the world, and the temptation and fall of Adam and Eve.
• Troll Bridge : a rock 'n' roll fairy tale by Jane Yolen (2006)
Sixteen-year-old harpist prodigy Moira is transported to a strange and mystical wilderness, where she finds herself in the middle of a deadly struggle between a magical fox and a monstrous troll.
• Truly grim tales by Priscilla Galloway (1995)
A guilt-ridden prince with a foot fetish seeking his glass-slippered dance partner and a beauty contest winner as Snow White's murderous stepmother are featured in two of the original "grim" plots in this young adult collection loosely based on eight traditional fairy tales.
• Twelve impossible things before breakfast : stories by Jane Yolen (1997)
Features the Nebula Award-winning novella "Lost Girls." In these modern myths and tales for the young and the young at hear, Jane Yolen transforms the impossible into the familiar and real. Among the outlandish wonders are an Alice grown tough in Wonderland, a dear--but dead--mother's homecoming, a bridge that longs for a goat-eating troll, and a mutiny among Peter Pan's troops.
• Water song : a retelling of "The frog prince" by Suzanne Weyn (2006)
• The witch's boy by Michael Gruber (2005)
A grotesque foundling turns against the witch who sacrificed almost everything to raise him when he becomes consumed by the desire for money and revenge against those who have hurt him, but he eventually finds his true heart's desire.
• Zel by Donna Jo Napoli (1996)
Based on the fairy tale Rapunzel, the story is told in alternating chapters from the point of view of Zel, her mother, and the nobleman who pursues her, and delves into the psychological motivations of each of the characters.