Review Blog

Jan 07 2010

The fairy's return and other princess tales by Gail Carson Levine

HarperCollins, 2009. ISBN 9780061768989
(Ages 8-12) Recommended. Six retellings of fairy stories by the Newbery Honor award winning author of Ella Enchanted are sure to please all those who enjoy fractured fairy tales. Ethelinda tries to reward the good deeds of one girl while punishing her sister, but her plans go terribly wrong in The fairy's mistake, based on the fairy tale Toads and Diamonds. The princess test is a hilarious take on The princess and the pea, where Lorelei is forced to prove that she is good enough for the prince. Sleeping beauty will never be the same once readers have been introduced to a princess who is a genius in Princess Sonora and the long sleep. For Biddle's sake sees the green toothed Parsley turn into a toad although she eventually wins the heart of a prince and all ends well. In The Fairy's return a baker's son and a princess fall in love. My favourite was Cinderellis and the glass hill, where a farm boy rides magnificent magical horses up a glass hill and manages to win the heart of a princess.
These stories are full of humour and the play on words is very entertaining. There are enough elements of the original stories to sound familiar but the new twists make them very enjoyable. This book would be an excellent choice to read aloud when doing a unit of work on Fairy tales or Fractured fairy tales or just to enjoy a good laugh.
Pat Pledger