The dark forest of childhood - The Boston Globe
This article from Laurel Snyder gave me goosebumps. I'm reading her "Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains" w/ my daughter right now. The jury is still out for me as to whether I like the new trend of taking old fairy tales and updating them for a teen audience. I was never a huge fairy tale fan to begin with. I think it can be done very well, but like anything, too much of a good thing isn't always a good thing.
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4 comments:
They do seem to be overdone - especially Cinderella. But I enjoy it if there is a totally new modern twist that surprises me.
I agree with Laura. But there have been plenty I haven't enjoyed. Of course right now the main one I'm thinking of, I can't pull up the name.
Everyone I know is doing something funny with a fairy tale. Okay, not everyone. But you know. It's big right now. And some are really excellent. And, funnily enough, I'm not referring to any published authors. Just unpubbed friends. But, I agree that Cinderella is a bit overdone.
I think one of the first fairy tale retellings I read was Enchantment by Orson Scott Card (http://www.hatrack.com/osc/books/enchantment.shtml) - he's wonderful (read Ender's Game if you haven't). But I think while you think it might be easier to tell a story that's been told before, you have to be really careful to add something new.
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