Top 5 Sunday: Re-Told Fairytales

 

Hello! This week on Larissa's Bookish Life, they picked a theme I suggested! Re-Told Fairytales. :) I really, really love re-told fairytales. They make me very happy. Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order.

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier, a re-telling of the Wild Swans, my favorite fairytale of all time. This book is just beautifully written wonderful in so many ways.

Deerskin by Robin McKinley, a re-telling of Allerleirauh, another one of my favorite fairytales, and also one of the less common ones. This is a really dark story, but also very beautiful.

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, a re-telling of, shocker, the Goose Girl, another more obscure fairytale. This one's more kid-friendly than the previous two books on my list, and a lot of fun.

The Once Upon a Time series of YA books published by Simon & Shuster. These are short and sweet re-tellings of a variety of fairytales and legends, including Wild Orchid by Cameron Dokey (the Ballad of Hua Mulan), The Storyteller's Daughter by Cameron Dokey (Scheherezade), Water Song by Suzanne Weyn (the Frog Prince), etc.

Born of Silence by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Ok, so this one is not technically a fairytale re-telling, or at least, it isn't advertised as such. Still, I am convinced that the author was thinking of both Beauty and the Beast and the tale of Eros and Psyche when she wrote it. Really. Read the two stories, then read the novel and tell me you don't see the similarities.

Aaaaand....Because I read so many fairytales, I can't stop at 5. I must add more, such as:

Cinder by Marissa Meyer & Sequels. Cyberpunk fairytales = awesome.

Five Hundred Kingdoms series by Mercedes Lackey; a fantasy world where the characters are forced to live by fairytale rules and sometimes twist them to their advantage.

Entwined by Heather Dixon, a lovely re-telling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses.

Seven Daughters and Seven Sons by Barbara Cohen and Bahija Lovejoy. This is a folktale rather than fairytale, but I love it so much that I'm counting it anyway.

Everything by Alex Flinn (loved Beastly) Jane Nickerson, Melanie Dickerson, Jessica Day George...I could keep going, but I'm already cheating enough as it is. :)

                      Lieder Madchen

Book Review #36 Cloaked by Alex Flinn

Cloaked
by Alex Flinn

Genre: YA Fantasy / Fairy-Tale Re-Telling
Ages: 12 and up

Johnny Marco is a good boy, since his dad left he has worked hard as a shoe-repairman and has done his best to take care of his mother. However, like all seventeen-year-old boys, he dreams of something more. When a beautiful princess comes to him for aid, he jumps at the chance. She offers him her hand in marriage if he will rescue her brother, who has been turned into a frog by an evil witch. Johnny finds himself drawn into a strange world of magic and danger. He encounters talking animals, giants, scorpions, and all manner of Floridians. When it comes down to romance, though, is it really the princess he wants? Or is it his oldest friend Meg who works at the coffee counter?
Alex Flinn takes a very creative stance to several fairy-tales, a stance that is immensely entertaining. I loved the wide variety of different stories and characters, Princess Victoriana and her amphibian brother are delightfully shallow but with good hearts. Johnny and Meg are such nice, almost normal teenagers that I can easily imagine meeting them in the street. Cloaked has a brilliant cast of very human characters (even the ones that are temporarily animals). I also loved all of the fun shoe quotes, I had never realized that there were so many quotes involving footwear!

There is no language in this book.

I rate this novel a 1.10 for sexuality because of some mild innuendo.

There are several scenes of violence, but none that are too nasty, so I give it a 3.10.

                             Lieder Madchen