The back cover of this book describes:

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale:
1. Make the villain a hero.
2. Make the hero a villain.
3. Tell what really happened.
4. All of the above.

Vande Velde does just this with 13 of the best-known fairy tales, transforming familiar (but sometimes puzzling) stories into something quite new. Often the tale is turned around, looked at from another point of view, and given a new, surprise ending. Traditional happy endings become wistful lessons-learned. Laughs, romance, and horror turn up in unexpected places. And youthful minds, by processing the stories they know in a new way, may be exercised in their own creativity. It's a success all around!

First, as the miller's daughter is forced to spin Straw into Gold, we get to reconsider who really is the monster of the tale. Next, in Frog, a transformed prince learns more from his encounter with a spoiled princess than she does. A short verse titled All Points Bulletin puts the crimes of Goldilocks in proportion. Tick, tick, tick, down go your preconceived notions of Red Riding Hood, the Pied Piper, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel. The Billy Goats Gruff is a surprisingly faithful retelling of the well-known tale - until the very end. In Rated PG-13, Vande Velde throws out a list of synopses of "fairy-tale endings you are not likely to see," though I think Jasper Fforde may have picked up on one of them. The Princess and the Pea becomes a cautionary tale; Hansel and Gretel a Village of the Damned chiller; and at last, after briefly reconsidering the motivations of Cinderella's stepmother, Vande Velde wraps things up with an otherwise faithful rendition of Beauty and the Beast told from the Beast's point of view.

I have enjoyed some of Vande Velde's books, and several other authors' collections of "fractured fairy tales," but so far I think this is the one that may please children best. It renews my interest in reading further works by this author, including A Hidden Magic, A Well-Timed Enchantment, Magic Can Be Murder, and Heir Apparent.

Robbie Fischer
USA

Recommended Age: 9+

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