It’s no secret that I love fairy tales and am endlessly fascinated by how they inspire other people’s creative work. I enjoy many retellings, but these are my top 5 (I also include movies in this list):
Beauty by Robin McKinley
Richly detailed, with a strong, scholarly protagonist, this upper MG/YA retelling of Beauty & the Beast is on my keeper shelf (and I’m waiting patiently for my daughter to grow into it).
Disney’s Tangled
I was unimpressed after seeing the trailer, but I ended up LOVING the movie. I adore Rapunzel’s sunniness, determination, vulnerability, and innocence. Mother Gothel is a great (evil-great, that is) villain, and Flynn a very different kind of “prince”.
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
A clever and fun take on the Cinderella story.
In spite of a few cheesy moments, this Cinderella retelling gets a thumbs-up for grounding the story in a historical context.
“Stronger Than Time” by Patricia C. Wrede
This beautiful, melancholy retelling of Sleeping Beauty never ceases to make my heart ache. You can read this short story in the anthology, Book of Enchantments.
What are your favorite fairy tale retellings?
Also, check out my favorite fairy tale picture books here.
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean is one of my favourites. Beauty by Robin McKinley is also gorgeous.
Oh, I haven’t read Tam Lin. I’ll have to check it out. 🙂
I love Tam Lin, too. It’s a good re-read when I’m in the mood for knights in theater class. (It’s set on an American college campus in the 20th century, but still is closer to fairy tales than most urban fantasy in tone.) {Smile}
Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
I just put a hold on Tam Lin at the library. Thanks for the recommendation, Anne & Ravven!
I told my grdntmoaher how you helped. She said, “bake them a cake!”
I haven’t heard of the last one on your list, but I LOVED all the others. I will have to read BOOK OF ENCHANTMENTS now. 😉
“Stronger Than Time” is the only fairy tale retelling in that collection, but there are a lot of other fun magical stories in it.
I have the blu rays for Ella Enchanted and Ever After. Are the others in book form only?
Probably my all time favourite movie is Drew Barrymore’s Ever After. Absolutely love it!
Thanks Rabia for giving me some more books/movies to find.
I’m quite sure that there’s no movie adaptation of Beauty, though I would happily watch it if there was one!
I too am a MASSIVE fan of Ever After. Definitely one of my favourites. I read Beauty years ago — I think I still have it somewhere — I should check it out again.
I’m currently reading Bitter Greens by Australian author, Kate Forsyth, which is a scholarly take on Rapunzel. Kate took her research back to the roots of the fairytale. If you haven’t already, you should perhaps check it out!
Oh, I think I’ve heard of Bitter Greens. I will definitely go check it out. Let me know what you think of the book after you’ve finished it. 🙂
Books: Ella Enchanted and that book I still can’t find again: I checked out a single-author story collection from the library that opened with the Emperor’s New Clothes with its own take on it where the man reporting on the Emperor was Teller and he adopted a little girl from the street whose names went from Tiler to Tailor to Toiler to Toller to Teller. I loved that book. :le sigh: Can’t seem to find it again though.
Movies: Hm. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. And I think there’s another non-animated one, but I can’t think of it now. If I do, I’ll let you know.
Could the book be Teller of Tales by William Brooke?
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/emperorclothes/themes.html (It’s second from the top)
And the Amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0064405117/
I love you. That’s it.
Woohoo! I love bringing readers and books (back) together (again).
Beauty and the Beast is my next favorite of the Disney fairy tale movies. 🙂