Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2013

This is slightly off topic but still somewhat relevant since one of SurLaLune's primary audiences is students. Their teachers are another primary audience.

The Beloit College Mindset List for has been published every year since 1998, since the year I started SurLaLune as a grad student as a matter of fact. The list for the Class of 2013 is now available and I wanted to share the link here.

Of particular interest here for me are:

4. They have never used a card catalog to find a book.

34. They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen.

Many of the items on the list were never a large part of my life or part of my awareness either, but the list still reminds me of the differences we face with each generation's experiences.

I might add that the Disney version of Belle and Beast surrounded by objects singing "Be My Guest" have always existed for this group, too. We might argue that all of the Disney fairy tales have always existed in their minds although Aladdin was released when they were only a year old or less. (Well, some will argue for Mulan released in 1998, but that isn't as much fairy tale as folk legend IMHO and doesn't receive the same of kind of Disney princesses treatment.)

And as yet another year of students accustomed to using the internet first for research, SurLaLune hopes to assist that work with reliable, helpful and well-organized information this school year, too.

Sleeping in the Enchanted Forest

Now this bed would never work in my current home, but I would love the opportunity to at least sleep in it and dream fairy tale dreams. (The skull over the bed would HAVE to go first though. I once tried to fall asleep under a mounted deer head and absolutely failed.)

The bed was designed and apparently already sold by Attila Design so someone gets to sleep in it, just not me. I found this via LA Wedding Trends Examiner by Ilane Foo. Attila Designs has some other slightly fairy tale influenced work, but nothing else was as stunning as this.

Dragon*Con Appearance this weekend

If you are attending Dragon*Con in Atlanta this weekend, I will be one of the guests on the panel for a discussion of Faeries and Fairy Tales.

Saturday, 09/05/09 08:30 PM

Faeries and Fairy Tales

Something old, something new, something borrowed and something Blue Fairy? What bits of mythology, folklore, and fairy tales are in stories today?

Guests: Susan Fichtelberg, Maggie Stiefvater, Gillian Summers (Berta Platas & Michelle Roper), Steve Berman and Heidi Anne Heiner

Stop by if you are there and I will report on the panel here when I get a chance for those who won't be there.

Ash by Malinda Lo

The internet is buzzing with the newest fairy tale novel for young adults released this week, Ash by Malinda Lo. I haven't had the opportunity to read it yet and probably won't for a while since this past week's illness has put me way behind on my own deadlines.

Ash is somewhat different since it is to my knowledge the first novel length fairy tale redaction marketed to young adults in which the heroine enters a lesbian relationship. There will be controversy which this blog doesn't intend to enter. Keep it nice in the comments, folks. I will delete incendiary stuff because in the end, I am queen of this little domain which I intend to keep neutral. (Between this and Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels, it's been a busy year for controversial envelope pushing in YA fairy tale novels.) Of course, Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue already visited this territory several years ago in 1997 with a collection of short stories, but once again, this is the first mainstream full length YA novel.

Publisher's Weekly had a brief review of the book on their site which will eventually appear on Amazon, too, I imagine. Here it is since you have to page down to find it on the brief reviews page:

This debut, a retelling of Cinderella in which the heroine falls in love with a beautiful huntress rather than a prince, should establish Lo as a gifted storyteller. Aisling, aka Ash, is newly orphaned, her beloved mother dead and her father soon to follow. But not before he marries the woman who plays the part of Ash's wicked stepmother and provides her with equally unkind stepsisters. Only Ash's periodic trips into a fairy-filled wood at night and time spent with the beguiling huntress Kaisa—who enthralls Ash more and more—save her from her oppressive new existence. Lo's prose is beautiful, her descriptions lush; the novel's one flaw is that the third-person narrative keeps readers at arm's length. The dialogue is sparse, with Lo spending most of her time on narration, making it difficult to connect emotionally with Ash. This aside, Lo offers an important twist on a classic story that will appeal to a wide readership, especially those looking for a girl romance. Ages 15–up.

Once Upon a Blog has already posted about this book earlier this week and provided great links to a sample chapter and Lo's blog.

That said, I think the cover is one of the best ever for a Cinderella book and I doubt it's an accident since it resembles the cover of the first book of another bestselling series...at first glance it does which is all that is needed for a second glance.

The Fairest

I admit my entire purpose for posting this is that I fell in love with the logo, pictured above. But it still counts as fairy tale related and I'll loosely categorize it under advertising, fashion and makeup, too. The logo is for a new site that I stumbled across. Here's a quote from All Lacquered Up blog's description of the site which was the best I found with a quick search to learn what this was all about:

If you're a fan of sample sale sites like Gilt, Ideeli and HauteLook you may have wondered when a beauty focused version would come along. Well wonder no more because launching today is The Fairest! With prices up to 75% off of retail, The Fairest brings you some of the biggest names in beauty at drastically low prices via their limited time sales events.

There's also an accompanying blog, Who's the Fairest? I love the logo (very Rackhamesque) and the referencing to Snow White.

In the News: The Economics of Fairy Tales

Don't miss The Economics of Fairy Tales by economist Edward L. Glaeser in The New York Times today. He actually discusses fairy tales, not just using the term loosely in a pop culture sense. Short, fun and a little insightful. The topic would also make a great jumping point for a term paper...

The first paragraph....

If you are an economics-minded parent of young children, like me, then you may also have spent long hours wondering how to teach economics to your toddlers. Luckily, much-loved children stories can be made far more delightful with a healthy dose of supply-and-demand charts. Many such tales already include their own hidden economic messages that only need to be exposed to bring edification and enjoyment to the under-5 set.

On that note, I'm still recovering from illness but I have much more to post in the coming days and weeks...

Lauren Child's Goldilocks and the Three Bears

This week, the Wall Street Journal reviewed Lauren Child's latest fairy tale interpretation, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, giving it high marks which I never doubted anyway.

Now I am big fan of Lauren Child, whether she is having fun with fairy tales or otherwise. I own most of her Charlie and Lola books and DVDs, I admit. ("I have this little sister, Lola. She's small and very funny.") So in other words, I rather adore Child's work. Charlie is my hero and Lola, well, I wish I had been more like her as a child except that I adore tomatoes and always have. I'm an oldest, so I am more like Charlie. Anyway, back to the fairy tales.


I haven't seen the new picture book yet, but I know I will acquire it soon. It will be very hard to be disappointed in it, so I'm not worried. After all, I already own the others including The Princess and the Pea, Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book?, and Beware Of The Storybook Wolves. (Which is almost out of print stateside! No!)


All of these books have humor that thrills children and keeps their adults equally entertained. From the prose to the clever illustrations using collages of photography, drawings and other media, these are always great books.


So really, start your Christmas list early or go ahead and get these for your favorite child now, if you don't have them yet, even if that child is you because I can't praise them enough. The biggest complaint is that the design and font choices makes the text somewhat harder to read for beginning readers and sometimes for the first read through for adults. They are not the easiest books for a large storytime audience. But they are worth it.

And if we buy them, she will create more. It's a win-win all around.

Copenhagen’s ‘Little Mermaid’ will swim to Shanghai

According to the LA Times, Copenhagen’s ‘Little Mermaid’ will swim to Shanghai next year, so you will have to go to Shanghai instead of Copenhagen to see the statue. That's a very generous exchange.

“The Little Mermaid” statue, sculpted by Edvard Erichsen and inspired by a fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen, has been the symbol of Copenhagen since she was placed in the harbor in 1913. But don’t look for her there from April to November of next year because she’s going to Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

The beloved statue will grace the Mermaid Pool in the Danish Pavilion during the Shanghai world event while a sculpture by a Chinese artist stands in for her in Copenhagen.

Little Bits of Randomness

I've been hit by the flu train and am not very coherent at the moment. So I'm going to just offer a few links today without much exposition. (I ended up with more than I intended.) Then I plan to go imitate the above painting to the best of my ability for the rest of the day.

First, Anne Fine has responded to the brouhaha over her comments about hope in childern's literature that I used as a jumping point last week for another post. Her letter to the Times is here. My thoughts have mirrored hers many times. I do not think grittiness or realism should be avoided--I wouldn't embrace fairy tales if I did--but I prefer a sense of hope to pervade at some point.

One of the greatest ironies of my life is the pop culture definition of "fairy tale" versus the reality. Just do a news search to see that fairy tale in general means a fantasy, happy story while the real ones, the tales that have been around for centuries tend to be about horrible things happening until the final paragraph when good triumphs over evil. And not always--just usually and in the most popular tales. I grow weary at times of trying to explain to casual acquaintances that I work with fairy tales. Folklore is a little more acceptable. "Fairy tales" as a term gives the impression that I eat dainty little pink cupcakes, dance around in rainbow shimmery tulle skirts and wish I inhabited Never Never Land. It's enough to make one claim bookkeeping so that eyes will go dull and rapidly move on to the next topic. :)

Next, please don't miss Once Upon a Blog's Science of Fairy Tales series. I'm enjoying it and wishing I'd thought of it myself. I've always loved the debunking of movie physics in classes and on tv. (Doesn't hurt that I started out as a physics major long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away.)

Also, Diamonds and Toads: Enchanted Conversation has an interview with Jack Zipes. Don't miss that either.

Finally, the nail polish giveaway has ended. The results on the contest machine box are WRONG. I used Random.org to select winners throughout the month until the end of the contest due to the limitations of the contest application. I will announce a new giveaway for September tomorrow, so stay tuned. This one will be open internationally as promised.