Goldilocks and the Three Bears by James Marshall

Goldilocks and the Three Bears by James Marshall received a Caldecott Honor Medal and stays in print although we unfortunately lost Marshall several years ago. The continuing popularity of his fairy tales and George and Martha books and Space Case and many others helps. I love the humor of Marshall's books but Goldilocks is my favorite because she is simply so bratty and the bears are so wonderful that I fall in love with them every time I read the book. I love that it hearkens back to the earliest versions of the tale in which the bears are the victims of an intruding hag. Love!

The illustrations are funny and the retellings by Marshall are modern and humorous. They are so fun to read aloud, too. I own all of his fairy tales in my personal library and often use them to read with savvy kids who always fall in love with them. Many others agree with me, many of them have been made into short Scholastic films, too: Red Riding Hood... And More James Marshall Fairy Tale Favorites (Scholastic Video Collection) and Treasury of 25 Storybook Classics: Fairytales, Magic... and More! (Scholastic Storybook Treasures).

Here are images of some of the first pages:

Although it is so tempting to share Marshall's books all week, I won't. So here are some of his other fairy tale books:

  

 

 

Beastly, Red Riding Hood, and some Enchanted, Inc, too.

Mnemosynehime has started a discussion of Beastly and Red Riding Hood on the SurLaLune Discussion Board. (Thanks, Mnemosynehime!) I haven't seen either movie yet, so I am far from qualified. Both have done adequately well at the box office although I am sure the studios are rather disappointed with both.

One of my favorite reviews of it is a casual one by author Shanna Swendson on her blog. She didn't write about Red Riding Hood, but she went to see Beastly and shares insight into the differences between the novel and movie--not as a criticism as much as a comparison/contrast.

Here's part of her post, but do click through and read it all:

The movie also left out my favorite aspect of the book, though I'm not sure how they would have conveyed that on film. In the book, the guy first decides to try meeting someone online, since then no one will know what he looks like. As in the Disney version, he has a magic mirror that allows him to see anyone he wants, and he uses it to get a look at the people he's chatting with online. Thematically, it shows that he's still shallow and rather hypocritical, since he's expecting them not to care what he looks like but he wants to see what they look like. But then, hilariously, he finds that almost no one on the Internet claiming to be a teenage girl really is a teenage girl, as he discovers that he's chatting with people like dirty old man pedophiles, cops trying to catch pedophiles, pre-teen boys pulling pranks or middle-aged women. And then there's the online support group for people who have been transformed magically, including the frog who has trouble typing with his flippers. But that didn't make it into the movie because I guess they were going with more of the Twilight teen angst approach, so there were lots of scenes of the guy looking longingly at the girl while a moody pop song played. I will say that it was one of the healthier relationships I've seen portrayed in this kind of thing, with only a tiny bit of stalking. But I'd generally say to save this one for HBO viewing, unless you're with a group of snarky friends and you have a theater to yourselves during an early matinee.

If you are looking for some light fantasy reading, do try Beastly if you haven't. And I am amused by how much EVERYONE commments on how he isn't really that Beastly in appearance in the movie, rather punk rock if anything. It really does hinder the story, doesn't it? We like pretty, but our definition of it is perhaps wider than ever in history as a culture.

Or try one of Shanna's books, the first in her Enchanted, Inc. series is quite fun: Enchanted, Inc. (Katie Chandler, Book 1) I've been disappointed they haven't done quite well enough--or been sorted into the best marketing genre--to achieve a fifth book to at least conclude the series. There are definitely fairy tale tropes--that enchanted frog just isn't a cover illustration. Best yet, these are suitable for adults and young adults who are wary of overly graphic content.

   

Tiptree Honors : Things I Know About Fairy Tales by Roxanne Gay and Ash by Malinda Lo

The short fiction work, Things I Know About Fairy Tales by Roxane Gay, also received a Tiptree Honor. Actually, it was on an addition to the honor list, a “long list” of additional works they found worthy of attention.

This story available to read online and here are the first few paragraphs to whet your appetite:

When I was very young, my mother told me that she didn’t believe in fairy tales. They were, she liked to say, lessons dressed in fancy clothes. She preferred to excise the princesses and villains and instead concerned herself with the moral of the story.

Once upon a time, not long ago, I was kidnapped and held captive for thirteen days. Shortly after I was freed, my mother told me there was nothing to be learned from what had happened to me. She told me to forget the entire incident because there was no moral to the story.

Little Red Riding Hood didn’t see the danger she was facing until it was too late. She thought she was safe. She trusted. And then, she wasn’t safe at all.

On the same list was the novel, Ash by Malinda Lo.

'Baba Yaga Laid an Egg' Wins 2010 Tiptree Award

The James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award Council is pleased to announce that the 2010 Tiptree Award is being given to Baba Yaga Laid an Egg, by Dubravka Ugresic (Canongate, 2010).

Baba Yaga Laid an Egg impressed with its power and its grace. Tiptree juror Jessa Crispin explains that the beginning of the book “does not scream science fiction or fantasy. It starts quietly, with a meditation on the author’s aging mother, and the invisibility of the older woman…. But things shift wholly in the second act, with a surreal little tale of three old ladies, newly moneyed, who check into an Eastern European health spa. There’s another revolution in the third act, where what looks like a scholarly examination of the Russian fairy tale hag erupts into a rallying cry for mistreated and invisible women everywhere.”

Crispin notes that the fairy tale figure Baba Yaga is the witch, the hag, the inappropriate wild woman, the marginalized and the despised. She represents inappropriateness, wilderness, and confusion. “She’s appropriate material for Ugresic, who was forced into exile from Croatia for her political beliefs. The jurors feel Baba Yaga Laid an Egg is a splendid representation of this type of woman, so cut out of today’s culture.”

Paul Galdone's Fairy Tales and More

  

With today's entry on Galdone, I decided to share an article making the media rounds about the hardcover reprinting of Galdone's work. It's a very informative article and I will share the first paragraphs, but click through to read it all.  I am also providing covers and links to the releases of this month by Galdone, but several more are coming. The article also analyzes the illustrations and can make you more of a fan of Galdone if you read it.

From Paul Galdone's illustrations refresh four fairy tales by Karen MacPherson at Scripps:

Even as a child, Paul Galdone knew he would be an artist: drawing was his life. But it wasn't until he was in his mid-40s that Galdone illustrated his first children's book and launched a career that would ensure his artistic legacy.

From 1951 until his death in 1986 at age 79, the prolific Galdone illustrated and/or wrote more than 300 children's books, many of them classics that have become favorites for several generations of young readers. Two books that he illustrated, "Anatole" and "Anatole and the Cat" -- both written by Eve Titus -- won Caldecott Honors, given to the best illustrated children's books in a particular year.

But Galdone may be best remembered for his versions of traditional folk tales aimed at the picture-book crowd. Most of these books have never gone out of print, and now four of them have just been beautifully republished by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in a new "Folk Tale Classics" line: "The Three Bears," "The Three Little Pigs," "Three Little Kittens" and "The Little Red Hen."

Each book costs $8.99 -- a bargain considering both how nicely they are presented (with gold-foil accents on the covers) and what classics they are. The stories are ones that every child should know, and Galdone's versions add energy and comedy to these traditional tales.

 

These will be released in September: