Leaping Beauty: And Other Animal Fairy Tales
by Gregory Maguire
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 187)
Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
Fairy tale fans/humor lovers
This book was hysterical. Though at first I thought it was for children, there are a quite a few adult themes to be found. Gregory Maguire puts his own spin on several famous fairy tales, using modern themes and animals to tell the story. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs becomes So What and the Seven Giraffes, in which So What is an obnoxious chimp who's gorilla stepmother is angry because her magic mirror tells her that the chimp is stronger than she is.
Other parodied fairy tales include Sl...more
Other parodied fairy tales include Sl...more
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Read in January, 2008
If it was possible to give something no stars, this collection of short stories would receive it. Ugh! Complete and utter crap. The retellings are unimaginative, the dialogue stilted and bland and too often stereo-typical - especially in the way Maguire reads them. Utterly awful and not worth even two seconds of reading or listening time. I attempted to listen to this on Audiobook. I made it through two and a half stories before running screaming away from the thing.
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Read in January, 2008
My daughter and I are reading this together. She is learning to revise her own writings in school. I thought this book could help show her a different view to an old story. An added bonus is it is charming. Here is an example,"The tadpole was as green as the slime in a vernal pond, and the bumps on her skin had bumps of their own. The king and queen decided to call her Beauty, as she was the most beautiful thing they had ever seen."
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Read in March, 2008
A collection of fractured fairy tales by the author of Wicked. My favorite was Rumplesnakeskin. Silly, fun, and creative, but lacked the depth of other retellings. Maybe because all of the main characters were animals, but the stories just didn't speak to me that way that Donna Jo Napoli's do.
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
Parents bed reading for kids
This was a cute book of short stories. I'm normally not in to the short story but I will be reading this one to owen. It as Mcguire is, a different take on the standard stories. I enjoyed them yet they aren't something I'll need to read again until its time to read these to Owen.
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Read in April, 2007
recommends it for:
people who haven't outgrown fairytales
Gregory Maguire certainly has a way with fairy tales. I've read all his adult books and liked them all...with the exception of Lost, and this kids book full of short stories is highly adorable and clever.
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Read in May, 2008
Cute retellings of fairy tales with (mostly) animal characters. There are enough sly references that, even as a jaded adult, I found myself grinning and snickering.
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Darker than Gail Carson Levine's princess tale series, but just as interesting to see the reworkings of familiar fairy tales.
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Adorable! Especially liked the new version of Hansel and Gretel: "Hamster and Gerbil" where the witch's cottage is made of pet food.
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Read in January, 2007
This just sort of fell into my hands just after seeing Wicked the musical in Dec. I had to read it. Great kid writing! FUN!
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Very cute, creative, amusing twists on standard fairy tales. I found it as entertaining as my friend's 5-year-old did.
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Read in September, 2007
Some of these reimaginings of fairy tales are cute, but they're definitely for kids.
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