Heidi Anne Heiner's Blog, page 101

New Book: The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth

(UK / US links)
The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth was released in the UK earlier this year and somehow I never posted about it. With a cover like this, it deserves its own post even more. Let me show it larger:


Lovely. I am a sucker for silhouette art, which makes the works of Arthur Rackham and Lotte Reininger always a treat for me, too. I would hang this on my office wall in a heartbeat in poster size. Or would love it as an ebook cover.

Forsyth's earlier book, Bitter Greens (UK link), drew upon the history of Rapunzel for inspiration. It also has a gorgeous cover.

(UK / US links)
Alas, neither book has been officially released in the US yet, although it is easy enough to buy the books through third party sellers on Amazon.com and elsewhere. Try The Wild Girl (US link) and Bitter Greens (US link). The books were originally published in Australia and are even more readily available through booksellers in that region but I don't have any links.

Book description for The Wild Child:

Once there were six sisters. The pretty one, the musical one, the clever one, the helpful one, the young one...And then there was the wild one. Dortchen Wild has loved Wilhelm Grimm since she was a young girl. Under the forbidding shadow of her father, the pair meet secretly to piece together a magical fairy tale collection. The story behind the stories of the Brothers Grimm.

And while we're here, a book description for Bitter Greens, too:

Charlotte-Rose de la Force, exiled from the court of King Louis XIV, has always been a great talker and teller of tales. Selena Leonelli, once the exquisite muse of the great Venetian artist Tiziano, is terrified of time. Margherita, trapped in a doorless tower and burdened by tangles of her red-gold hair, must find a way to escape. You may think you know the story of Rapunzel ...

GoldieBlox (and Rosie Revere, Engineer, too)

This site is about how fairy tales appear in the world around us. So it's fun to see more unusual interpretations such as GoldieBlox. No, the toy line has nothing to do with fairy tales, but it plays with a well known fairy tale character to promote engineering education for girls.

The toy line has had controversy of late over a recent promotional video using music from Beastie Boys. No big deal here but it brought the toys to my attention so I would share. Which made it more visible to naysayers saying the toys are not as effective as others at promoting engineering to girls. (See Better Than GoldieBlox) I appreciate the line and its purpose. And if it works for you, use it! Nothing works the same for everyone.

Read an article about the toys at GoldieBlox Demands Change With An Incredible New Music Video by Sarah Barness. More YouTube videos about the toys are here.


While we are here, I will recommend a book I saw presented at the Southern Festival of Books this past October.  Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty (Author) , David Roberts (Illustrator) is a great book at showing an inventive girl, and it is a companion to an earlier book, Iggy Peck, Architect.

Book description:

Rosie may seem quiet during the day, but at night she's a brilliant inventor of gizmos and gadgets who dreams of becoming a great engineer. When her great-great-aunt Rose (Rosie the Riveter) comes for a visit and mentions her one unfinished goal--to fly--Rosie sets to work building a contraption to make her aunt's dream come true. But when her contraption doesn't fl y but rather hovers for a moment and then crashes, Rosie deems the invention a failure. On the contrary, Aunt Rose inisists that Rosie's contraption was a raging success. You can only truly fail, she explains, if you quit.

University Press of Kentucky Ebook Loyalty Program: Jack Zipes Ebooks

On TUMBLR:

Do you own a print copy of a University Press of Kentucky title and wish you had the ebook too? Send us a digital photo of you holding the book to receive the electronic edition for free!

Click on the ABOUT/SUBMIT page to learn more.

From that page:

Here’s how it works:

1) Check the list of eligible books: http://www.kentuckypress.com/live/list_ebooks.php?skip=0&max=25 (400+ available and counting).

2) SUBMIT your photo by using the form below (available on page).
*Please make sure that the title of your book is clearly visible, AND include an email address with your submission for ebook file delivery*

3) Receive a complimentary PDF edition of your book within 7–10 business days

Here are instructions for loading your ebook onto your reader: http://ebooksbridge.com/www/ebb/index...

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: This offer is available only for eligible titles and only to individual customers who own print copies of University Press of Kentucky books. Businesses and institutions may not participate. Altered photos, repeat photos, and photos taken in stores where books are sold or in libraries will not be accepted. Only one ebook will be issued per print book. The Press reserves the right to a) deny submissions that appear to violate these terms and conditions at its discretion, b) post and use any photos submitted in any future press promotional materials, and c) discontinue or change the ebook loyalty program at any time.

They don't have many fairy tale titles, but they do have two by Jack Zipes. If you own either Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales or Fairy Tale as Myth/Myth as Fairy Tale (Clark Lectures), you may get free ebook versions by using the loyalty program.

What Did You Think of Frozen? Some Thoughts and Links

When you have a three year old niece and lots of doting women in her life, you make a sojourn to the movie theatre over a long holiday weekend and see Frozen. At least you do if you're me and also want to see if there are any of the Snow Queen references promised by Disney; Gypsy said they said so in her post.

And other than perhaps some wintry visuals, no, the story doesn't resemble The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. I missed those references. Did you, too? Deathly ice in the heart is about all I can come up with from a simple analysis. And an ice castle. Yes, there's a reindeer, too, but that is a brittle rubberband stretch to call that a reference to Snow Queen. It will snap and bite you if you really try to use it.

That is not a criticism. Disney is what Disney is and I'm not going there today. As always, I have an admitted love/hate relationship with them which I state honestly and then move on.

But this is a fairy tale blog that espouses the original tales and their modern reinterpretations. Frozen barely qualifies a mention here under those circumstances.

Visually, the film is beautiful. I've claimed my strong Norwegian heritage before and the film definitely channels that environment. The ice is gorgeous. One of my favorite scenes is actually the opening with the ice cutters working and singing. One of the grandmothers who attended the film with me didn't like it because it was too dark. I thought it was one of Disney's lighter films--there is nothing overly menacing with the villain barely a villain, very ineffectual--and an abominable snow monster is the biggest "scare" in the film visually. Maleficient would disperse him in .2 seconds. My own mother (another grandmother, but, shhh, she's Nana) enjoyed the blues and ice imagery throughout. She also is Norwegian--half making my quarter, so she appreciated that artistry.

As for the story, it was fine, but there are weak points if you think too hard--such as how Elsa can't control her powers for her entire life and is suddenly doing wonderful things with them as soon as she runs away, including turning into Dolly Parton (as one lost Twitter commenter said). Never mind the need for secrets and such way past their usefulness. But the ending is definitely about girl power and there aren't romantic resolutions for everyone involved which may comfort some parents who care about those things. In fact, they will probably appreciate the diss on "love at first site" the film offers. But one in our little group was disappointed that Elsa didn't get a man, too. And how her kingdom adores her so quickly after being afraid of her--witchcraft!--is another avenue to avoid exploring in the plot analysis if you want to be generous.

Maria Tatar also has offered up a fine collection of links about the film on Breezes in Wonderland at Fire and Ice at the Box Office.

And my niece? She loved Elsa and spent days after the film throwing imaginary ice magic around her. Anna, the film's primary heroine, didn't even phase her. Forget saving the day, she wants to build an ice castle with a wave of her hand.

Overall, it's entertaining and I anticipate a big hit here for Disney. Which may mean more fairy tale films despite previous promises otherwise. I was entertained. I will watch it again someday.

And, my only really big complaint, despite whatever tone this post may have, is that there was a FULL HALF HOUR of previews in front of the movie. Our advertised start time was 2:50. The film actually started at 3:20. AARGHHH! With some scary trailers, including for Maleficient with a theatre full of many, many kids under the age of six. My niece, who is currently a PRINCESS and loves Disney and their movies, was restless and ready to go before it ended. She wanted to get up and play and come back and finish it later. Because she was forced to sit way too long by the marketing machine. The film itself would not have been too long. She wasn't fussy and was enjoying it, but it wasn't engrossing quite enough to sit for well over two hours. Our time in our seats was about 2.5 hours, long for even most adults. I remember the same problem when we saw Tangled at its release.

It's That Time of Year...For a "Best of 2013" Fairy Tales List!

It has started and I am determined to do it this year, but I need your help. Please help me create a SurLaLune Best Fairy Tale Books of 2013!

This blog post will start the process. Nominate a book--or several--by posting to the blog, Twitter, Facebook, or emailing me directly.

I'll keep a tally and share the results in two weeks. I can't list all of the choices here--and I am probably missing a few--but the best lists of 2013 releases I have can be found here:

Fairy Tale Influenced Fiction 2013 Part 1

Fairy Tale Influenced Fiction 2013 Part 2

Fairy Tale and Folklore Nonfiction 2013

Fairy Tale Picture Books 2013

To get the ball rolling, I will share some of the books that have already appeared on other "Best of 2013 Lists." That gets these titles nominated, so feel free to nominate more or vote for these.


Far Far Away by Tom McNeal appears on the Publishers Weekly's Best Children's Books of 2013 Fiction List.


Little Red Writing by Joan Holub and The Girl of the Wish Garden: A Thumbelina Story by Uma Krishnaswami and East of the Sun, West of the Moon by Jackie Morris appear on the Kirkus Best Children's Books of 2013 list.


Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles) by Marissa Meyer and Far Far Away by Tom McNeal appear on Amazon's Best Books of the Year 2013: Teen & Young Adult.

So what are your picks? And don't leave out the nonfiction either!

Eastward of the Sun, and Westward of the Moon

from FAIRY TALES FROM ALL NATIONS by ANTHONY R. MONTALBA with twenty-four illustrations by RICHARD DOYLE
"East of the Sun and West of the Moon" was collected and recorded by the renowned Norwegian folklorists, Peter Christen Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe. They published it around 1845 in one of their first collections of tales. The tale had been previously popular in Scandinavian countries and then gained popularity in the United Kingdom and United states after the first English translation appeared in FAIRY TALES FROM ALL NATIONS (1949) by ANTHONY R. MONTALBA with twenty-four illustrations by RICHARD DOYLE. The tale of the title was given as "Eastward of the Sun, and Westward of the Moon."

That also makes the above illustration one of the earliest illustrations for the tale by Richard Doyle. Doyle also illustrated Grimms and other fairy imagery for which he is most famous, from what is considered his masterpiece, In Fairyland, a series of Pictures from the Elf World. You will have seen his work previously if you have looked at antique fairy images to any degree. (And he was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's uncle!)

I'm so happy that title has been simplified over the years with other translations. Eastward and westward are perhaps more poetic but they can also be clunky in a fairy tale title already longer than most.

The tale today is perhaps the best known and most loved of all the ATU 425A The Animal as Bridegroom group of tales. The tale has many variants around Europe and is much older than the 1845 publication date, but exact dates for the Norwegian iterations, as always, are elusive.

I think this week I will focus on ATU 425A tales with extra posts on East of the Sun and West of the Moon publications since there are some great ones out there with beautiful illustrations.

And, as always, the tale and many like it appear in Beauty and the Beast Tales From Around the World.

Bargain Ebook: The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani for $2.99

If you've been waiting to acquire The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani (Author), Iacopo Bruno (Illustrator)--one of the top reviewed fairy tale books of 2013--you're in luck for waiting. The ebook has been dropped to $2.99 in price as part of the December Monthly Deals: Kindle Books for $3.99 or Less. There are several fantasy titles in the list as well but only this book is directly fairy tales related. But you can also pick up If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino (novelist and folklore contributor) for $2.99 and Stardust by Neil Gaiman for $1.99.


Back to our original title though, the sequel--The School for Good and Evil #2: A World without Princes--is coming in April 2014. It is currently $9.68 in ebook as a preorder which has been the average price for The School for Good and Evil until today's price drop.

Also, while we are here talking about book shopping, today is your last chance to get up to $10 off (30% off with $10 cap) on a paper non-ebook title from Amazon. Read the details here.

Book description for The School for Good and Evil:

At the School for Good and Evil, failing your fairy tale is not an option.

Welcome to the School for Good and Evil, where best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

With her glass slippers and devotion to good deeds, Sophie knows she'll earn top marks at the School for Good and join the ranks of past students like Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Snow White. Meanwhile, Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks and wicked black cat, seems a natural fit for the villains in the School for Evil.

The two girls soon find their fortunes reversed—Sophie's dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School for Good, thrust among handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.

But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are . . . ?

The School for Good and Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one.

30% Off Up to $10 off a SurLaLune Book (Or Another Book) at Amazon: Limited Time Only

Have you been wanting one of the SurLaLune Fairy Tale tomes but have been stopped by the price? Well, you can get one of the books for up to 30% off ($10 limit) with a rare Amazon coupon code.

And of course, it doesn't have to be a SurLaLune Fairy Tales title--you can use the coupon on any book for sale by Amazon, no third party sellers included in the coupon. Really, use this coupon because I don't remember ever seeing one like this on Amazon before. It doesn't have to be on a SurLaLune title, obviously. I already own the SurLaLune titles so I'm going through my wishlist looking for a book in the $30+ range to use this coupon on.

Here are the details:

Take an extra 30% off any book offered by Amazon.com from now until December 1st. Enter code BOOKDEAL at checkout. Here's how (restrictions apply). Here's how.

Terms & Conditions

▪ The promotion is valid for a limited time only, from November 27, 2013 at 9pm PST to December 1, 2013 at 11:59pm PST. Amazon reserves the right to modify or cancel this offer at any time.
▪ Offer only applies to products sold and shipped by Amazon.com.
▪ Limit one promotional code per customer and account.
▪ The maximum benefit you may receive from this offer is $10.
▪ Offer good while supplies last.
▪ Offer is non-transferable and may not be resold.
▪ The offer discount will be allocated to the highest priced book in your order.
▪ If any of the products or content related to this promotion are returned, the value of the offer will be subtracted from your return credit.
▪ This promotion may not be combined with other offers, including promotional certificates.
▪ Items must be purchased in a single order and shipped at the same speed to a single address.
▪ If you violate any of the Terms & Conditions, the promotion will be invalid.
▪ Void where prohibited.
▪ Shipping charges may apply to discounted and free promotional items.
▪ Offer does not apply to Amazon Gift Cards.

Amazon.com Widgets

The Fairy Serpent: A Chinese Beauty and the Beast Tale

Today is another serpent beast in an ATU 425C Beauty and the Beast tale. This time the tale is from China and is titled, "The Fairy Serpent." I think this is the last of the snakes in ATU 425C found in Beauty and the Beast Tales From Around the World, unless I have forgotten to post about one. I will have to double check, but as you can see, if the beast is not a beast/monster, it is most often a snake/serpent in these tales.

ONCE there was a man who had three daughters, of whom he was devotedly fond. They were skillful in embroidery, and every day on his way home from work he gathered some flowers for them to use as patterns. One day when he found no flowers along his route homeward he went into the woods to look for wild blossoms, and he unwittingly invaded the domain of a fairy serpent that coiled around him, held him tightly, and railed at him for having entered his garden. The man excused himself, saying that he came merely to get a few flowers for his daughters, who would be sorely disappointed were he to go home without his usual gift to them. The snake asked him the number, the names, and the ages of his daughters and then refused to let him go unless he promised one of them in marriage to him. The poor man tried every argument he could think of to induce the snake to release him upon easier terms, but the reptile would accept no other ransom. At last the father, dreading greater evil for his daughters should they be deprived of his protection, gave the required promise and went home. He could eat no supper, however, for he knew the power of fairies to afflict those who offend them, and he was full of anxiety concerning the misfortunes that would overwhelm his whole family should the contract be disregarded.

The tale is an obviously ATU 425C tale although it has some interesting variations. The one I find most intriguing are the wasps that come to press the girl into leaving her home after she has made the promise to marry the fairy serpent.

The tale can be read on the SurLaLune site and it also appears as one of the very many tales in Beauty and the Beast Tales From Around the World

Amazon.com Widgets

New Book: Reading, Translating, Rewriting: Angela Carter's Translational Poetics by Martine Hennard Dutheil de la Rochère

Reading, Translating, Rewriting: Angela Carter's Translational Poetics (Series in Fairy-Tale Studies) by Martine Hennard Dutheil de la Rochère is the third November release from Wayne State University Press in their Series in Fairy-Tale Studies. As anyone knows who has been reading about fairy tales for a while, Angela Carter is one of the most popular subjects for modern literary fairy tale scholarship. Carter both translated and rewrote fairy tales and is embraced, deservedly so, by the literary realm of academia as well as folklorists. Carter's The Bloody Chamber is essential fairy tale reading once you reach an acceptable age for it. It is not literature suitable for the preteen and below set, perhaps not even some teenagers I know.


If you read this book, you will want to be familiar with both The Bloody Chamber: And Other Stories (Penguin Ink) and Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Other Classic Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault (Penguin Classics). I also recommend Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales while we are here, but it's not as much of a companion to this study as the other two books. The Book of Fairy Tales is out of print in the US but is easily found used in this edition or earlier ones usually under the Virago Fairy Tales title. I've owned a few editions of it over the years.

It is not out of print in the UK, by the way, where Carter's books are usually nurtured by their publishers longer than in the US, since she is dear to them. Here are UK covers with links and they are fascinatingly different from the US ones, especially the Perrault:


Book description:

In translating Charles Perrault's seventeenth-century Histoires ou contes du temps passé, avec des Moralités into English, Angela Carter worked to modernize the language and message of the tales before rewriting many of them for her own famous collection of fairy tales for adults, The Bloody Chamber, published two years later. In Reading, Translating, Rewriting: Angela Carter's Translational Poetics, author Martine Hennard Dutheil de la Rochère delves into Carter's The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault (1977) to illustrate that this translation project had a significant impact on Carter's own writing practice. Hennard combines close analyses of both texts with an attention to Carter's active role in the translation and composition process to explore this previously unstudied aspect of Carter's work. She further uncovers the role of female fairy-tale writers and folktales associated with the Grimms' Kinder- und Hausmärchen in the rewriting process, unlocking new doors to The Bloody Chamber.

Hennard begins by considering the editorial evolution of The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault from 1977 to the present day, as Perrault's tales have been rediscovered and repurposed. In the chapters that follow, she examines specific linkages between Carter's Perrault translation and The Bloody Chamber, including targeted analysis of the stories of Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss-in-Boots, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. Hennard demonstrates how, even before The Bloody Chamber, Carter intervened in the fairy-tale debate of the late 1970s by reclaiming Perrault for feminist readers when she discovered that the morals of his worldly tales lent themselves to her own materialist and feminist goals. Hennard argues that The Bloody Chamber can therefore be seen as the continuation of and counterpoint to The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, as it explores the potential of the familiar stories for alternative retellings.

While the critical consensus reads into Carter an imperative to subvert classic fairy tales, the book shows that Carter valued in Perrault a practical educator as well as a proto-folklorist and went on to respond to more hidden aspects of his texts in her rewritings. Reading, Translating, Rewriting is informative reading for students and teachers of fairy-tale studies and translation studies.

Martine Hennard Dutheil de la Rochère is professor of English and comparative literature at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Her most recent book is Des Fata aux fées: regards croisés de l'Antiquité à nos jours.

I received a review copy of this book, but I haven't had time to do more than crack it open briefly. Each chapter is devoted to a different fairy tale that Carter both translated and rewrote from Perrault, so it is useful for those wanting to write a paper on a single Carter story, such as The Company of Wolves or The Tiger's Bride, two common favorites for analysis, along with The Bloody Chamber itself.