Csenge Virág Zalka's Blog, page 84

The Turnip Princess is here and it's great

So, remember that one Guardian article from 2012 that some people still post on your Facebook wall every other week? It's titled "Five hundred new fairy tales discovered in Germany!" Well, good news: the much-awaited English translation is finally here!
...
Well, actually, a bilingual German-English volume has been out since last year, but the new book, titled The Turnip Princess, adds another

The best time-travel TV show you are probably not watching this season

Eat your heart out, Ichabod Crane.

Following the resounding success of Spain's high-profile, three-season historical TV show Isabel (also available on Hulu now), Spanish TV has once again gone and done it: This week sees the premiere of a brand new series that ambitiously encompasses the entirety of Spanish history through time travel. And damn do they do it right.



El Ministerio del Tiempo (

Announce your A to Z theme with us on March 23rd!

Announcing the Great and Powerful A to Z Theme Reveal Blogfest!

Sign-ups for the 2015 A to Z Blogging Challenge are already under way. If you have done it before, you know how much fun it is (good for you!) and if you have not, this is your chance to give it a try! You can sign up to participate here.

One of the most burning questions participants ask themselves every year is: "Should I

Storyteller's Review: Fairest by Marissa Meyer, and the nature of fairy tale images

Confession up front: I am a great fan of the Lunar Chronicles. Fandom, in general, does not need to be justified. However, as a scholar of popular culture and storytelling, I felt like writing about the latest installment in the series: Fairest.

Fairest is actually a prequel, but I wouldn't recommend reading it before the other volumes - it really lives within the context of the series, and

Do you wanna build a snowman?... Or be a minion for the A to Z Challenge?

Sign-ups for the April A to Z Challenge have started (see below), and that means, the host team is getting busy! Since I am a co-host this year for the first time, it also means that I get to recruit my own minions volunteer helper team.

I'm super excited! I was a minion last year, and look at me now. Suddenly I have all of these new things I get to do.
A lot of new things.

Which is why I

Join the 2015 A to Z Blogging Challenge!

It is that time of the year again! I have participated in the A to Z challenge for the past three years, and it is always tons of fun. This year, I am one of the co-hosts. If you blog (or always wanted to blog) join us!


Please read and follow the sign-up instructions outlined below so you sign onto the list correctly!

The brainchild of Arlee Bird, at Tossing it Out, the A to Z Challenge is

2014 - The year in books

It's that magical time of the year again: Time to look at my Goodreads list and see what all I consumed over the course of 2014. The challenge I set for myself was 52 books (one per week) - not counting school readings and an industrial amount of comics, I still made it by this week. Here are some of the highlights:

Something old, something new
Cress, the next installment of the Lunar Chronicles

Journey to the Sun - A story and a call

Today is the Winter Solstice, and wile it is apparently not the longest night on Earth, it is definitely going to be very long. To celebrate the turning of darkness and light, I decided to post one of my ever favorite folktales here. I have always been fascinated with stories that talk about bringing light to the world, and ending eternal darkness. This time of the year (especially in Ohio, heh

Cuentos Los Silos - Stories for Everyone

Los Silos is an incredibly diverse festival, with the participation of pretty much the entire town, as well as people from all over the island, and (in my case) all over the world. I was impressed by how well it all fit together, and how seamlessly it incorporated events for all ages and all tastes. 2014 was the 19th year of the festival, and the practice definitely bore fruit.
Instead of a

Cuentos Los Silos - Storytelling Festival on Tenerife

This one might have been my most adventurous storytelling job yet.
Definitely one of the best.

I was invited to the Festival Internacional del cuento de Los Silos (Los Silos International Storytelling Festival) almost a year ago. My first reaction was to look it up on the Internet; I have been to festival in Spain before, but this one I was not familiar with. Turns out it takes place in a town