The Outspoken Princess and the Gentle Knight: A Treasury of Modern Fairy Tales

by Jack D. Zipes

With the '1' in a full number line. A treasury of modern fairy tales by the likes of Hemingway, A.S. Byatt and John Gardner. Pristine, clean and unmarked.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Fairy Tales, Anthologies, Fiction, Cinderella, Childrens

237 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1994

About the author

Jack David Zipes is a retired Professor of German at the University of Minnesota. He has published and lectured extensively on the subject of fairy tales, their linguistic roots, and argued that they have a "socialization function". According to Zipes, fairy tales "serve a meaningful social function, not just for compensation but for revelation: the worlds projected by the best of our fairy tales reveal the gaps between truth and falsehood in our immediate society." His arguments are avowedly based on the neo-Marxist critical theory of the Frankfurt School.

Zipes enjoys using droll titles for his works like Don't Bet on the Prince and The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Ridinghood.

He completed a PhD in comparative literature at Columbia University. Zipes taught at various institutions before heading German language studies at the University of Minnesota. He has retranslation of the complete fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather interesting collection, in particular because Zipes is not hesitant to include stories that are not traditionally happy ever after. He gets bonus points for including a Hemingway short story that is rather commenting on many things (though I think it is interesting that Hemingway wrote about a faithful bull).

There are several stand out stories. The collection starts strong with Catherine Storr's retelling of Red Riding Hood, a story that makes fun not only of stereotypes but also narrative.

The story "The Reluctant Knight" draws too much perhaps on the "Reluctant Dragon", but the story is charming in its own right. Tanith Lee even has a version of "Cinderella". It's a really good story, and showcases Lee's ability to not write like herself. It makes me miss her all the more.

There is a reverse of Beauty and the Beast, where the girl is a beast as well as the story of a princess who sets out to rescue a prince. My favorite story, however, is "The Wrestling Princess" because it is just awesome. A close second is Jane Yolen's (the Andersen of North America) "The White Seal Maid". A. S. Byatt's "Story of the Eldest Princess" is in this volume as well. Zipes did an excellent job pulling both popular fiction and literary fiction for this collection.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Illustrations a little Artsy, as in, not always successfully illustrative or appealing. A few of the stories I have read before (though only by aggressive seeking) such as Petronella and The Dark Princess, and a few just didn't work for me. Still, I highly recommend it for anyone interested in fractured or reimagined, or brand-new, fairy tales. Most are gently satirical and/or feminist. And I wouldn't mind owning a copy to reread, and I will try to find more by the authors, esp. those new to me.

Almost as good as Alison Lurie's The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales, though shorter.

From the introduction I learn that I need to investigate The Mer-Child: A Legend for Children and Other Adults and Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Contributors I esp. need to investigate include Patricia Coombs, Richard Schickel, and Catherine Storr.

[Marquise · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely collection of 15 short stories that are all original fairy tales, but with elements taken from existing ones or sends-up and subversions of fairy tale tropes. Most of them are humorous in tone, but a couple or so are bittersweet.

My favourites were: The Gentle Knight by Richard Schickel, which makes fun of the popular knightly trope of the dragonslayer; The Faithful Bull by Ernest Hemingway, which at first seems like it's going to be a parody of Munro Leaf's "Ferdinand" but that ends up rather different although the message is still serious; The Signal by Jack Sendak, a hilarious story that has some slight nod to "Rapunzel" but that's mostly its own mages & questing girls story; Princess Dahli by Tanith Lee, which is a funny & cute version of "Cinderella" sans magic and with a comical ending; Molly Mullet by Patricia Coombs, a gender-bent take on the smart boy who rides a kingdom of an ogre through his wits instead of brute force; Gudgekin the Thistle Girl by John Gardner, another Cinderella-style story with magic and fairies, and <>The Cat King's Daughter by Lloyd Alexander, about a clever princess who manipulates her father into approving of her heart's choice for husband, and probably my favourite of them all.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun modern collection of fairy tales from some of the big names of fantasy fiction. These tales all challenge some of (but not all) the common underlying themes of the stories that many of us grow up with without losing the flavor of enchantment that makes fairy tales stick with us. I picked up this collection after reading the excellent Uprooted; I was looking for the story The Enchanter's Daughter because Novik mentioned it in her afterward and I was unfamiliar with the tale but was quickly sucked into trying the whole collection.

I particularly enjoyed The Cat-King's Daughter, Dark Princess, Petronella, The Wrestling Princess, and The Enchanter's Daughter, all of which had self aware protagonists who subverted expectations. I wouldn't hesitate to read this out loud with young elementary school-aged children; anyone who's seen a few Disney movies could handle and enjoy this collection. Although older children and teens may understand more of the underlying messages explicitly, part of the power of reading to young children is the way they absorb subtext. Recommended for fans of fairy tales and modern retellings.

Rating by story:
Polly Riding Hood - 3 stars
The Gentle Knight - 4 stars
Faithful Bull - 2 stars
The Signal - 4 stars
Princess Dahli - 4 stars
Molly Mullet - 4 stars
Thistle Girl - 4 stars
The Cat-King's Daughter - 5 stars
White Seal Maid - 4 stars
Dark Princess - 5 stars
Petronella - 5 stars
Wrestling Princess - 5 stars
The Enchanter's Daughter - 5 stars
The Eldest Princess - 4 stars
Outspoken Princess - 4 stars

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wolf attempts to act out Little Polly Riding Hood and get frustrated when the modern world has no intention of following the script. Catherine Storr's story of neighbors in New York City wasn't so much a fairy tale as it was an example of fairy tales being taken too literally. The wolf's version of the story ends with the animal eating Grandma and Little Red and he likes the idea so much that he makes the mistake of learning the wrong lesson, i.e. following little girls to their grandmother's house and pretending to be granny will get you a full tummy vs. being sneaky and clever will get you a full tummy. It's a cute novelty piece, but I'm mostly interested in the idea of a character who doesn't understand the morals fairy tales teach. Instead the wolf throws tantrums and blames his failures on Polly's refusal to follow his desired plot when she takes the subway to grandma's instead of walking through the woods, or goes in a car with the whole family, or shows up at a different time of day.

The Gentle Knight by Richard Schickel tell the story of Frederick the Fierce, a ridiculed knight who goes off to prove himself by killing the monster terrifying his serfs. The story's one of the less well written ones. Either the climax comes much too early (about a third of the way in) or the story just doesn't know how to end itself. The last two thirds could have been cut and the story finished with an open ending and it would have been much cleaner.

Ferdinand wasn’t the only bull to have a story written of his time in the fighting ring, but though his gentleness was rewarded not every virtue leads to a happy end. Ernest Hemingway's story of The Faithful Bull takes Ferdinand in an opposite and more realistic direction, complete with a surprising downer ending. It was enjoyable and charming with a sudden twist.

A renowned but superstitious genius is waiting for The Signal (by Jack Sendak) to say he should accept the crown, and a young girl just wants her hair to stop growing. A cute story of a girl who saves the boy and gets a royal reward, but despite the decent plot it's hard to get into when the people of the genius's town are all pretty scatterbrained. Is the boy really a genius, or is he only one by comparison?

Poor Princess Dahli is sent to her uncle to have her coming out, but instead finds she was actually brought on to be free labor for her ugly cousins. She's a kind girl and minds her manners, but the Cinderella act lasts a day before she recognizes the need to put her foot down. A very enjoyable Cinderella reversal, Tanith Lee's story was funny and provided the dose of comeuppance I always love seeing in the rare telling where everyone gets what they deserve. My only issue is actually with the included illustration. The name Princess Dahli brings to mind an Indian princess, and the narrative calls her beautiful, but the artwork makes her look like a dishevelled rag doll complete with huge Nellie Olsen-style barrel curls. (UPDATE 7 YEARS LATER: PRINCESS DOLLY!!!!!)

Patricia Coombs' Molly Mullett goes on an adventure to prove her worth to her sexist father, but even after her success she finds it was only the first victory she’d have to win to get the respect she deserves. While the story is strange in that it has her sent on two tasks instead of the traditional three, and it feels rather unfinished because of it, I was enamoured with this story for the use of the animal companion. A raven/crow (blackbird) follows her around and helps her figure out the tricks needed to get where she needs to go, but it doesn't speak and manages to help in ways that would be true to a real raven's nature. They're intelligent animals with notable problem solving skills. When Molly can't figure something out, the raven does something that Molly interprets as a guide and is patient enough to figure out how to pull off what's being indicated (i.e. Molly needs a bridge and the raven plays with her yarn and then her braid, leading her to braid the yarn into a rope). True, it's also magical enough to understand exactly what Molly needs help with, but just the fact that it helps without speaking was charming enough since it's such a common fairy tale element.

John Gardner's Gudgekin the Thistle Girl may be treated cruelly, but she knows others have it worse than she. But a chance encounter with a helpful fairy demonstrates the flaw in this popular fairy tale mentality. In an interesting case, this story turns the usual demure, self-effacing princess trope and says 'screw that'. While caring nothing for herself and focusing only on what she can do for others, taking unearned punishment without complaint, is a trait found in many fairy tale princesses, the fairy of this story sees the problem with this worldview and the story is her attempt to give the heroine some dignity. A good story with realistic reactions, a prince I found interesting and unique, and a future relationship that won't be anywhere near 'perfect' (i.e. the prince is automatically in the right and the princess just sits there and looks pretty).

In Lloyd Alexander's traditional fairy tale, King Hugo of Ventadorn hates ivy, holidays, pickled herring, cats, his daughter’s suitor, and dozens of other things in no particular order. He’s banned them all, but The Cat-King's Daughter and one clever feline have an idea of how to show him the foolishness of his ways. A story with a snarky, clever cat and a loving suitor who doesn't get shaken easily; what more can I ask for?

The White Seal Maid is taken as a wife, but is remarkably passive about her capture. Jane Yolen always does fairy tale stories well, and this story was no different. The usual selkie story is changed up in a unique and satisfying way.

The world of the brightest princess was always dark, for she had grown blind over the years, as well as cursing blindness upon all those who look upon her. Princes come and go but they all fail the simple but cruel test she puts them to, until the day she wins the heart of the man best suited to her own foolish behavior. I'm not a fan of bittersweet endings, but The Dark Princess by Richard Kennedy isn't bad. I don't think I was supposed to see as much in the princess's test as I did (if the princes really loved her, they'd look upon her and willingly go blind for her). It was an asshole move, and maybe it started out as a way of weeding out pretenders but she would have known what going blind felt like. After a while, the princess gets all melancholy and decided true love doesn't exist for her, but I'm convinced she was continuing to insist on this ridiculous test because she was afraid of risking closeness or exposing herself as impaired (only her parents knew she was blind, so naturally the princes' were pretty disparaging about her tests result).

The traditional fairy tale formula is three princes with the youngest winning the day and ruling his kingdom with his rescued princess. But Princess Petronella doesn’t fit as the traditional third prince, so why should she follow the rest of the script to the letter? This Jay Williams story is a favorite of mine, both because of the twists to the usual fairy tale script and for the similarities to the Robert Munsch classic The Paper Bag Princess . The prince she rescues is a lazy, ungrateful mooch and Princess Petronella ends up with a husband who adores her and compliments her.

My least favorite story in this book is easily The Wrestling Princess by Judy Corbalis. A king has had quite enough of his daughter's refusal to conform to the Princess stereotype, so he arranges a contest to find her a husband who'll at least made her look dainty and weak by comparison. But it's not his daughter's fault that she's six-feet tall and loves piloting helicopters and driving forklifts. The story was comedic, but in a goofy way. Trying to be a modern fairy tale it made the unsettling choice of having an actual fairy tale kingdom in modern day. I realize these exist, of course, and many European countries still have castles for their royal families, but it was just so weird reading about castles and princesses and forklifts and mechanics. Sadly, it wasn't very funny either, though it would definitely make a good children's book. While reading it I could perfectly picture the colorful illustrations of the princess waving to crowds from her forklift and wrestling the princes.

It takes a strong enchantment to keep a child from wanting their freedom. The Enchanter’s Daughter by Antonia Barber was clever and had some intriguing possibilities, but you feel as though it ended too soon and too neatly.

An eldest princess is sent off on a quest to find out why the sky of her kingdom had turned green, but she's a well-read young woman and is perfectly able to recognize when she's caught in a story. She knows what's lying in wait for her: the eldest daughter fails the quest and the middle daughter fails after her, finally the youngest comes along and does everything right and saves all three and gets the kingdom and a handsome prince to boot. But The Story of the Eldest Princess isn't what this young woman wants for herself, and when she finds herself given an opportunity to step off her path, does she dare leave the narrative? A typical three animal tale (a princess/prince helps three animals along their path who help them complete their quest), but interesting in that the new story the eldest princess steps into is considerably more dangerous than the norm. The animals aren’t pretty and classically helpful, they’re ugly and dangerous and repulsive. And the dangers they help her avoid have a sharper edge to them (i.e. the cockroach helps her avoid wandering into a Bluebeard scenario). The ending is left open and I think I would have rather had some sort of resolution, but A. S. Byatt gave us a fine story nevertheless.

A cruel king and queen demand from the fairies a son to raise in their image, but it never pays to take a fairy offering at face value. Especially if they only offer it after you've threatened their lives. Seriously, who does that? The Outspoken Princess by Dov Mir is a cute story of a little girl who causes a revolution by speaking up against unfairness, but I'm more amused by the use of the fairies. Fae are known in fairy tales more as helpful little creatures, but in folk tales they're fickle, human-sized, easily-offended creatures who thrive on double-edged promises. They're like genies (be careful what you with for) but more malicious. So the fairies in this story are modeled more after their folk tale counterparts which amuses the heck out of me. Alas, I was expecting even more of a double-talk trick when the fairies tell the royal parents that the child would take over their kingdom if they ever hurt the babe. They weren't stupid enough to hurt their daughter physically, so I was reading this expecting the trick to be hurt feelings.


EDITING:
Top marks for no mistakes, a large, clear font, and clearly divided stories.

ENJOYABILITY:
Some were better than others, as always, but on the whole the quality was slightly better than normal.

THEME:
All the stories are new and I recognized a few of the authors as being tops in their field (Tanith Lee and Jane Yolen). I really want to deduct a half star for The Wrestling Princess for reading like a child's picture book, but I suppose even that one fits the theme, just not quite the format.

OTHER ASPECTS:
While the illustrations are welcome, they don't always reflect the story as well as they should. I mentioned my issue with the artwork for Princess Dahli, but the header drawing in The Enchanter's Daughter made this conniving, cruel, ominous figure into a clown. And the ones in The Cat-King's Daughter gave the cat hideous bug-eyes and has the princess hiding underneath it instead of under a sofa (it was a normal-sized cat, is it supposed to be sitting on a doll in the picture?). The weirdest part was that, aside from the few odd choices (I'm blaming the editor), Stéphan Poulin's artwork was fitting and lovely. Just look at the charming Molly Mullett artwork on the cover. That'll cost a half star, and the other half is for the introduction. Between griping about wars ruining our belief in fairy tales and Disney in general, Zipes was so disparaging and miserable in the book intro that I was expecting one of those annoying 'modern fairy tale' books where princesses have drug problems and fairies live in gutters and children die left and right for more 'realistic' reasons (I've read far too much of that garbage already).

THE VERDICT?
A good collection of fairy tales you wouldn't have heard before, and a few you really should hear.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another one that caught my attention coming across the returns desk at the library. It was a great little read, nothing serious to say; I finished it in approximately a day or two of passive reading, as I recall. Fun stories, quick read, what more could you want?
http://tenthousandbooks.blogspot.com/...

[l · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lloyd Alexander's love of cats is really wonderful tbh.

[Lucia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stories sorted by my enjoyment and with quotes as summary.
Favorites
The White Seal Maid: "If he had not heard her singing that night he would have thought her mute. But she was a good wife, for all that, and did what he required. If she did not smile, she did not weep."

The Story of the Eldest Princess: "The fundamental colour of the sky was no longer what they called sky-blue, but a new sky-green."

"I am in a pattern I know, and I suspect I have no power to break it, and I am going to meet a test and fail it, and spend seven years as a stone."

"There is always an old woman ahead of you on a journey, and there is always an old woman behind you too, and they are not always the same, they may be fearful or kindly, dangerous or delightful, as the road shifts, and you speed along it. Certainly I was ahead of you, and behind you too, but not only I, and not only as I am now."

The Dark Princess: "It is a bad sadness to believe that there is no love in the world, and people have hanged themselves for less gloomy discoveries."

"And in the darkness below they touched for a moment, and then they drowned. And in that moment they touched, the sun rose a million times for them, and the Princess and the Fool could see each other and all the things of life and the world more clearly than but a dozen people since the beginning of time. And the moment they touched outlasted the life of the King and Queen, and outlasted the life of the Kingdom. And the moment they touched is lasting still, and will outlast us, too."

The Enchanter's Daughter: "Sometimes in her dreams it seemed to her that she once had another name, but when she awoke she could not remember it. At other times she dreamed that she was a small flying bird and did not have a name at all."

Gudgekin the Thistle Girl: "First I had pity for everyone but myself, and then I had pity for no one but myself, and now I pity all of us in this miserable world."

Petronella: "'I wasn't chasing him,' said the enchanter. 'I was chasing you.'"
------------
The Gentle Knight: "'I will get Freddy to slay the Dudgeon,' he replied. 'He will probably write a poem about it instead,' some-one growled."

The Outspoken Princess: "She ordered the castle of diamonds to be torn down and the diamonds to be shared among the people of the kingdom"

The Cat-King's Daughter: "You're beautiful as a cat as a cat as you were beautiful as a woman."

The Signal: "after reading every book he could find in the village, the boy became an expert in biology, astrology, topography, zoology, chronology, magicology, micrology, seismology, phrenology, spyology, and graphology."

Princess Dahli: "And when he told me to polish his crown, I polished it with boot polish, and it's gone black, and he's had to borrow one from his father that doesn't fit properly."

Molly Mullet: "Mr. Mullet will see, once and for all, that I am not a wheezley, sneezley, sniveling person."

The Wrestling Princess: "'Then I realized it was lucky I'd changed places or you'd have eliminated me on height.' 'That's right. You're too short,' said the King."

The Faithful Bull: "There once was a bull and his name was not Ferdinand and he loved to fight and he fought with all the other bulls of his own age, or any age, and he was champion."

Little Polly Riding Hood: "I can't think why it can't be the same as the Little Red Riding Hood story. It's all these buses and cars and trains that make it go wrong."

[Noelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very hit-or-miss. I loved The Signal, Molly Mullett, The White Seal Maid, The Dark Princess, The Enchanter's Daughter, and The Story of the Eldest Princess, and will be looking for other titles by these authors, but the rest of the stories were very un-subtle, although maybe I'm expecting too much from a children's book in the way of subtlety.

[Saxitlurg · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were a few duds (as you'd expect with any short story collection), but I definitely look forward to rereading some of these stories.

[Nafiza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me tell you the story about how this book and I met.

It was a rainy day in September and I was frantically looking through books at the Vancouver Public Library sale. This novel caught my eye but I put it aside convinced that I had no room in my suitcase (yes, I took a suitcase) for this title but then my eye snagged on it and it seemed to regard me sadly. So finally I decided that back be damned, I must have this book. And 75 cents later, it was mine.

Of course, it languished on my shelf for quite a while before I picked it up but it only took the first page before I fell in love. This series is edited by Jack Zipes, whose work in folktale and mythology is legendary and that this collection has been edited by him is only the highest badge it can receive. The novel contains stories by a variety of authors who write in a variety of styles but all of them do one important thing: they give new colour and a fresh twist to the tried and tired fairy tale.

The titular tales are also favourites of mine. The Gentle Knight by Richard Schickel goes a long way to recreating the tales of knights while the Outspoken Princess gives you another side to princesses. Another tale that I particularly liked is The Faithful Bull by Ernest Hemingway. All short tales are by turns poignant, funny and speak more candidly about what contemporary society needs in the way of fairy tales than the tales of yore. If you are like me and consume fairytales insatiably, this collection is for you.

[JD Waggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute little collection, and one that really makes me wonder what would happen if someone made another, more modern anthology like it. The stories in this edition range from the 1950s to the early 90s, which is smack on the top of the crest of the feminist movement--and it shows. I'm all for feminism in stories, but the thing that I found kind of annoying about these stories was that, in trying to ditch the helpless princess role, they just created other walls. Great, princesses are now outspoken and brash, but that usually meant no prince would consider them, or that action couldn't be had because it's just not nice to hurt things, or whatever. Also, some of them were downright depressing, even if they had a "happily ever after" flair, but that could be my Grimm conditioning speaking.
So, yes, I'm not keeping it, but I'm glad to have read it. Two or three of the stories really were worthwhile.

[Cat. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably targeted at the "young adult" audience, but it's a fun read for adults too, particularly in adults who recognize subtext in traditional fairy tales. Going along with that theme, Zipes points out that "[a]ll of the major protagonists of the most exciting fairy tales of the 1970s were female. Whether the tale was written by a man or a woman...." Not, by any means, to say that all the women in these stories are paragons of wonderfulness.

The collection includes writings by everyone from A.S. Byatt to Tanith Lee, from Lloyd Alexander to Ernest Hemingway. (!) There is not one that was skippable. There are some "happily-ever-after" stories and some much more realistic and almost "sadly-ever-after" stories.

I really liked all the stories, and I like that this book took me less than 4 hours of concentrated reading time to finish!

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed these stories a lot more than I thought I would. I was originally interested in this book because it is a compilation of short story fairy tale retellings. I love fairy tales, and thought it would be a great read. Then, I read the first story, and put the book back on my shelf for about a year. I picked it up again, and I really liked it! There were some retellings that I didn't really care for, but overall I really liked this book, and thought that most of the retellings were very well written, and some had suprisingly well developed characters considering they were all short stories.

[Kandy Crenshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

This treasury of modern fairy tales is everything I had hoped it would be. The stories draw upon all of the old stand by fairy tale plots, but put smart, independent and somewhat quirky heroines and heros in their midst.

If pressed to select my favorite of the tales, I would select "The Story of the Eldest Princess" by A.S. Byatt. The princess is all to familiar with the story she has been set into and takes matters into her own hands, changing her fate.

A Jack Zipes collection once again prompts me to examine my view of societal structures while enjoying an entertaining read.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection showcases the danger when writers write to Make a Point rather than to Tell a Story. It's didactic, silly, and dull, with the exception of "The White Seal Maid" by Jane Yolen and "The Story of the Eldest Princess" by A.S. Byatt. Zipes thinks Coombs "invented" "Molly Mullett"; apparently he hasn't read enough traditional stories to recognize a humorless knock-off of Molly Whuppie.

[Cecilia Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take the time to read the introduction. Zips describes the history and evolution of printed story telling. He includes the effects of world history and Feminism in literature.
Three of my favorite authors contribute their short stories in the volume.
Tanith Lee and Jane Yolen are also featured in a series edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.

[James Aschbacher · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful book! Editor Jack Zipes has selected authors of high quality and they all deliver. The stories are classical in nature although their story lines are modern. With fairy tales by Tanith Lee, Jane Yolen, Catherine Storr and other fantasy pros this collection is a gem. And the illustrations by Stephane Poulin are enchanting too. Highly recommended.

[Wendy Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my friends gave this to me for my birthday last august. It was his copy of a childhood favorite that he didn't much read anymore and so passed to me because he figured I'd like it. Needless to say, I did. Some of the stories were not exactly my cup of tea, but some were just...wow.

[LG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inverted fairy tales are always amusing. Besides the two title stories, the standouts in this volume are “The Faithful Bull” by toreador fan Ernest Hemingway and “The White Seal Maid” by the fantasy writer Jane Yolen. The illustrations are pretty, too.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

As much as I like fairy tales, I like modern ones better. What more can I say? This book rocks. I especially like Petronella.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just adored the illustrations in this book! I'm thinking of keeping it for the illustrations alone. The fairy tales were just average.

[Kailey (Luminous Libro) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love these! So fun!

[Serina · Rating 4 out of 5]

the book you were thinking about writing when reading all fairy tale stories.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking twists on familiar tales.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

fell between a 3 and 4, but certain stories like The Eldest Princess swayed me.

[Anne]

Petronella is my favorite