Hyman, Trina. The Sleeping Beauty. Boston : Little, Brown and Company, 1977.
Plot: A retelling of the French fairy tale, The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood. After years of waiting, a king and queen finally have a child, a little girl. The princess is blessed by fairies, but one, feeling slighted by the king, places a curse on the child. Before she is sixteen, she will die by touching a spindle. However, another fairy manages to reduce the curse into a plague of sleep. The princess and her castle sleep for a century before a prince manages to arrive when she awakens.
Genre: Fairy Tales, Picture Books
Reading Level: Aimed at 9-12 year-olds, but adults may want to caution younger readers due to scary illustrations.
Similar Titles: Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast
Personal Thoughts: Most renditions of this story fall into two categories: the original or the clean. The clean version is, in essence, the "Disney" version. The original, like many first editions of fairy tales, is gory. The "Disney" version actually ends in the middle of the original, which continues after the awakening into a complex tale of the princess versus a cannablistic in-law armed with a snake pit. Both stories probably have something to their merit, but this particular retelling tries take a middle path through both versions. It does not work. The result is a story that is too intense for younger readers but too simple for older ones. There are better retellings available.
Side Note: Toothless is going to eat the prince.
No comments:
Post a Comment