Tag: #retelling
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Maguire takes readers to a deep dark wood where Dirk the foundling dies and comes back to life. It’s a traumatic incident and the foundling boy, who was never quite whole in the first place, ventures out into the world. Alone, and lost, apart from others and haunted by the past he blocked out, Dirk…
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Hotel of Secrets by Diane Biller It is New Years Eve in Vienna and Maria Wallner is determined to rebbuild the Wallner Hotel, her family legacy even though her mother neglected it throughout the economic downturn. The hotel is her life and provides a distraction from romance which all of Vienna is waiting for her…
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Maguire sets his tale of vanity and murder in 16th century Italy where the wicked queen is played by a historical domain character, Lucrenzia Borgia, sister to Ceseare Borgia who was the inspiration for Machavelli’s The Prince. Lucrenzia is vain but her jealousy of Bianca, the girl as white as snow stems from her brother’s…
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Maguire takes the tale of Cinderella to Holland during the height of the Tulip madness. Beauty is the theme of the day, the traditional aesthetic beauty of femininity, the beauty immortal captured on canvas, the beauty in nature, and of course, the inner beauty in charity.
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Maguire is best known for his work retelling the stories of Oz’ famous characters (and inspiring the subsequent Broadway play) but as the library didn’t have Wicked, I decided to take a look at Maguire’s other fairytale works. After Alice is just as implied where a minor character from the original novel, Ada, falls down…
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Well then, I think I finished the Shannon Hale fairytale catalogue and like Gail Carson Levine, she should be applauded for her creative twists on classic tales while paying homage to the darker elements of the originals and bringing her vivid descriptions of nature blending in with magic.
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Hale’s haunting retelling of The Goose Girl starts with a princess, a princess born with a word at her tongue. Once she awakes three days later, she doesn’t know the name but she grows entangled with the speech of animals. It’s an ancient magic, and a distrusted one compared to people-speak. Princess Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee…
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It’s clear that Levine excells in her humorous fractured fairytales and the short stories of The Princess Tales are no exception. I highly suggest parents or at least librarians stock this series for story time. It’s a very whimsical series and kids are sure to enjoy it.
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Jenny Elder Moke is the author of Hood, and the Samantha Knox series combining intense historical research with thrilling adventure. Here, she kindly took the time to discuss her inspiration, research and what’s coming next. 1. Where did your writing journey begin? Shortly after I graduated from college, I found myself working at an independent…
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De La Cruz’ sophmore fairytale retelling may have similarities to her first with a dying father, whirlwind romance and possibly wicked stepmother but she manages to deliver a new twist to this classic tale. It’s just unfortunate that with its shorter page length, the story feels rushed and less magical than its predecessor.
Rachel Reads & Reviews 