Fairytales are life lessons told for children to behave. Little Red Riding Hood: don’t take detours, or you’ll get eaten by a wolf. Cinderella: be kind, or otherwise your wicked deeds earn you blindness from pecking birds. The Grimm brothers and other storytellers were extreme with their gory and spontaneous course of events in stories. In Sleeping Beauty, a king comes upon a sleeping maiden and is intimate with her because he couldn’t get some with conscious women. Things like that are weird and don’t make sense.
Thankfully, with these next entries, nothing of that sort happens. The authors’ personal touch has toned down these retellings of classic fairytales. They’ve created original interpretations of fairytales that children and adolescents can read and enjoy. Let’s add some lighthearted reads to your bedtime routine.
The Thirteenth Princess by Diane Zahler
Imagine being born into a royal family, only to be disowned and become a servant. The thirteenth princess, Zita, can only imagine what life could’ve been without her father’s apparent hatred towards her.
Once Zita learns the truth of her royal background, she desires a family with her twelve princess sisters. However, as she gets to know them, Zita notices something suspicious as they all fall ill. Based on the German tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses, readers follow a character who only wants to be part of her family. Zita’s bravery and love for her sisters fuel her on a mission to save them. It’s a lot for a twelve-year-old, but it’s what makes Zita a cool character.
The House With Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson
Based on the wicked witch Baba Yaga, this retelling makes Yaga a guardian who helps the dead to the afterlife. That sounds cool, except Marinka doesn’t want to be a Yaga traveling in a house with chicken legs.
What Marinka wants more than anything is to have a friend. A normal friend to talk to and tell secrets and play with. But when she gets that chance, breaking a few rules leads to unfortunate consequences, Marinka has to fix. With her grandmother missing to help, Marinka is in a bit of a bind. In wanting to avoid her destined path, Marinka now has to travel to the afterlife to fix her mistakes and find her grandmother.
Snow and Rose by Emily Winfield Martin
Snow-White and Rose-Red is a lesser-known Grimms fairytale with a simple story. Snow and Rose are sisters with a single mother living in the woods. A talking bear frequently visits their house for shelter from the snow. There’s also an ungrateful dwarf towards the sister’s helping hand. Not to give the rest of the original story, Martin’s retelling has many twists accompanied by beautiful illustrations. It offers a feel of reading a bedtime story before going to sleep. It’ll surely intrigue children to read more.
A Tale of Two Castles by Gail Carson Levine
Loosely taking inspiration from the story Puss in Boots, A Tale of Two Castles follows Elodie to a town called Two Castles, hoping to become an actress. Instead, Elodie somehow becomes an assistant to a dragon called Meenore, solving the town’s mysteries as a detective duo. Sent as an undercover maid in an ogre’s castle, Elodie must find out who’s threatening to complete a murder mission. If you’re a fan of Levine’s Ella Enchanted, then these books are suitable for children’s entertainment. Also, for adults, if you want to relive those childhood days again.
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
Jealousy can ruin lives, like it did for Ani. Princess Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee of Kildenree is more comfortable with animals than with humans, which is not a good trait for a future ruler to have.
Talking to animals leads her to understand animal speech. As a weak-minded princess, Ani can do nothing but escape from her evilly twisted maid as she’s cast out of her kingdom. This results in the maid replacing Ani as bride-to-be to a neighboring kingdom. Ani hides in said kingdom as a royal goose girl, finding her voice to speak confidently as she does with animals. Another lesser-known Grimm fairytale, The Goose Girl, tells the story of finding the real princess between the goose girl and the imposter maid.
These retellings of fairytales will not scare your young readers with terrifying nightmares. Bring classic stories to life in a more modern fashion with these beautiful tales sure to delight both you and your young bookworm.
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