West Bend Community Memorial Library
Fairy Tales -
classic stories of childhood with an adult
twist
[printable]
[printable-just titles]
 Stardust by Neil Gaiman
- In the sleepy English countryside of decades past, a lovelorn young man
stepsthrough a gap in a high stone wall, and into the most unforgettable
adventureof his life. |
 Mirror Mirror by
Gregory Maguire - "The world was called Montefiore, as far as she knew,
and from her aerie on every side all the world descended." The year is 1502,
and seven-year-old Bianca de Nevada lives perched high above the rolling
hills and valleys of Tuscany and Umbria at Montefiore, the farm of her
beloved father, Don Vicente. There she spends her days cosseted by Primavera
Vecchia, the earthy cook, and Fra Ludovico, a priest who tends to their
souls between bites of ham and sips of wine. But one day a noble entourage
makes its way up the winding slopes to the farm -- and the world comes to
Montefiore. In the presence of Cesare Borgia and his sisters, the lovely and
vain Lucrezia -- decadent children of a wicked pope -- no one can claim
innocence for very long. When Borgia sends Don Vicente on a years-long quest
to reclaim a relic of the original Tree of Knowledge, he leaves Bianca under
the care -- so to speak -- of Lucrezia. She plots a dire fate for the young
girl in the woods below the farm, but in the dark forest there can be found
salvation as well... "The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have
more to say." A lyrical work of stunning creative vision, Mirror Mirror
gives fresh life to the classic story of Snow White -- and has a truth and
beauty all its own. |
 Son of a Witch by
Gregory Maguire - Ten years after the publication
of "Wicked," the author returns to the land of Oz to follow the story of
Liir, the adolescent boy left hiding in the shadows of the castle when
Dorothy killed the Witch. |
 Silver Birch, Blood
Moon by Ellen Datlow -
A jealous prince plots the destruction of
his hated brother's wedding by inventing a "magic" suit of clothing visible only
to the pure at heart . . . A young girl's strange fairy tale obsession results
in a brutal murder . . . An embittered mother cares for her slowly dying son who
is trapped in a thicket that guards a sleeping beauty . . . In a bleak and
desolate industrial wasteland, a group of violent outcasts lays the tattered
myths of one Millennium to rest, and gives terrifying birth to those of the
next. Erotic, compelling, witty, and altogether extraordinary, these stories lay
bare our innermost demons and desires -- imaginatively transforming our youthful
fantasies into things darker, slyer, and more delightfully subversive. |
 Black
Thorn, White Rose by Ellen Datlow -
From the compilers of Snow White, Blood
Red, 18 new tales of wonder, magic, and surprise. Three repeat contributors are
joined by newcomers like Peter Straub and Roger Zelazny, who take great delight
in making the old new and relevant once again while updating our perceptions of
such favorites as "Rumplestiltskin" and "Sleeping Beauty". Also look for
Black Heart, Ivory Bones and Snow White, Blood Red. |
 Ruby Slippers,
Golden Tears by Ellen Datlow -
From Roberta Lanne's upscale retelling of
"The Shoemaker and the Elves," in which an ambitious cockroach lends his
entrepreneurial talents to a Manhattan tailor ("Roach in Loafers"), to Ellen
Steiber's moody tribute to Japanese folklore ("The Fox Wife"), the 22 original
stories and poems in this collection bring a modern twist to classic and
sometimes obscure fairy tales. Like its predecessors Black Thorn, White Rose (AvoNova:
Morrow, 1994) and Snow White, Blood Red (Morrow, 1992), this volume explores new
interpretations of old themes. It offers a fresh look at tales no longer for
children only. |
 Tam Lin
by Pamela Dean -
This delightful new entry in the Fairy Tale series, featuring children's
classics refashioned for adult audiences, adapts the eponymous Scottish ballad
to a Midwestern university setting. In the early '70s, scholarly Janet Carter
enters Blackstock College as an English major. She and roommates Christina and
Molly fall in with an attractive, often eccentric group of classics students who
circle around Professor Medeous, a spectacular, enigmatic redheaded woman. The
girls pair off with young male classicists, Janet beginning an affair with
Nicholas Tooley, whose vast familiarity with Shakespeare and often distant
approach to intimacy disturb her. When the liaison ends, she takes up with the
young man formerly attached to Christina. The ghost of a pregnant student who
committed suicide, mysterious late-night horseback forays led by Professor
Medeous and the appearance in a list of Shakespeare's actors of the names of
three of the Classics Department scholars urge Janet on a dangerous quest to
save her lover. |
| Once Upon a Time; A Treasury of Modern Fairy Tales by Lester Del Rey - This collection of 10 well written stories nicely illustrates the concept that fairy tale themes are universal, and that modern fantasy writers can give them a sophisticated, psychological and realistic approach while still providing a sense of wonder for all ages. In Barbara Hambly's Changeling, a hard-working Marchlord slays the dragon devastating his countryside and brings home to his wife and children what he finds in its lair: a mute child with two unusual companions. Anne McCaffrey's "The Quest of a Sensible Man" features a prince who seeks a suitable mate for his flying horse. The eponymous "Thistledown" in Susan Dexter's tale is a unicorn colt saved from from predatory hounds by a mute boy suspected of witchcraft. The spoiled princess in "The Fairy Godmother," by Lester del Rey, learns the rudiments of wise rule when she is taken in by an old couple after an attempted abduction. In Wayland Drew's "The Old Soul," an old woman's tale of the fall of a powerful city jolts three travelers out of their self-important lives . |
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 The
Princess Bride by William Goldman -
Westley . . . handsome farm boy who risks
death and much, much worse for the woman he loves; Inigo . . . the Spanish
swordsman who lives only to avenge his father's death; Fezzik . . . the Turk,
the gentlest giant ever to have uprooted a tree with his bare hands; Vizzini . .
. the evil Sicilian, with a mind so keen he's foiled by his own perfect logic;
Prince Humperdinck . . . the eviler ruler of Guilder, who has an equally
insatiable thirst for war and the beauteous Buttercup; Count Rugen . . . the
evilest man of all, who thrives on the excruciating pain of others; Miracle Max.
. . the King's ex-Miracle Man, who can raise the dead (kind of); The Dread
Pirate Roberts . . . supreme looter and plunderer of the high seas; and, of
course, Buttercup . . . the princess bride, the most perfect, beautiful woman in
the history of the world. |
 The Godmother's Apprentice by Elizabeth Anne Scarborough -
In this sequel to The Godmother, Sno goes to Ireland
with Felicity Fortune for her Fairy Godmother training, her first attempts at
her new calling involve a mixed bag of characters. |
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 Beauty
by Susan Wilson - In this
beautifully written contemporary retelling of "Beauty and the Beast," Alix
Miller is hired to paint a portrait of Leland Crompton, following a
centuries-old tradition in which the artistic Millers have been patronized by
the aristocratic Cromptons. Alix arrives at her subject's isolated New Hampshire
home to discover that his face is seriously deformed, the result of a genetic
disorder. Her hopes of merely taking a few photographs and returning home to
paint a portrait she's unenthusiastic about are dashed, as Leland refuses to
allow himself to be photographed. Resigned to spending time getting to know her
subject, Alix finds herself increasingly drawn to the lonely, intelligent man. |
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 Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey
- Fantasy
writer Lackey spins a charming tale of myth, magic, and fairytale lore laced
with romance and set in a world where The Tradition tries its magical—and
surreptitious—best to force the characters into their "legendary" roles. But
things sometimes go awry, and when Elena is denied her predestined Cinderella
role because her kingdom's prince is too young, she is chosen as an apprentice
by the local Fairy Godmother and ends up creating a legend of her own. A
spirited, resourceful, though somewhat impulsive heroine, a prince who needs to
learn a lesson in manners, humility, and compassion, and a host of magical
creatures—including some delightful house elves and besotted unicorns—result in
a lively, humorous fantasy romance. |
 Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire -
A brilliant and provocative
retelling of the timeless Cinderella tale. We all have heard the story of
Cinderella, the beautiful child cast out to slave among the ashes. But what of
her stepsisters, the homely pair exiled into ignominy by the fame of their
lovely sibling? What fate befell those untouched by beauty ... and what curses
accompanied Cinderella's exquisite looks? Set against the rich backdrop of
seventeenth-century Holland, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister tells the story
of Iris, an unlikely heroine who finds herself swept from the lowly streets of
Haarlem to a strange world of wealth, artifice, and ambition. Iris's path
quickly becomes intertwined with that of Clara, the mysterious and unnaturally
beautiful girl destined to become her sister. While Clara retreats to the
cinders of the family hearth, burning all memories of her past, Iris seeks out
the shadowy secrets of her new household--and the treacherous truth of her
former life. |
 Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by
Gregory Maguire - Born
with green skin and huge teeth, like a dragon, the free-spirited Elphaba grows
up to be an anti-totalitarian agitator, an animal-rights activist, a nun, then a
nurse who tends the dying--and, ultimately, the headstrong Wicked Witch of the
West in the land of Oz. Maguire's strange and imaginative postmodernist fable
uses L. Frank Baum's Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a springboard to create a tense
realm inhabited by humans, talking animals (a rhino librarian, a goat
physician), Munchkinlanders, dwarves and various tribes. The Wizard of Oz,
emperor of this dystopian dictatorship, promotes Industrial Modern architecture
and restricts animals' right to freedom of travel; his holy book is an ancient
manuscript of magic that was clairvoyantly located by Madam Blavatsky 40 years
earlier. Much of the narrative concerns Elphaba's troubled youth (she is raised
by a giddy alcoholic mother and a hermitlike minister father who transmits to
her his habits of loathing and self-hatred) and with her student years. Dorothy
appears only near novel's end, as her house crash-lands on Elphaba's sister, the
Wicked Witch of the East, in an accident that sets Elphaba on the trail of the
girl from Kansas--as well as the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman and the Lion--and
her fabulous new shoes. Maguire combines puckish humor and bracing pessimism in
this fantastical meditation on good and evil, God and free will, which should,
despite being far removed in spirit from the Baum books, captivate devotees of
fantasy. |
Updated
October 27, 2008
West Bend Community Memorial
Library
630 Poplar Street - West Bend Wisconsin 53095 - 262.335.5151
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