A Guide to Young Adult Fiction Part Three: Retellings

So far in this series, I've talked about contemporary realistic young adult fiction and fantasy fiction. In today's wrap-up of this series, I'm focusing on a genre I adore: retellings.

The two main types of retellings are fairy tale retellings and retellings of other novels.

I love fairy tales, especially when young adult authors reimagine them. Here are some of my favorite fairy tale retellings, as well as some popular retellings. The story being retold is in parenthesis.

Entwined by Heather Dixon (Twelve Dancing Princesses)
Ash by Malinda Lo (Cinderella)
Cinder by Marissa Meyer (Cinderella)
A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan (Sleeping Beauty)

I also love it when authors reimagine classic stories. Here are my top choices for classic story retellings, as well as some other popular titles. The story being retold is in parenthesis.




Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson (Peter Pan)
Great by Sara Benincasa (The Great Gatsby)
The Fall by Bethany Griffin (The Fall of the House of Usher)
The Splintered series (Splintered, Unhinged, Ensnared, and Untamed) by A.G. Howard (Alice in 
Wonderland)
Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay (Romeo and Juliet)
The Madman's Daughter trilogy (The Madman's Daughter, Her Dark Curiosity, and A Cold Legacy) by Megan Shepherd (The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Frankenstein)
Never Never by Brianna R. Shrum (Peter Pan)

Are there any books you would add to this list? Is there a genre I didn't cover in this series but you wish I had? Let me know in the comments!

Fairy Tales Revisited

© Adam Cuerden (restoration)

There's a new live-action version of Cinderella in the theaters, and while it follows pretty closely the classic story by Charles Perrault and the 1950 animation version by Walt Disney (rather than the darker version written by the Brothers Grimm), we thought it might be a good time to revisit the latest not-so-classic retellings of fairy tales, fables, and the like.

We are also very excited to share newly discovered fairy tales by Franz Xaver Von Schonwerth, a volume which, according to the publisher, makes "the holy trinity of fairy tales, the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Andersen, become a quartet...bring[ing] us closer than ever to the unadorned oral tradition in which fairy tales are rooted, revolutionizing our understanding of a hallowed genre". Schonwerth's works had been lost until recently and are available for the first time in English.

If you'd prefer the original fairy tales, consider checking out: The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm; The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen edited by Maria Tatar; The Complete Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, newly translated by Neil Philip and Nicoletta Simborowski; or Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale by Marina Warner.

For older readers (teen +)

The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales by Franz Xaver Von Schonwerth
 Dearest by Alethea Kontis  Off the Page by Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer  Stepmothers and the Big Bad Wolf: Fairy Tale Villains Reimagined by Susan Bianculli [eBook] Damsel Distressed by Kelsey Macke [eBook] Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth The Stepsister's Tale by Tracy Barrett Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen       The Witch: And Other Tales Re-Told by Jean Thompson   Marvel Fairy Tales by C.B. Cebulski   For Children  The Bernadette Watts Collection: Stories and Fairy Tales by Bernadette Watts   Grounded: The Adventures of Rapunzel by Megan Morrison  A Catfish Tale: A Bayou Story of the Fisherman and His Wife by Whitney Stewart   Hansel & Gretel: A Toon Graphic by Neil Gaiman, Lorenzo Mattotti Puss & Boots by Ayano Imai Beauty and the Beast: A Retelling by H. Chuku Lee     

More to the Story: Famous Novels Retold, Famous Characters Reimagined

Thus I rediscovered what writers have always known (and have told us again and again): books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told.
~Umberto Eco

In addition to rewriting the story from a different character's perspective, sometimes authors like to rewrite the story in a different time period or place. Perrault's fairy tales transplanted to India? Plot devices from E. M. Forster adapted into a story of New England academia? Nathaniel Hawthorne set in the dystopian future? Here's a list of some titles in the library catalog that not only revisit some classic stories, but reimagines them in a completely different time and/or locale.

Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi [Snow White]

On Beauty by Zadie Smith [Howards End]

The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey [Jane Eyre]

Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin [Alice in Wonderland]

Havisham by Ronald Frame [Great Expectations]

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan [The Scarlet Letter]

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey [fairy tales]

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly [fairy tales]

Fables, Volume 1: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham et al. [fairy tales]

Betwixt and Between by Jessica Stilling [Peter Pan]

The Innocents by Francesca Segal [The Age of Innocence]

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley [King Lear]

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones [Great Expectations]

Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick [The Ambassadors]

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski [Hamlet]

Last Orders by Graham Swift [As  I Lay Dying]

Delphine by Richard Sala [Snow White] 

William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope by Ian Doescher ; inspired by the work of George Lucas and William Shakespeare

Once Upon a Time Machine edited by Andrew Carl [fairy tales]

Alice in Tumblr-land: And Other Fairy Tales for a New Generation by Tim Manley [fairy tales]

Young Adult

Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson [fairy tales]

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor [Alice in Wonderland]

Nameless: A Tale of Beauty and Madness by Lili St. Crow [Snow White]

A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan [Sleeping Beauty]

Going Bovine by Libba Bray [Don Quixote]

Railsea by China Miéville [Moby Dick]

Film 

Blancanieves [Snow White]

Shakespeare Retold [various plays]

Coriolanus [Coriolanus]

Much Ado About Nothing [Much Ado About Nothing]

Grimm ["Brother and Sister", from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales]



Links

The Austen Project

Canongate Myths Series

The Hogarth Shakespeare

Books to the Small Screen: TV Shows Based on Literature

The old argument is "Is the book better than the movie?" Now, there are so many TV shows based on books that we can ask "Is the book better than the TV show?" Here are some new and returning TV shows that are based on literature...and some related titles you might enjoy!

New Shows

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Set in the "Marvel Cinematic Universe", this TV show follows the adventures of the agents of Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.  You can read more about S.H.I.E.L.D. in The Marvel Comics Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to the Characters of the Marvel Universe, edited by Alastair Dougall.

Dracula

The library catalog features many Dracula titles, inspired and/or related to Bram Stoker's original novel. How about: Who Was Dracula?: Bram Stoker's Trail of Blood by Jim Steinmeyer; Dracula In Love: The Private Diary of Mina Harker by Karen Essex; Bram Stoker's Dracula: The Graphic Novel adapted by Gary Reed; or Stoker's Manuscript by Royce Prouty?

Once Upon a Time in Wonderland

This series will be based around Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but is set in a "present-day Wonderland". Those interested in Wonderland might want to check out The Alice Behind Wonderland by Simon Winchester; The Mystery of Lewis Carroll: Discovering the Whimsical, Thoughtful and Sometimes Lonely Man Who Created Alice in Wonderland by Jenny Woolf; and All Things Alice: The Wit, Wisdom, and Wonderland of Lewis Carroll by Linda Sunshine.

Sleepy Hollow

Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman are relocated to Sleepy Hollow, New York, circa 2013.  Ichabod must team up with 21st century police to help them catch the Horseman. If you like Washington Irving's story, put him in perspective with The American Fantasy Tradition anthology, or read about America's "first man of letters" in Original Knickerbocker: The Life of Washington Irving by Andrew Burstein, or find out more about his era with Explorers, Fortunes & Love Letters: A Window on New Netherland edited by Martha Dickinson Shattuck.

Returning Shows

The Carrie Diaries

Based on the young adult novel by Candace Bushnell, a prequel to Sex and the City. Want to know what it used to be like in New York City?  Try The Forbidden Apple: A Century of Sex & Sin in New York City by Kat Long, but though racy it's probably more for the history buffs.

Elementary

A contemporary update of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, set in the United States. If you love Holmes, you might be interested in Mastermind: How to Think like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova.

Once Upon a Time

A drama series that sets characters from fairy tales in a "real" town in Maine. The characters have forgotten their lives before due to the Evil Queen's curse, and only the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming can break the curse. Philip Pullman's Fairy Tales From the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version might give you some helpful backstory; Fractured Fairytales are always fun to revisit; and there are more fairy tale retellings available for kids and adults. Or just check out Once Upon a Time: Shadow of the Queen by Dan Thompson and Corrina Bechko, based on the TV series!

The Vampire Diaries

Based on the original young adult series by L. J. Smith.  Check out Love You to Death: The Unofficial Companion to the Vampire Diaries by Crissy Calhoun [eBook] if you are a fan!



Inspired by the article "The 2013 Fall TV Lineup: Shows Based on Books" from Book Riot.

Once Upon a Time: Reading Fairy Tales as an Adult

"If you want your children to be intelligent read them fairy tales.  If you want them to be more intelligent read them more fairy tales."

        --Albert Einstein

Lately it seems that fairy tales are coming back to make an appeal to grown-ups, as well as to children.  Disney has long been adapting fairy tales for animated movies and now other studios have gotten in on the action.  This past year saw not one, but two film adaptations of the fairy tale Snow White aimed toward a more adult audience.  (Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Hunstman.)  More fairy tales will be making their way to the movies in the next few years, some of them giving a darker look to fairy tales than the more lighthearted versions we watched as children.

I have loved fairy tales and folktales my whole life.  These days I take great delight in all the scholarly tomes written on fairy tales, as well as the stories retold for adults.  Even poets got in on the action in the 1960s, when Anne Sexton published Transformations, which featured poems she had written inspired by her daughter's book of fairy tales.    

It is fascinating to look at the history of fairy tales and how they have evolved over the world. For example, the story we in the west call Cinderella is a story that was told in China since at least the ninth century C.E. (which makes sense when you consider that impossibly little feet have been revered in China since ancient times.) The story we know as Beauty and the Beast which is considered a fairy tale today was originally written as a novel in 1740 by French author Madame Gabrielle de Villeneuve. The fairy tale we tell today was adapted from that novel and contains elements of the Greek myth of Eros and Psyche, and the Scandinavian story East of the Sun, West of the Moon. Folktales are being adapted to this day, and it is part of what makes them so much fun to read and retell, since you never know what version you may hear. Lots of versions have beautiful illustrations as well.

Reading fairy tales as both a child and an adult have made me appreciate them in different ways.  As a kid I loved the idea of having adventures and mythical creatures coming to life to grant wishes.  As an adult I love the metaphors I find in beloved classics and seeing the characters getting out of tough situations.  I am so glad there are so many authors out there who are retelling fairy tales in their own way!  Check out some of my favorites below:



Fairy tales to appreciate as an adult:

My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales edited by Kate Bernheimer
There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
Grimm's Grimmest retold and illustrated by Tracy Arah Dockray
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins by Emma Donoghue
Black Swan, White Raven edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly


The study of fairy tales:

From Beast to Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers by Marina Warner
The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales by Bruno Bettelheim
The Witch Must Die: How Fairy Tales Shape Our Lives by Sheldon Cashdan
Clever Maids: The Secret History of the Grimm Fairy Tales by Valerie Paradiz
Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Ten Moral Tales from the Forest by Catherine Orenstein


Fairy tales retold as YA books:

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis
Ash by Malinda Lo
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
Faery Tales and Nightmares by Melissa Marr
Lies, Knives and Girls in Red Dresses by Ron Koertge
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold by Francesca Lia Block
Beastly by Alez Flinn


Fairy tales with beautiful illustrations:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves: A Tale From the Brothers Grimm translated by Randall Jarrell
and illustrated by Nancy Ekholm Burkert
The Girl Who Spun Gold by Virginia Hamilton and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon
Twelve Dancing Princesses by Marianna Mayer and illustrated by Kinuko Y. Craft
The Arabian Nights retold by Margaret Soifer and Irwin Shapiro and illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren
The Lady and the Lion retold and illustrated by Laurel Long
The Weaving of A Dream: A Chinese Folktale retold and illustrated by Marilee Heyer


Fairy tale collections:

Favorite Folktales from Around the World edited by Jane Yolen
Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales From Around the World edited by Kathleen Ragan
When the Santos Talked: A Retablo of New Mexico Tales by Fray Angelico Chavez, drawings by Peter Hurd


Websites for the fairy tale lover:

surlalunefairytales.com 
This is my very favorite fairy tale site!  You can browse lists of fairy tales, including their histories, similar stories told around the world, and adaptations, both past and present.  You can also buy fairy tale themed products here.

worldoftales.com
Browse folktales and fables from around the world and read about the authors who made them popular.  Includes lesson plans for teachers and homeschoolers.

americanfolklore.net
Check out the fables and tall tales told around the United States, including New Mexico folklore.  This is also one of the very best sites to search ghost stories -- something that might come in handy for your Halloween party!

Also, there's this list which has some very good reasons to keep the cycle of fairy tales moving by telling them to children.  Have fun discovering and may you live happily ever after!