Fantasy

I loved Ella Enchanted when I was a child. So I got this to read with my 7 and 8 year old daughters. They are lighthearted and fun, and a slightly more complicated that a straight telling of fairy tale, though I don't know if I would claim they had a lot of depth. I think The Fairy's Mistake was the favorite, maybe because its more graphic with the bugs and the jewels. Also there is usually at least one character that has a very practical, down-to-earth disposition that grounds the fairy tale nicely. We will be getting the other set of Princess Tales to read. ( )

Eh. Three stories, I've read all of them before and none of them much impressed me. The delicate girl, the gifts that went wrong (jewels and bugs), and the smart princess. The last (Princess Sonora) is the best - but it's still annoying just to read, let alone imagine having to live with those two. Levine is an excellent writer - which means that her stories draw me in and make me feel just how awful it would be to be a character (not the lead(s)) in some of these. I don't think that's her aim, but that's how the stories affect me. ( )

My love affair with fairy tales isn't something new, but it was pretty much comatose for a good 10 years. Then, in 2007, I selected "Myth and Fairy Tales" as one of my electives in college and the affair was transformed into a bona fide relationship. That class, its textbooks, and the papers I had to write were lightning bolts of inspiration. And they helped me hear my muse for the first time in years.

So I selected Princess Tales purely on the fairy tale aspect, not knowing its author, while browsing the kids section with my daughter. I don't normally go in that section with a list and prefer to simply go stack-by-stack when I'm on the hunt for something new. I've found the best little treasures and surprises doing it that way...finish reading this review. ( )

Fun retellings of classic fairy tales. ( )