Category: fairy tale

Yeah, I know I talked about The Emperor's New Clothes back in February, but this times it's a musical version, script, lyrics and music by Dave and Jean Perry, performed at our local Center of Music and Art. Amber was there every day last week for Drama Camp and Friday night was their performance. The kids all did a great job. It was a funny show, cute with a bunch of laugh-out loud moments. Amber was one of the sister tailors, with lots of lines and solos, all of which she remembered. Of course, she was wonderful, but I might be a little biased....

Ouch! by Natalie Babbitt, illustrated by Fred Marcellino (Suggested reading level: Preschool - Grade 3) This is a delightful retelling of Grimms' "The Devil and the Three Golden Hairs," a fairy tale that was unfamiliar to me. This version does leave out some of the original, possibly to make it a shorter story. A baby boy, born to a peasant family, has a birthmark in the shape of a crown, a sign that his destiny is to marry a princess. The King, when he hears this, tries to kill the baby, but his plan fails and the baby is rescued. The child grows up to be a pleasant, hard-working young man named Marco. When the King finds him , he tries again to have the youth killed. The plan backfires and Marco marries the princess. Once again, it was lucky that Marco was so full of confidence because he was going to need it now more than ever. The King came home in the...

"The Twelve Brothers" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Today's fairy tale is just chock full of goodies. We've got an evil father, a loving mother, a young innocent woman who marries a king, a mean mother-in-law, an enchanted cottage in the woods, people who turn into birds, an old mysterious woman. A little bit of everything really. The story starts off with a king and queen who seem happy enough and have twelve sons. Dad though tells his wife what will happen if the thirteenth child is a girl. If the thirteenth child which thou art about to bring into the world, is a girl, the twelve boys shall die, in order that her possessions may be great, and that the kingdom may fall to her alone. Apparently, he actually wants a daughter to pass his kingdom on to, which I found surprising. Nice change in that he values the daughter, but crazy too. He actually has the 12 coffins built and locks them...

"The Philosopher's Stone" by Hans Christian Andersen This was a new fairy tale to me, one that I've never heard before. The version I read, available at SurLaLune is from Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales. Mrs. Henry H. B. Paull, translator. [1872, 1883]. It tells of the wisest man in the world who lives in a crystal castle at the top of the Tree of the Sun in India. He knows everything there is to know, including has happened and what will happen. In a secret chamber in the castle is his most treasure possession, the Book of Truth, which he had read through, page by page, except the section titled "Life after Death" whose pages appeared blank. This man had five intelligent children, four sons and one blind daughter. He spoke to them of the true, the beautiful, and...

"Three Billy Goats Gruff" is a traditional Norwegian fairy tale, but for me it's one of those troll stories I loved when I was a kid. A couple of months ago, the Fairy Tale Friday focus was a childhood favorite and I talked about "The Stone Cheese" from Favorite Tales of Monsters and Trolls retold by George Jonsen, illustrated by John O'Brien. The spectacular illustrations on this post are from that book. One of the other stories it features is "The Three Billy Goats Gruff." The story, as first recorded by Peter Christen Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe is simple. Three goats want to go across a bridge to a hillside where there's a field of sweet grass. The problem is that under the bridge is a troll "with eyes as big as saucers, and a nose as long as a poker." The smallest goat goes across first and when threatened by the troll tells the troll to wait, his larger brother...

"The Three Bears" by Robert Southey I always knew this story as "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," but apparently in its earliest versions the bears' intruder is actually an old women. Southey's version is from 1837. The story itself is familiar. A family of good-natured, trusting bears lives in a nice house in the woods. Each bear has his own chair, bowl of porridge and bed. One day when the three go for a walk in the woods while waiting for their porridge to cool, an ill-tempered, perhaps homeless, old woman enters their home, making sure no one is around to see her. She eats the little bear's porridge, breaks his chair and eventually falls asleep in his bed. That is where the bears discover her. The small bear cries out that someone has been sleeping in his bed and states she's still there. The old woman awakens and jumps out the...