10 Great Fairy Tale Adaptations

       

 Hello Book Nerds!

One of my favorite sub-genres of fantasy over the years has been Fairy Tale Adaptations.  I've read about dozens and dozens of Cinderellas, Beasts, Snow Whites, princes, princesses, and frogs.  This is a list of a few of the best ones.  They are not in any particular order and I've made sure to not give away any major spoilers.  Enjoy!

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Beastly
By Alex Flinn
Out of 5 Stars: 4.5
          A modern version of "Beauty and the Beast", we read this book through the eyes of the "Beast".  Kyle Kingsbury is a popular, rich, and very handsome high school boy.  On the outside, he seemed perfect.  However, when a strange looking new girl joins their school it takes only a few cruel pranks on Kyle's part to reveal his ugly heart to the readers.  Unluckily for him, that new girl just happened to be a witch.  One curse later, and he's now as ugly on the outside as he is on the inside.  He is transformed into a animal-like beast.  Despite visiting doctor after doctor, he can find no way to reverse the curse.  His only hope is to find a girl to fall in love with him and prove it by kissing him.  But who could love him now?  Who would care enough to kiss him when he doesn't even have lips?
Since the book is set in modern day we get a unique view of the life changes and prejudices that Kyle encounters in his new form, and they will get you thinking about the unreasonable biases our culture takes for granted now days.  Though the book lacks talking furniture we get a wonderful cast of characters that includes Will, an intellectual and humorous blind tutor, among others.
          There was a movie made in 2011 based off the book.  It wasn't horrible.  However they made several big changes.  For instance, Kyle's "beast form" consists of a bald head and gruesome scars instead of the animal-like form in the book.  Also, the ending was changed dramatically.  I was very disappointed.  However, they made up for it slightly by putting the "alternate ending" aka the RIGHT ending into the bonus features of the DVD.  I have no idea why they changed it if they'd filmed the ending from the book already anyway.  It's WAY better!

Entwined
By Heather Dixon
Out of 5 Stars: 4.5
          This book is based off of the fairy tale of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses", one of my favorite stories.  Azalea is the eldest of twelve princess sisters.  When their mother dies in childbirth she promises to protect her sisters.  The next day the Prime Minister informs the girls that according to tradition they will be forced into a year of grieving and isolation.  The sisters soon begin to chafe at the unreasonable restrictions, especially the one on dancing, which had always been their favorite past time.  Instead they spend their time raising their new baby sister, mourning their mother, and missing their father (who has shut himself away).  Months later, Azalea discovers a network of magical secret passages within the castle.  She leads her sisters down a passage with a staircase and they find a forest of gold and silver trees and a pavilion filled with enchanted dancers.  A mysterious figure appears and reveals himself as the owner of the pavilion.  He introduces himself as the Keeper and explains he was once part of the legendary High King's court.  But he rebelled and was trapped within the castle as punishment. He allows the princesses to dance to their hearts content in the pavilion every night.  However, Azalea soon becomes suspicious that he might be hiding a treasure trove of dark and dangerous secrets...
          Entwined is a wonderful portrayal of family, romance, and magic.  The protagonist is very believable and makes many mistakes as she desperately tries to keep her family safe.  As an eldest sibling myself, I can sympathize with her difficulties.  I would highly recommend this book!

The Goose Girl
By Shannon Hale
Out of 5 Stars: 3.75
          Here we have a fairy tale that's a little less widely known.  "The Goose Girl" is often thought to be a one of the more gruesome fairy tales, but this book has made it into a interesting story of strange magics and pleasant characters.  As a child, Princess Ani bonds with her aunt who teaches her about three magical gifts.  The first is animal-speak, which she teaches to the young princess.  Ani especially enjoys speaking to birds and learning their various languages.  The second cannot be taught and is people-speaking.  Someone with this gift is able to convince and manipulate people into agreeing with them or into doing their bidding.  In the hands of a benevolent ruler like Ani's mother, this can be a good thing.  However, it is far too easy to abuse.  The last gift is nature-speaking which includes speaking to and controlling the elements.  This gift is extremely rare.  As Ani grows up her aunt dies, her mother tells her to stop her animal-speaking, and it becomes evident that Ani is not a natural leader like her mother.  When there is a death in the family, Ani's world is turned upside down.  Despite being the eldest child, she is informed that her younger brother will be inheriting the throne and she's being shipped off to be the bride of a prince in a far away land.  As she travels with her lady-in-waiting and a group of guards she begins to feel uneasy.  The lady-in-waiting, a girl named Selia, has the gift of people-speak and soon turns Ani's guards against her.  Barely escaping with her life, she makes her way to the kingdom where she was supposed to rule by a prince's side and instead finds a job as a goose herder.  Forced to hide her identity but feeling somehow freer than she did at home, she befriends her fellow workers as well as a palace guard that visits her field.  Soon Ani must find a way to stop the false princess from starting a bloody war with her home country with the help of her new-found friends and a new power within herself.
          After this book there are three other books about various characters, thought they are based less on fairy tales than this one.  I've had several of my friends read this series and fall in love with it too.  Shannon Hale is one of my favorite authors and she always manages to create memorable characters and interesting plot twists.

Violet Eyes
By Debbie Viguie
Out of 5 Stars: 3.5
          "The Princess and the Pea" is a fairy tale that is usually cruelly neglected, but it finally gets some much needed attention in this adaptation.  When a storm brings an ill Prince Richard to her family's farm, Violet falls in love at first sight.  However, when he returns to his castle, his parents inform him that his bride will be chosen through a contest between eligible princesses.  In order to marry the man she loves, Violet will have to compete against princesses in a set of seemingly frivolous tasks meant to asses things like her needlework and delicacy.  However, there may be more to these tests than what meets the eye.  On top of that a secret about Violet's true identity only complicates matters as she makes friends and enemies among the other contestants.
          Clever plot twists turn this seemingly simple fairy tale into one filled with intelligent characters and humor.


Beauty
By Robin McKinley
Out of 5 Stars: 4.5
          This is another version of "Beauty and the Beast" that follows more closely to the original fairy tale than Beastly or the Disney version (I'm a complete Disney Nerd, so don't think I'm hating on them!).  The story begins with a girl named Honour, not Belle.  Her childhood nickname is Beauty, which is ironic since she is considered the plain one one in the family.  Bookish and a tom-boy she spends most of her free time reading and riding her enormous horse while her two sisters become lovelier and more socially adept as the years go on.  When their merchant father loses several of his ships at sea, including one captained by one of Beauty's sister's fiance, they are forced to move to the countryside.  Over the next few years they are forced to learn many new skills in order to survive.  Beauty takes up many of the manly duties of the cottage and soon finds peace in her new home.  However, the family's luck takes another hard turn when their father returns one snowy night from a long trip very frightened and with saddle bags stuffed with gold and precious gifts.  He claims to have gotten lost and found a castle in the woods where his every need was attended to by invisible servants.  As he was leaving the next day he'd stopped to pick a rose from the garden, which was the only gift Beauty had asked for when he left on his journey.  Enraged by his action, a terrifying beast, whose face he couldn't bare to look at for long, accosted him.  The Beast was furious that the man had stolen from him after being shown such hospitality.  He only agreed to let the man leave on the condition that in a month either he must bring back one of his daughters to live with him forever, or the man must return himself and die.  To his credit, after the father told his family this story he declared that he had no intention of letting one of his beloved daughters go back to that place.  However, Beauty insists on saving her father, claiming that she will be missed the least of her siblings.  She goes to live with the Beast at his castle where she finds many interesting enchantments and unexpected magics.
          Beauty's spunky personality is refreshing and the reader will feel even more connected to her because of the extensive back story that proceeds her arrival at the Beast's castle.  Overall, a delightful read!

The Swan Kingdom 
By Zoe Marriott
Out of 5 Stars: 3.5
          The story of "The Wild Swans" is a little known fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson and Zoe Marriott gives it new life in this tale.  Alexandra is heartbroken when her healing abilities are not enough to save her mother when she's attacked by an unnatural beast.  The kingdom's grief is interrupted however by the arrival of a beautiful but suspicious woman who instantly charms the king into marrying her.  When Alexandra and her three brothers attempt to investigate the strange magic surrounding this woman everything goes wrong.  Her brothers disappear and she is banished to a neighboring kingdom.  As the once barren land suddenly seems to come back to life at her arrival, Alexandra makes the acquaintance of a young prince.  But her heart draws her back to her own kingdom in order to save her brothers, her father, and her people from the evil queen.  She must be unflinchingly brave and patient as she performs the long, painful, and self-sacrificing spell in order to bring peace to her home and save her family.  
          Since I bought this book they have come out with a new cover.  So if you can't find it with this one, don't worry, it's still the same book.

The Fairy's Return and Other Princess Tales
By Gail Carson Levine
Out of 5 Stars: 3.5
This is a book comprised of six short fairy tale retellings filled with humor and quirky characters.  Included are adaptations of "Cinderella"/"The Princess and the Glass Hill", "The Princess and the Frog"/"Puddocky"/"Rapunzel", "Toads and Diamonds", "The Princess and the Pea", "Sleeping Beauty", and "The Golden Goose".  My favorites are the stories of "The Fairy's Mistake" and "The Princess Test".  All of the stories take the original fairy tales and give them a very prominent twist.  Fairy gifts turn out to cause more harm than good, a girl eats nothing but parsley but somehow has the most beautiful smile in the world, and Cinderella is a boy.
          The reading level is a lot lower in this collection of tales than many of the others on my list.  It is a perfect read for anyone, but is marketed towards elementary and Jr. High readers, not that that means much.  Reading level is almost exclusively based on vocabulary and not by content.  (Sorry, it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine.)

Ella Enchanted
By Gail Carson Levine
Out of 5 Stars: 5
          Ella Enchanted has elements of the "Cinderella" fairy tale, but the majority of the story focuses on a misguided "gift" given to Ella at birth by a fairy.  The gift/curse is a spell of obedience.  Ella cannot disobey a direct order given to her by anyone, no matter what it is.  Her free-spirited nature causes her to be extremely quirky and to find little ways of rebellion whenever possible.  Despite keeping the curse a secret for the majority of her life, when Ella's mother dies and her father remarries she finds herself in danger of discovery.  It isn't long until her evil stepsister discovers her secret and uses it to control Ella.  Fed up, Ella runs away from the finishing school she'd been attending and takes a dangerous trek filled with ogres in order to try and find the fairy that put the spell on her.  Her humor and ability with languages gains her a friendship with Prince Char.  But even he can't save her from the orders of others.
          This was one of my ALL-TIME favorite books growing up.  I often rented the book on cassette from my school library, and listened to it over and over again.  It was chosen as a Newbery Honor winner in 1998 (it should have won in my opinion).  Extremely funny and filled with great characters and interesting creatures (including ogres, elves, fairies, gnomes, and giants) it definitely deserves the 5 stars!
          Don't even speak to me about the movie!!!!  They may as well have been different stories all together!  It was only loosely based off the book and should not reflect on the original work at all!  On its own the movie is sort of cute, I suppose...  But the book is fifty thousand times more intricate and enjoyable.  Normally I am able to appreciate both the book and the movie adaptation as separate works.  Not this time though.  The movie is simply too different and warps the spirit of the book.  There is simply no comparing them.  (#sorrynotsorry Anne Hathaway fans)

Fairest
By Gail Carson Levine
Out of 5 Stars: 3.5
          As you can see, Gail Carson Levine is another of my favorite authors.  This particular book is an adaptation of "Snow White".  It is in the same world as Ella Enchanted, though it takes place in a neighboring country.  Aza is the adopted daughter of an innkeeper in the land of Ayortha.  Ayortha is a country that values beauty and music.  Aza has the musical ability, but her appearance is so unusual that most people consider her ugly.  As she grows up she develops the unique talents of throwing her voice and imitating other people's voices.  When the extremely beautiful, young, queen-to-be hears her one day she instantly seizes the opportunity to use these talents for her own ends.  The queen, who has come from another country to marry the king, reveals that she does not have a natural singing voice and fears rejection by her new subjects.  She blackmails Aza with the threat of imprisonment and the closing of her family's inn if she does not help her.  Aza is forces to sing for the queen by throwing her voice.  When the king is injured, the queen's plots become harder for Aza to bear, even as she grows close to the king's son.  What will happen if she is discovered?  And what is the terrible secret that surrounds the queen and a certain mirror in her possession?
       
Wildwood Dancing
By Juliet Marillier
Out of 5 Stars: 5
          Wildwood Dancing is a combination of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" and "The Princess and the Frog" but also contains hints of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Pride and Prejudice, and even vampires.  The story is told from Jena's point of view, the second eldest of five sisters who's ages range from 5 to 17 years old.  It takes place in the 1500s in Transylvania, a land rumored to be full of fairies and other dubious creatures.  Their family lives in a renovated old castle near a lake that's rumored to be sinister and magical in nature.  Jena is the practical, mathematically talented sister who happens to have a pet frog that only she can hear speak. When the girls' father leaves for the winter to recover his health the girls are left to run the household on their own.  They manage quite well until their cousin Caesar deems them unfit to rule themselves and becomes increasingly controlling.  But the girls also have a secret.  Every full moon they cross a magical divide and journey across the lake to dance in the Other Kingdom with various magical creatures.  It is a beautiful world full of magic and danger.  However, humans mistrust and hate the creatures of the Other Kingdom, and often with good reason.  When her older sister, Tati, falls in love with a seemingly sinister man from the Other Kingdom, Jena fears for her family.  She tries desperately to keep her home from falling into Caeser's hands, to keep Tati from being lost to them forever, and to keep the Other Kingdom from being discovered and destroyed by humans.  Will her logical brain get in the way of her heart and ruin them all?
          The book is incredibly rich and intricate (just like the front cover) and I've read it over and over again.  There is a sequel that deals with one of Jena's sisters that is another one of my favorites.  It's called Cybele's Secret.

5 Honorable Mentions

Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George
          Only the OCD-ish desire to keep my list to 10 books could have forced me to leave this one out!  It is another version of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" and though it is not as long as Entwined or Wildwood Dancing it makes up for it in a charming love story and excellent writing from two characters' points of view.  A unique aspect of this book can be found in the fact that in this version, the princesses are being forced to dance their shoes to pieces at night.  Can a young soldier with a talent for knitting save them from a terrible curse?


Midnight Peals by Debbie Viguie
          This is a version of "The Little Mermaid" that I read a long time ago.  Pearl was rescued from the sea as a baby by a fisherman and raised by him and his wife.  However as she grows older her life becomes quite complicated.  The villagers shun her for her strange appearance and her friendship with Prince James must be kept a secret.  I don't remember the entire plot, but I remember that I read it more than once and enjoyed it greatly.


Belle by Cameron Dokey
          A retelling of "Beauty and the Beast", there are several unique twists to this book.  For one, Belle has a talent for carving.  One of the reasons she agrees to go and live with the Beast in the first place is to catch a glimpse of the legendary Heartwood Tree.  If carved by the right hands, the tree is supposed to reveal the face of one's true love.  Another change is the fact that in order to break the curse, someone has to be able to look into the face of the Beast for a set number of seconds.  A feat which no one has ever been able to achieve.

The Diamond Secret by Suzanne Weyn
          Now, this might not be considered strictly a fairy tale since it is based off the legend of Anastasia Romanov.  Yet it was too good for me not to include it!  Nadya is a mischievous kitchen girl working in a Russian tavern.  When two men show up at the inn and claim that her long-lost grandmother has sent them to find her, she gladly leaves her life of drudgery behind.  She cannot remember her grandmother, or for that matter any part of her past.  But she eagerly sets off on a journey filled with laughter, love, and betrayal.


Ophelia by Lisa Klein
          This is another book that is not exactly based off of a traditional fairy tale.  Here we get a retelling of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" from the point of view of Ophelia.  I was highly skeptical of this book, considering the often unflattering portrait of Ophelia that we get in the play.  I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of character that the author gave her as well as the complicated plot that she wove behind the original story.  The ending was extremely satisfying and I'd recommend it to anyone who has read the play and pitied poor Ophelia.

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          Have you read any of these books?  Will you now?  Do you have any more fairy tale adaptations that you love?  Leave me comments and let me know!
  
                               Sincerely, 

             The Crazy Book Lady