[O] Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

(This was first written for my Materials for Tweens class.)

This review refers to the Overdrive version of the audiobook of Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris, read by Carrington MacDuffie.

Christian was raised by a troll, but that didn’t stop him from longing after Princess Marigold. They become pen pals by carrier pigeon, and one day, Christian decides to make his fortune and find work at the palace. There, he must save Marigold from her mother’s schemes and prove that he is worthy of her love.

This is a cute story that is pretty funny, although younger listeners may not get all the references to fairy tales and pop culture. MacDuffie’s voice took some getting used to at the beginning, but her performance is funny and draws listeners into the story.

This post is my Blogging from A to Z entry for the letter O.

Nanowrimo!

I can’t believe it’s almost November again already! I’m doing National Novel Writing Month again, and this year I’m a Municipal Liaison for my region, so I’ve been busy getting stuff ready for November. Alas, that means my poor, neglected blog was neglected even leading up to November.

But–! One of the classes I’m taking right now is a tween materials class, which means I have 50+ reviews of tween books and media coming after I finish this semester! (Which I will be doing while doing NaNo this year…..)

I’ve also been busy doing translations for FUNimation and trying to get my students up to Common Core standards.

We’re doing fairy tale themed writing exercises in my classes until NaNo is over (or I run out of ideas), so here’s the first prompt:

beanstalk / boots / cow

Ready, set, write!

[T] The Three Bears by Paul Galdone

It was a nice coincidence that this book happens to come right after Stone Soup. In my head, they are in the same category–they are both books that I read as a child that I rediscovered this semester while collecting books for class. Also, both were stories that I was familiar with in other contexts, but I’m pretty sure the copies I found were the same editions that I read as a child.

I took a quick picture before returning it to the library.

I never really liked the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears because it didn’t really make sense. How could porridge from the same pot be too hot, too cold, and just right if the “just right” bowl was the smallest one? Shouldn’t it be the coldest? Unless “too cold” was in a plate, which I’ve never seen. How does a little girl break a bear’s chair just by sitting on it? I didn’t mind the fact that bears had chairs, but wouldn’t even the smallest one be heavier than a little girl? And then why doesn’t the little girl get punished for breaking all the bears’ stuff?

I think I was a little happier when I found out that the oldest versions of the stories had an old woman instead of a little girl, but this is probably why I tend to prefer retellings of fairy tales instead of the fairy tales themselves…

This post is my Blogging from A to Z entry for the letter T.

[B] Beauty by Robin McKinley

Beauty by Robin McKinley is a retelling of the fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast” (one of my favorites, as you can see by this post…). I have to admit I haven’t read it in a while, but while I was scanning for books for the A to Z challenge on my bookshelf, I found this one for the letter B. I toyed with re-reading Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson for the challenge, but I am already planning on doing a different book by her, so I chose this one instead to write about a genre of books I really enjoy.

I had a phase where I read and bought a lot of adapted fairy tale books, including this one and Spindle’s End, also by Robin McKinley. Other versions of fairy tales on my shelf right now are:

• Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (I bought this way before the movie came out)
• Spinners by Donna Jo Napoli and Richard Tchen
• Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede (more on her later)

Recent fairy tale retellings that I’ve read (borrowed from the library, so I don’t have physical copies):

• The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale (which I just realized was not on my recently read books list! But the whole series is really good)
• A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn

There are also tons of books I love that mention different fairy tales, but aren’t exactly based on them. There are too many to list, and I can’t remember them all even if I tried, but some might just show up later this month. 😉 I grew up reading and listening to fairy tales in English, Chinese, and Taiwanese, and I still love discovering new retellings of them.

Any of the books on this list would be great for girls (and boys!) who love fairy tales.

This post is my Blogging from A to Z entry for the letter B.