Stories Inspired by Fairy Tales

Fairy tales are dramatic, often scary, and much read. Sometimes authors use fairy tales as starting points for new stories, twisting and interpreting them in new ways.

      You know the story of Cinderella: the poor girl with the mean stepsisters and stepmother, who scores the handsome prince. Marissa Meyer took some of those pieces in her futuristic take on the Cinderella story, Cinder.  As plague ravages the overcrowded Earth, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect the world. There are two sequels, Scarlet and Tress, each based on characters from different fairy tales.

      Troll’s Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales, are fairy tales retold through the eyes of the characters who were the villains in the original tales. Everyone thinks they know the real story behind the villains in fairy tales--evil, no two ways about it. But the villains themselves beg to differ. In this anthology, you'll hear from the Giant's wife (from Jack and the Beanstalk), Rumpelstiltskin, the oldest of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, and more.

       The new novel by Tom McNeal, Far Far Away, doesn't exactly retell one or more fairy tales.  Instead it creates a new kind of fairy tale with roots in the old tales and featuring the ghost of Jacob Grimm. When Jeremy Johnson Johnson's strange ability to speak to the ghost of Jacob Grimm draws the interest of his classmate, Ginger Boltinghouse, the two find themselves at the center of a series of disappearances in their hometown.

Here are some more books that take the fairy tales we remember and give them just a little twist.

Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

On her way to marry a prince she's never met, Princess Anidori is betrayed by her guards and her lady-in-waiting and must become a goose girl to survive until she can reveal her true identity and reclaim the crown that is rightfully hers..

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

 In this novel based on the story of Cinderella, Ella struggles against the childhood curse that forces her to obey any order given to her.

Beast by Donna Jo Napoli

This book is based on the tale of "Beauty and the Beast," told from the point of view of the beast and set in Persia.

There are many other books based on the fairy tales we all love.  Just ask in the Youth Services Room!

Happy reading,
Connie