The Book Search

Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres.  I love hearing about how things were in the olden days (particularly from the comfort of my couch in my air conditioned house with indoor plumbing and refrigerator and dishwasher).  But in the way of taking you some place you didn't even know you wanted to go, these stories totally do that. The first one is a fairy tale.  I suppose this seems like a bit of an oxymoron-a new fairy tale, how can that be?  Aren't fairy tales old folk tales?  Kings and queens and princesses?  Well, it turns out that new ones get written all the time and this one is absolutely terrific. It's called Eight Princesses and a Magic Mirror.  It's written by Natasha Farrant and illustrated by Lydia Corry.  The story starts with an enchantress who is asked by a king and queen to be a godmother to their daughter, except that the enchantress, who really wants to do the right thing, doesn't know exactly what makes a good princ...

One of the "it" books this year for middle grades is called "Rump" by Leisl Shurtliff. It's a chapter book with the back story of Rumplestiltskin, how this little guy learns to spin straw into gold and why he wants a baby (it's not as creepy as you think). It's a great story filled with interesting characters and great writing and good lessons about believing what "everyone says", the power of our choices, and what is destiny. I really liked it. I thought it would be great to pair with Paul Zelinsky's version Rumplestiltskin (and there is a Reading Rainbow episode based around it!). It would also be great to compare with a story like The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by John Scieszcka and any other version of the Three Little Pigs or if you wanted to go bigger, compare it to the Wizard of Oz and Wicked. Here's book trailer about it. I really love fairy tales and there are some great ones out there that you might never he...

Many people like to look back at the year and categorize things from the year... ok, well, I read a lot, so here are a few of my favorite fairy tale books. My favorite picture book fairy tale is called "Elephant Joe, Brave Knight!" by David Wojtowycz.  This is a very funny little fairy tale where the brave knights (a very cartoony elephant and his side kick, the pig) are called upon to rescue a princess from a dragon, BUT things are NOT what they seem.  This would be a great book to talk about elements of fairy tales (after you've read some of the more familiar ones) and then use this as a springboard to writing your own fairy tales.  It's so much fun.  Here's Mrs. Frenzel reading it!  I just read one I really liked. As a disclaimer, I really like fairy tales. This fairy tale was well written, has great characters and some very interesting plot twists. It's called Jinx by Sage Blackwood. The main character is Jinx who lives with his stepmother and st...