Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(3/11/01 9:19:23 am)
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ya list
Ok-
So I found this incredibly hard. I included both novel-length retellings and fantasy books with fairy and folklore woven into them. I limited myself just to books using fairy or folklore marketed as children/ya novels. I leave a picture book list to someone else.
I’m cheating because I’m listing by author. Many books are part of a series. Please, don’t make me choose. Also this is a highly idiosyncratic list, based more on my preferences than a larger category of “great” fairy and folklore stories.
J. R. R. Tolkein - The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I revisit them every five to ten years and couldn’t live without them.
Ursula LeGuin - her Wizard of Earthsea trilogy with the fourth book, Tehanu. Another series I revisit and could not live without.
Robin McKinley -I adore both Beauty retellings - as well as the Hero and the Crown and the Blue Sword. I haven’t read her most recent retelling of the Sleeping Beauty.
Patricia McKillip - I couldn't even try to limit myself here.
Donna Jo Napoli - particulary Zel and Crazy Jack. I haven't yet read her retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
Eloise McGraw - The Moorchild. I can't get this tale about fairy changelings out of my head.
Gloria Whalen Turner - The Thief. A fantasy adventure which uses Greek folklore and mythology.
Frannie Billingsley - The Folk Keeper. A fabulous selchie tale. That the Newbery Committe entirely overlooked this book astounds me.
The last two spots I can’t decide on. Philip Pullman’s first two books in the His Dark Materials series are favorites, but I have not yet read the third. Harry Potter of course would provide much entertainment. It certainly owes a great deal to fairy tale witches - no matter what some say about the books being about Satan worship. I also adore Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series as well as Susan Fletcher’s Dragonlings series.
Sorry the list is so heavily influenced by Western European folklore! And thank goodness no one is truly proposing to send me to a desert island! Laura Mc
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