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Author
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Comment
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aka Greensleeves
Registered User
(9/19/06 4:08 pm)
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Best middle-grade retellings?
I'm doing a school visit next month for fifth graders, and we'll be talking about "How a Fairy Tale Becomes a Novel." Since my own work really isn't appropriate for this age group, I want to have the librarian pull as many retellings for younger readers as she can.
For now, I have...
--the two Windling-Datlow anthologies (WOLF AT THE DOOR, SWAN SISTER)
--ELLA ENCHANTED, Levine
--BREATH, Napoli
--THE DOOR IN THE HEDGE, McKinley
...and maybe a couple of the Simon Pulse "Once Upon a Time" books (I think the content is probably safe for younger kids).
Literary merit is not as much of a priority as the accessibility of the material, as well as presenting a wide variety of tales.
Also, recommendations for good "boy" books are especially welcome, since I am weak in this area.
Many thanks!
~Elizabeth C. Bunce
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Heidi Anne Heiner
ezOP
(9/19/06 8:31 pm)
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Re: Best middle-grade retellings?
These are all suitable for the age group, although many are actually slated for grade 6 and up. Many of the authors have multiple books in a series, but I'm only including the first title. I'm also adding my preferred McKinley and Napoli for the age group as well as Levine's latest. Breath might be a little difficult for some.
First of all, the best for novels with male protagonists would be those by P. W. Catanese. I have a page devoted to his books on SurLaLune here.
And also easily accessible right now is Michael Buckley's Sisters Grimm series.
Try Patricia Wrede's Dealing with Dragons which use lots of fairy tale themes, but not a specific entire plot. More male protagonists in those, too. Rumpelstiltskin makes a memorable appearance, for example.
Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher
East by Edith Patou
Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
Bella at Midnight by Diane Stanley
Mira, Mirror by
Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
Beauty by Robin McKinley
Prince of the Pond by Donna Jo Napoli
The Frog Princess by E. D. Baker
Leaping Beauty: And Other Animal Fairy Tales by Gregory Maguire
Goose Chase by Patrice Kindl
Lower reading level, but suitable for the less advanced readers in fifth grade: Princess School Series by Jane B. Mason and Sarah Hines Stephens
I've inevitably left some out but this list focuses on what should be readily available at the public library, local bookstores, school library, and even in their Scholastic Booksale materials if they get those. (Catanese, for example, appears there as well as some of these others.)
Heidi
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Heidi Anne Heiner
ezOP
(9/19/06 8:35 pm)
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Re: Best middle-grade retellings?
Oh, and Vivian Vande Velde's Tales from the Brothers Grimm and the Sisters Weird and The Rumpelstiltskin Problem.
There really are ever so many...
Heidi
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Heather KT
Registered User
(9/20/06 10:06 am)
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Re: Best middle-grade retellings?
A few more:
Patricia Marcantonio, Red Ridin' in the Hood, and Other Cuentos (short retellings with a Latino flavor)
Rafe Martin, Birdwing
Phillip Pullman, I Was A Rat! (fairy tale premise, takes off from there)
Gary Schmidt, Straw Into Gold (I really liked this one)
It's interesting that the majority of fairy tale novels I can think of are girl-oriented, when Arthurian and Greek mythology have so many great boy-protagonist retellings.
Heather
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Heidi Anne Heiner
ezOP
(9/20/06 10:27 am)
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Re: Best middle-grade retellings?
Yes, Straw Into Gold didn't do well on sales, unfortunately, which is why I excluded it although I liked it. 100s of copies have been sitting on Bookcloseouts for years now. That was during the Rumpelstiltskin emphasis--Spinners and Rumpelstiltskin Problem came out around the same time.
Whittington by Alan Armstrong (A Newbery Honor)
The Phoenix Dance by Dia Calhoun--It was one of the first in the new emphasis on Twelve Dancing Princesses--probably influenced by the long expected, but just released Barbie version.
And I've forgotten more, too. I always do.
I keep expecting more Puss in Boots inspired books with all of the popularity of the character from Shrek. He's even getting his own movie in a few years, so maybe we'll see some like "Whittington" but with Puss around then.
Do browse through the modern interpretation pages on SurLaLune, too.
Heidi
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janeyolen
Registered User
(9/24/06 5:06 am)
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Re: Best middle-grade retellings?
My PAY THE PIPER and TROLL BRIDGE with son Adam Stemple, as well.
Jane
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aka Greensleeves
Registered User
(9/26/06 2:51 pm)
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Re: Best middle-grade retellings?
Thank you all so much. This is a tremendous resource.
Heidi, you're a gem. Do you get told that often enough?
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Heidi Anne Heiner
ezOP
(9/26/06 7:06 pm)
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Re: Best middle-grade retellings?
Thank you, Greensleeves. Well, one can never hear that one is a gem too many times, really. So thank you again. (Did I ever mention McGraw's Greensleeves was a very important book to me in my teen years. Sorry, my brain is jumping everywhere tonight.)
Jane, I thought I had put your books on the list. I remember thinking of those two and Briar Rose and then decided Briar Rose was a little older. Didn't mean to then leave them all off!
I also left off another new one:
Cinderella (As If You Didn't Already Know the Story)
by Barbara Ensor
Done slapping myself on the forehead now.
Heidi
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