Summer Reading Program: Fairytale Heroes

Penultimate Program!

Started with Sam and the Tigers again, (because seriously, so amazing)

Skippyjon Jones Snow What

Judy Chachner

ISBN: 9780803737891

Skippy dreams the story of Snow White (and other classic fairy tales) in "fractured fairy tale" fashion.

I'll be totally honest, when I realized I wasn't going to be able to give the program this time, I was relieved that I didn't have to do the Skippyjon Jones book.  They're great for kids, everyone loves them, they're silly and fun and just subversive enough to be enjoyable for parents and kids, but I just don't like them that much myself.  So it was nice to have at least one book this time around that I wasn't saddened to be missing.

Skippy's sisters are on a princess kick, but Skippy knows that the real story is about the hero.  And who is that hero?  Skippy himself, in a dream sequence that includes the seven Chihuahuas.  

 The Frog Prince Continued

Jon Scieszka, painted by Steve Johnson

ISBN: 0670834211

What happens AFTER the princess kisses the frog?

Scieszka is a crazy person, and all of his stories are looney tunes in the very best ways.  Here we start off with the Frog Prince, who isn't too happy as a Prince, to be totally honest, and sets off into the Forest to figure out how to become Happily Ever After.  Along the way he runs across as many different fairy-tale personages as can be squeezed into the plotline, and the ending has a twist ending that anyone over 12 will see a mile away.  

Tuesday Storytime, Summer Reading: Nursery School Heroes

Another one I didn't get to give, but some really classic books.

Sam and the Tigers
Julius Lester, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
ISBN: 0803720289
A delightful and joyful all-are-welcome rendition of the fraught Little Black Sambo by two of America's best.

I can't believe I have not reviewed this book here before.  Little Black Sambo has a great story, but also has some - issues.  Lots of issues.  There is really no reason to show little kids that sort of racist representation (and please note I'm talking about as a storybook, for entertainment, for very young children).  I had resigned myself to just never sharing that particular story, until I came across this joyful retaking of the heart of the story.

Sam lives in Sam-sam-sa-mara, and everyone human is named Sam, and all the animals (of which there are many, and they are a full part of the ecosystem and society) are all named Mr or Mrs Animal-Name (so, Mr Tiger and Mrs Ostrich).  Sam is off to buy his new school wardrobe, and his dad Sam and his mother Sam are in agony over his - let's go with unconventional - choices of clothing.  But Sam (the child - try and keep it straight!) is delighted, and heads off to school the next morning with stars in his eyes and a skip in his step.  Until the tigers show up, of course.  The rest of the tale is totally familiar, but seamlessly stripped of nastyness and stereotype, until all that is left is a beautiful trickster tale of the triumph of the weak but witty over the strong and bullying.  I use it as often as I can.


The Little Engine that Could
Originally by Watty Piper, illustrated by Cristina Ong, and heavily abridged for board-book format.
ISBN: 0448401010
Short and sweet, this abridged version is shaped like a train, and keeps the flavor of the original well.

Nine times out of ten, I'd tell parents and teachers and storytimers to avoid abridged versions.  I don't think it's fair to the original, I think often the ideas are better suited to the longer original format (and therefore to an older age that can sit through the length) and personally, it feels like cheating.

However, I love the story of the Little Engine that Could, and the original is hellacious long, and in my normal set-up of three books, I could never present it.  This tiny little board book is a perfect little summary of the story, and serves as a lovely short introduction to kids who may not be familiar with the original.  The board book is 5 spreads long, with 2 full spreads and the others as page-panels, and the story is condensed greatly: train is full of toys and dolls, train breaks down, little blue engine is the only other train in the book, and no failures occur on the way up the mountain.  Still, the idea of the story holds up, and the inclusion of the original illustrations do much to paper over the missing narrative.

Don't Touch My Hat
James Rumford
ISBN: 9780375837821
Originally reviewed here.

I had the hardest time finding a final "nursery tale" style hero story, but I was pretty happy with this one.  The pay-off at the end with the hat reveal is great fun, and little kids always like cowboys.

Storytelling: Diamonds and Toads/Mother Hulda (fairy tale)

This one is another old favorite.  If you want to get into the nitty-gritty of fairy tales (you know you want to) this one is an Aarne-Thompson 480; "Kind and Unkind Girls" which should be subtitled "Who Get What They Richly Deserve."

The two classic versions are known as Diamonds and Toads and Mother Hulda, respectively.

In Diamonds and Toads, the youngest daughter of a widow is the only nice one in the family, and thus gets the short end of the stick, doing all the work.  She's out at the well one day, and kindly draws extra water for an old beggar lady, who (of course) is a great fairy in disguise, and who blesses her for her kindness by decreeing that diamonds, pearls, and roses will fall from her lips every time she speaks.  Despite the awkward nature of this gift, it's a lovely thought, and the girl's nasty mother thinks so as well.  She sends the older, nastier sister out as well, but the girl is an idiot as well as mean, so the fairy curses her to drop toads and vipers from her mouth instead.

Mother Hulda is a bit more complicated.  Instead of helping the beggar by the well, our virtuous heroine (this time a stepdaughter) jumps down the well after a fallen spindle, and ends up in a magical country where she finds everything in disarray, and industriously helps a lady sort things out.  The lady is (of course) the fairy ruler of that realm, who covers her in gold and pops her back up the well back home, but the family can't remove the gold to steal it.  So, stepmother shoves stepsister down the well, but the lazy girl doesn't bother to help (in some versions even actively opposes the lady just to be a brat), so the lady rolls her in pitch (tar) and returns her back home as well.

There's a delightful cajun-flavored version by the delightful duo of Robert D. San Souci and Jerry Pinkney, called The Talking Eggs, where it's set down in creole country, with a family of poor black women.  The fairy lady now owns a strange farmstead out in the woods, and the wondrous items (that fall at the good girl's feet, not from her lips) are gained from magical eggs who kindly indicate their use, despite their appearances.

This one makes the list mainly because there is evidence of this tale being adapted by southerners, but what makes me most happy is that, again, this is a story of clever people (especially clever women) who are clever AND kind and generous, and who get rewarded for those qualities, while the less-smart, less-kind, and less-generous representatives ALSO get what's coming to them, but it's no-one's fault but their own.

I also like the idea, as in Little Gold Star, that bad behavior gets made physically obvious on the person, either permanently, or until they repent and behave better.

Finally, this one is another where there is no supernatural evil or "villain" to conquer, just an exploration of human nature and the consequences of selfish or hurtful behavior.  

References:

Online:
Toads and Diamonds, via Project Gutenberg (from the Blue Fairy Book, collected/edited by Andrew Lang)
Annotated Diamonds and Toads via SurLaLune

Mother Hulda (Frau Holle) via SurLaLune

Mother Holle, via Project Gutenberg (from Fairy Tales, by the Brothers Grimm)


Picture Books:
Toads and Diamonds
Charlotte Huck, illustrated by Anita Lobel
ISBN: 9780688136802

The Talking Eggs
Robert D. San Souci, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
ISBN: 9780803706194


Others:
Toads and Diamonds
Heather Tomlinson
ISBN: 9780805089684
(Juvenile/Middle-Grade fiction, set in India)

The Talking Eggs, Robert D. San Souci, Jerry Pinkney

The Talking Eggs, Robert D. San Souci, illus by Jerry Pinkney.  ISBN: 0803706197

Read July 23, 2013

 

Picture Book: Classic fairy-tale story (Perrault's The Fairies, also known as Diamonds and Toads, and Grimm's Mother Hulda) gets a Creole makeover as this dynamic duo knocks another beautiful book out of the park.

 

Blanche and Rose live a hard-knock life with their single mother (although the life might be a bit less hard-knock if Rose and Mom weren't slackers and harpies) until a chance encounter with a weird old woman at the well leads sweet-tempered and hard-working Blanche into a fortune - after a strange night requiring her to be respectful, gentle, and hard-working.  

 

When Blanche comes back home loaded, Rose is shoved out the door to try her luck, and of course, fails miserably as she is incapable of governing herself.  

 

I would personally have preferred a Gullah rendition rather than Creole, as I grew up in Charleston, but one can't have everything.

 

A really nice touch for me is that Blanche and the old witchwoman share the same (beautiful traditional African) hairstyle, while Rose and Mom have theirs down and loose in imitation of white styles, trying to be "fancy ladies" in the big city.