Storytelling: Moss Gown, William H. Hook & Donald Carrick

This is a story that I haven't told yet, but I have WANTED TO for my whole life.  It's one of a pair (the other one is The White Cat - which I also harbor dreams of turning into a juvenile or YA fantasy story someday) and if I had to choose only one picture book or fairy tale to read for the rest of my life (terrible thought) then Moss Gown would be that book.

Moss Gown

William H. Hook, illustrated by Donald Carrick

ISBN: 9780395547939

 This is an interesting fairy tale, and is one that is almost certainly Southern American in origin.  Alternate forms are the Cap o' Rushes, Catskin, Tattercoats, or Meat-Loves-Salt.  The core of the story is very like those older English tales, or to a classic Cinderella story, but what makes this version so interesting is that it has been married to a King Lear foundation.  

Candace is the youngest of three daughters of an old plantation master, and he summons all of them to declaim their love for him, before he makes his decisions about his will.  Candace isn't interested in flattery, but does love him.  He doesn't understand, and banishes her from his lands (here we see King Lear) where she falls into the Cinderella elements of the story; meeting a "gris-gris" woman in the swamp, being gifted with magical helpful items (her gown of moss).  The story then mixes the Catskin and Cinderella stories thoroughly, with Candace working in the kitchen in her moss gown, but sneaking off to a single ball, where the young master falls in love with her and pines away.  In a sweet King Lear finish, the wedding ball is crashed by an old beggar who Candace recognizes as her father, turned out by her conniving older sisters.  She arranges to serve him a dinner of unsalted food, then reminds him of the simple power of love.

Carrick's illustrations are phenomenal.  They are powerful and rich and evocative and haunting, and I will remember and love them all my life.  That said, I do believe that this story is rich enough to stand on it's own, and the very specific Southern flavor of the story makes it perfect for my region.

  

Still Star-Crossed, Melinda Taub

Still Star-Crossed, Melinda Taub
ISBN: 9780385743501
Read November 24, 2013

YA: "sequel" to Romeo and Juliet, in Shakespearean English, in the style of Much Ado About Nothing.

Confession time: I didn't ever get to be a typical teenager.  Crap went down in my life starting around age 10, and pretty much that whole next decade was a total write-off.  So I have to admit that I've always been slightly amused and bemused by Romeo and Juliet - I never got to have that sort of experience in my own life, and I couldn't understand how they could be so stupid and so passionate while they were so young and naive.  Even now, having had boyfriends and a husband, I still don't understand that very particular type of passionate teen crush.  Because of that, Romeo and Juliet is one of my least-favorite plays.  Now, that said, I love Shakespeare with a passion, so even my least-favorite play isn't bad, I just never really sympathized with the protagonists.

So I was a bit trepidatious when this one came across my desk.  "Oh God," I thought, "it wasn't messy and passionate and stupid enough, here's round two!"  But, reader, I was WRONG.

Oh yeah, it is a sequel, and it does deal with Benvolio and Rosaline, Montague and Capulet, but it's much more a comedy of errors than a tragedy.  Now, don't get me wrong, people are going to die, but that's pretty much a given in a Shakespeare play anyway.

It's written in novel form, in beautiful formal English (soooo wonderful to see in a YA book, you can't even imagine) and the characters are perfectly matched against each other.  There's madness and ambition and love and snarky comebacks and it really is pretty much perfect.  Very Princess Bride.  Almost enough to make me like Romeo and Juliet itself just a little bit more.