Picture of author.

Donna Jo Napoli

Author of Beast

116+ Works 12,606 Members 493 Reviews 26 Favorited

About the Author

Donna Jo Napoli was born on February 28, 1948. She received a B.A. in mathematics, an M.A. in Italian literature, and a Ph.D. in general and romance linguistics from Harvard University. She has taught on the university level since 1970, is widely published in scholarly journals, and has received show more numerous grants and fellowships in the area of linguistics. In the area of linguistics, she has authored five books, co-authored six books, edited one book, and co-edited five books. She is also a published poet and co-editor of four volumes of poetry. Her first middle grade novel, Soccer Shock, was published in 1991. Her other novels include the Zel, Beast, The Wager, Lights on the Nile, Skin, Storm, Hidden, and Dark Shimmer. She is also the author of several picture books including Flamingo Dream, The Wishing Club: A Story About Fractions, Corkscrew Counts: A Story About Multiplication, The Crossing, A Single Pearl, and Hands and Hearts. She has received several awards including the New Jersey Reading Association's M. Jerry Weiss Book Award for The Prince of the Pond and the Golden Kite Award for Stones in Water. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Series

Works by Donna Jo Napoli

Beast (2000) 841 copies
Zel (1996) 798 copies
Stones in Water (1997) 758 copies
Bound (2004) 754 copies
Sirena (1998) 711 copies
Daughter of Venice (2002) 532 copies
Spinners (1999) 376 copies
The Magic Circle (1995) 352 copies
Albert (2001) 324 copies
The Smile (2008) 268 copies
North (2004) 267 copies
Three Days (2001) 266 copies
The Prince of the Pond (1992) 235 copies
The King of Mulberry Street (2005) 232 copies
Alligator Bayou (2009) 223 copies
Song of the Magdalene (1996) 216 copies
Breath (2003) 215 copies
Fish Girl (2017) 214 copies
The Wager (2010) 160 copies
The Bravest Thing (1995) 141 copies
Crazy Jack (1999) 125 copies
The Great God Pan (2003) 116 copies
Dark Shimmer (2015) 100 copies
Ugly (2005) 89 copies
Mogo, the Third Warthog (2008) 88 copies
Fire In The Hills (2006) 82 copies
Storm (2014) 68 copies
Hunger: A Tale of Courage (2018) 67 copies
Friends Everywhere (1713) 62 copies
The Crossing (2011) 60 copies
Hidden (2014) 59 copies
For the Love of Venice (1998) 52 copies
Lights on the Nile (2011) 51 copies
Shark Shock (1994) 46 copies
Skin (2013) 42 copies
Ready to Dream (2009) 40 copies
Little Creatures (1735) 37 copies
Changing Tunes (1998) 36 copies
A Single Pearl (2013) 32 copies
Playing Games (Angelwings) (2000) 30 copies
Syntax: Theory and Problems (1993) 28 copies
Flamingo Dream (2002) 27 copies
On Her Own (1999) 26 copies
Soccer Shock (1991) 24 copies
No Fair! (Angelwings) (2000) 24 copies
How Hungry Are You? (2001) 24 copies
In a Flash (2021) 22 copies
On Guard! (1997) 20 copies
Pink Magic (2005) 19 copies
Treasury of Bible Stories (2019) 18 copies
Bobby the Bold (2006) 15 copies
Rocky: The Cat Who Barks (2002) 13 copies
Trouble On The Tracks (1996) 10 copies
Hero of Barletta, The (1988) 9 copies
Shelley Shock (2000) 6 copies
Hotel Jungle (2004) 5 copies
Partners (2001) 5 copies
Syntactic Argumentation (1979) 5 copies
Hang in There (2001) 4 copies
Linguistic muse (1979) 2 copies
Hacia El Norte (2005) 1 copy
Angelwing 1 copy
Presente Mágico (2006) 1 copy
Books 1 copy
Angelwings 1 copy
Three Teen-Ages (2003) 1 copy

Associated Works

Tagged

(147) adventure (68) Africa (72) animals (57) Beauty and the Beast (67) biography (53) children's (98) China (98) Cinderella (69) fairy tale (131) fairy tale retelling (75) fairy tales (379) fairy tales retold (60) fantasy (554) fiction (641) Greek mythology (52) historical (73) historical fiction (482) history (75) Holocaust (61) Italy (133) Kenya (67) love (56) mermaids (71) non-fiction (88) novel (55) picture book (137) Rapunzel (74) read (89) retelling (145) romance (82) survival (65) teen (66) to-read (468) trees (59) unread (68) WWII (83) YA (315) young adult (392) young adult fiction (96)

Common Knowledge

Members

Discussions

Reviews

I have mixed feelings for this book; on the one hand the story moves along at a good pace and you can see Xing Xing's life (how she is able to draw small comfort from just being called her name, how strongly she believes in the spirits of her father and mother, her stepmother's disdain) and you are given a very detailed accounting of what life could have been like back then. From Xing Xing's unwavering sense of duty to Wei Ping's selfishness and self-delusions and to Stepmother's (who is given no other name) obvious abuse of Xing Xing as a punishment for her husband caring for her more.

My main concern was the quick way that Xing Xing gains her confidence (in herself and trusting the future). The book isn't very long, but up until the last quarter of the book she accepts her fate, does her best to make the most of things and doesn't resent anyone. Indeed if her Stepmother hadn't done something so heinous, I doubt she would have spoken up for herself at all. Which is a crying shame because Xing Xing in the last five pages is very interesting!

The book however, like Napoli's other fairy tale retellings, offers a different look at what has been done to death. A fish as a 'fairy godmother', bibbity-boppity-boo indeed.
… (more)
 
Flagged
lexilewords | 47 other reviews | Dec 28, 2023 |
Hm....hmmm. "I control the fish girl" Neptune the fisherman proclaims to an unsuspecting crowd of visitors, visitors of his magnificent aquarium of untold treasures. The most valuable one is an adolescent mermaid who can't talk. An adolescent mermaid who was raised by a man that calls her his treasure. No she doesn't get a name. She gets to be his pet, his main attraction. This book is disturbingly normal. It reminds me of a fable or fairy tale meant to be a cautionary tale, but ironically most people find it more entertaining than scary. You have a grown-ass man build a whole aquarium to house a kidnapped mermaid. He tells her stories about her people as payment for going along with his rouse. She plays hide and seek with the guest,making sure they don't see her. They drop coins into the tank and she collects them. Everybody wins! But there is trouble in the horizon when he finds out about her only human friend, Livia. Who tries to tell her mom, but is promptly ignored. Mira, the name Lucia assigns to her knew friend is tired of being imprisoned and ventures out and discovers she wants to be apart of the human… (more)
 
Flagged
OnniAdda | 18 other reviews | Nov 22, 2023 |
This is the retelling of Hansel and Gretel from the viewpoint of the wicked witch. She is simply called Ugly One in Magic Circle. She may be ugly but Napoli wants you to think she has a good heart. Ugly One starts off as a loving single parent to a daughter named Asa and works as a healer blessed with magic powers. She is able to bring sick people back to health and dangerous pregnancies back from the brink of death. Her reputation as a sorceress borders on evil because with great powers comes temptations and an easy fall from grace. When the Ugly One starts accumulating gems and jewels as payment for her services, greed sets in. All she can see is her daughter clothed in wealth; "diamonds on the soles of her shoes." Blinded by a gem, she makes a deal with the devil and her fate is at once sealed. She becomes a true witch who cannot bleed or cry; banished to live in the deep woods as a hermit and destine to eat small children. Enter Hansel and Gretel. Are they Asa's children?
As an aside, the number nine seems to be important. Peter reads to the Ugly One for nine years and the Ugly One lives alone in her sugar cottage for nine years before Hansel and Gretel come along. I am sure there is religious significance with the number nine.
As another aside, the character of Bala reminded me of Iago. I never knew if I could trust her even though the Ugly One called her a friend.
… (more)
 
Flagged
SeriousGrace | 12 other reviews | Aug 6, 2023 |

Lists

Awards

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Christina Balit Illustrator
Jim LaMarche Illustrator
Heather Maione Illustrator
Kadir Nelson Illustrator
David M. Seager Cover designer
John Green Letterer
Lita Judge Illustrator
Amy Bates Illustrator
Laurel Molk Illustrator
Judy Schachner Illustrator
Rafal Olbinski Illustrator, Cover artist
Stephen T. Johnson Cover artist
Steven Adler Cover artist
Donna Diamond Cover artist
Diane Dillon Cover artist
Leo Dillon Cover artist
A. Borin Traduttore
Rich Deas Cover designer
Mary Grandpre Cover artist

Statistics

Works
116
Also by
2
Members
12,606
Popularity
#1,855
Rating
½ 3.7
Reviews
493
ISBNs
544
Languages
9
Favorited
26

Charts & Graphs