http://spwebdesign.livejournal.com/61... ( )

stories: Little Red Riding Hood / The Emperor's New Clothes / The Three Little Pigs / Rumpelstiltskin / The Three Codependent Goats Gruff / Rapunzel / Cinderella / Goldilocks / Snow White / Chicken Little / The Frog Prince / Jack and the Beanstalk / The Pied Piper of Hamelin

My Blurb: "Satirical and silly. A fun, light read." ( )

Satirical, funny and totally serious about cleaning up the evils of the traditional children's stories, it's about time. ( )

This was a fun fresh look at the way we go overboard to be PC, by changing the fairy tales accordingly. A quick, fun, light read. ( )

Leap into a fairy-tale world where trolls are "dirt-accomplished and odor-enhanced," witches are "kindness-impaired," and Cinderella wears a gown "woven of silk stolen from unsuspecting silkworms." We can only regret that Garner had to exclude "The Duckling That Was Judged on Its Personal Merits and Not on Its Physical Appearance" for space reasons.

In this thin book Garner proposes to create "meaningful literature that is totally free from bias and purged from the influence of its flawed cultural past." The results are extremely funny. Updated to account for modern political sensibilities, these revisionist folktales reflect wit and an engaging knack for irony.

When a bandwagon reaches the point that it is subject to satirical spoofs, it's a good indication that said bandwagon has traveled way too far. `Political correctness' is one such bandwagon, and this little book is a pretty good attempt at poking pins in its over-inflated rhetoric.

In "Little Red Riding Hood," Grandma exacts her feminist revenge on the woodchopper, who "assumes that womyn and wolves can't solve their own problems without a man's help." In "The Frog Prince," the princess, now an "eco-feminist warrior," discovers that her dream frog is not a prince, but a real-estate developer. In other tales, "Rapunzel" becomes a self-reliant coffee-house singer and the "Three Little Pigs" armed guerrillas, while cultural imperialists such as The Big Bad Wolf and "Goldilocks" get what has been coming to them for centuries.

From "The Emperor's New Clothes" with disastrous consequences for our economically disadvantaged tailor to "Chicken Little's" (the name not being any attempt to classify said person as physically sized-disadvantaged) attempt to find a lawyer so she can sue whomever caused the sky to fall on her head causing her great emotional distress, the stories in this book will often bring a chuckle, and might cause one to reflect on the real world item the story is spoofing.

However, I'd recommend that this be read one story at time, with long days between stories, as they do become somewhat repetitive when read all at one gulp, losing some of their charm in the process.

Book Details:

Title Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales for our Life & Times
Author James Finn Garner
Reviewed By Purplycookie ( )