An Undone Fairy Tale

I read this book to my little cousins and they laughed their butts off!! The Undone Fairy Tale is your traditional fairy tale with the princess and the king, so forth and so on, but with a creative twist. On every page the author interrupts the story with a side note warning you not to turn the page because Ned, the illustrator hasn't finished drawing the pictures yet. He says you read too fast for him to draw and so at the last minute he has to use everyday objects like fish instead of horses, or a pretzel instead of a dragon. To see what comes next is super funny!

If I had to choose the very best of the 'meta' picture-books out there, this would definitely be on the short list, right up there with [b:The Monster at the End of this Book|44186|The Monster at the End of this Book|Jon Stone|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388193494s/44186.jpg|640276] and [b:Press Here|9677870|Press Here|Hervé Tullet|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327934372s/9677870.jpg|14565750]. Even literal children, who know that books don't get changed while one is reading them, will get a kick out of pretending to try to slow down to give the illustrator a chance to get the next page done. And the thing that makes it a keeper is that the story itself, even disregarding the gimmick, is silly fun.

A story, told from the point of view of the artists. A very sweet, funny, action filled story, that could only encourage a child to turn the next page and keep reading by telling them to stop! The story, of a princess locked in a tower and forced to work while waiting for a prince to save her is turned on it's head and quickly improvised as the artists struggle to keep up. And then there's Trevor, the artist's dog. The princess soon realizes that she's not going to be rescued anytime soon, and... well... deals with it. My only complaint is that the story was so short! Maybe a sequel will follow? (Hint, hint?)

This fairytale seems like it might be like your traditional fairytale but throughout the whole story there are twists to it to make it not your traditional fairytale. The author starts off with telling a story about a princess who needs to be rescued, which follows your basic fairytale story. Then we learn that she needs to be rescued from her evil stepfather who makes her bake pies all day long. As you are reading the story the author interrupts the story because we the readers read too fast and Ned the illustrator is not finished illustrating the next page. He uses random things that are next to him, like a pretzel instead of a dragon to finish the story since we the readers read too fast. This is what I meant by twists to the story, show more I have never read a fairytale story anything like this one. It was very funny, and I did enjoy reading this book. In the end the princess saves the prince and she does so on a snail, not your typical ending to a fairytale. This is a good book to read to students when learning about fairytales and hopefully encourages students if they ever must come up with a story, they think outside the box and aren’t so “traditional”. This is a book I will use in my classroom when learning about fairytales and such. show less

I loved this book. I flagged it as one of my future-classroom MUST HAVES! It was hilarious and I loved how it showed illustrations as they really are- a work in progress!

This book doesn't follow the conventional fairy tale starting off as a princess needing rescuing from her evil step-father who makes he bake pies every day however in the end the princess rescues herself and then rescues the prince. The book is quite silly as the narrator and illustrator start to talk to the reader begging them not to turn the page as the next scene isn't finished and then the narrator and illustrator start using what is around them to finish the scene.

In this fairy tale a princess finally saves the knight trying to rescue her- on a snail... The illustrator just didn’t have time to keep up with the pace of the reader, so all the illustrations are half done and the poor guy’s ready to collapse! You can imagine the humor when a knight has to wear a tutu because we can’t wait for the armor to get here.