Leaping Beauty: And Other Animal Fairy Tales

Very cute lighthearted retellings of fairy tales casting animals as the main characters - CinderElephant, Rumpled Snake Skin, Little Red Robin Hood, etc. - and moving them to some slightly more modern milleus (for instance, the gold being spun by Rumpled Snake Skin is to fund endless re-shoots of a trashy horror movie). Cute and appealing enough for kids (although not little kids - some big vocab) but with a healthy dose of snarky humor for grownups who like their fairy tales just a little bit bent.

I have a particular fondness for fractured fairy tales and alternate fairy tales. Why this book languished so long on my shelf I can't say. But I read it in a day and laughed out loud! So much fun and nonsense, for kids of *all* ages!!

Gregory Maguire has done more then change the characters of these fairy tales into animals. He has kept the general story line the same, but at the same time has changed them. You can see the thread of the original story, but it is better. And funny, I actually laughed out loud.

Recommended for people who read fairy tales, and at the same time are disgusted with them for the deadbeat dads and child abuse in them. The abusers get what's coming to them in these stories.

Not the most insightful parodies of classic fairy tales I've read, but perhaps the funniest.

I realize this has gotta be for kids, but it cracked me up. As others have said, the penguin story was the best. This was a kindle library book, but I'll be buying a hard copy.

A fun, light, read, by the same author who wrote darker "Wicked" and "Son of a Witch." Older children, teenagers, and adults should enjoy this.

This is a collection of eight fairy tales that Maguire has retold with animal characters. The stories include Rumplesnakeskin, Goldiefox and the Three Chickens, Hamster and Gerbil, etc.

It was ok. Like with most short stories, if/when my mind wanders, the story is too short to really be able to catch up (well) with what I’ve missed, but with these, it helps that I know the stories already. It’s a quick read. Maybe kids would enjoy it a bit more.