Sleeping Ugly

This title caught my eye when me and my fellow librarians were reorganizing our fairy tales section in the children's room. It's about a princess named Miserella who is very beautiful on the outside but rotten on the inside. She gets lost in the woods and comes upon an old woman (a fairy in disguise) and brings her to the cottage of Plain Jane who is Miserella's opposite, not so good-looking on the outside but kind on the inside. For her kindness, the fairy grants Plain Jane three wishes but ends up wasting two of them when Miserella intervenes and meets the business end of the fairy's wand. It's basically a subversion of the familiar Sleeping Beauty fairy tale and that's what drew me to it. There are tropes that many will recognize show more like the fairy in disguise, the princess caught in a hundred year sleep, the reviving kiss, etc. However, it surprises you at the end with a valuable moral lesson on inner and outer beauty. I would recommend this for readers age 4 and up, especially if the reader happens to be a little princess crazy. Definitely a perfect story for them to read with their parents or teachers. This book could also be part of a great discussion if they would choose inner beauty over outer beauty and what the reader would consider to be the most important. show less

In line with other popular tradition-twisting fairy tales, the true protagonist of Jane Yolen’s Sleeping Ugly is not the Princess Miserella – whose name gives away her disposition even if her beauty does not – but the gentle and kind Plain Jane. The curses cast on Miserella are direct results of her own selfish and mean-spirited actions, and her insistence on testing the patience a fairy with a quick temper. Yolen uses the conventions of fairy tales to delightful ends, such as when she defines an unusual word in an aside to the reader that “A huff is not a kind of carriage. It is a kind of temper tantrum. Her usual kind.” While the illustrations add interesting details to the story, including the revelation that Prince Jojo is show more dressed in a sweatsuit, they are not essential to the story but instead provide convenient places to pause throughout this more advanced easy reader. This intelligent and witty book would be a good addition to both public and school libraries. show less

Jane Yolen is hit & miss with me. This is a hit. The ending is funny. The main lesson is important. The pictures fit. Even though it's a leveled reader/ very early chapter book, I recommend it to all of you who are interested in fractured fairy tales. It's not perfect, but it'd be really fun to talk over with your child, or maybe even use as a mentor text in your classroom.

SPOILER: I was bothered enough by the choice at the end to leave the beautiful but mean princess in a coma that the entire story did not work for me. Modernizing the story a bit with a more casual manner of speaking and modern day dress made it closer to real life and made the princess that much closer to being dead for her crime of hitting people and animals---too draconian a measure to suit me. And, yes, I agree with another reviewer who objected to the Prince falling in love with Plain Jane because she wished it; there were, however, enough other reasons for his loving her that it wasn't entirely clear that the fairy needed to grant Jane's wish. The morals---inner beauty is more important than outer; kindness wins the day---are what show more you would expect in an educational book. And not what happens all the time in real life. All this sweetness and light around a comatose princess is just weird. show less

Thus far, of all the books I've read by Yolen, I'm not disappointed. This is a quick, lively banter- filled tale of the beautiful princess Miserella who remains beautiful despite the ugliness inside, a magical fairy, and a not-too beautiful Plain Jane who has a loving nature, but a very plain countenance.

When Miseralla's terrible ugly actions upset the fairy, mistakenly the three are all thrown into a deep, deep sleep. Along comes a handsome prince who must choose to kiss the right lady.

The illustrations are lovely. I enjoyed the humorous rendition of this fairytale.

This is a Lexa review, who ran downstairs and wanted to share her favorite parts of the story, which happened to be the whole thing. I was digging the story, very much approved the "moral of the story"..Yolen had me until suddenly we got to one of the princesses' wishes. She used a wish to MAKE the prince love her. NOOOOO! Yolen, you had me until that point...but I won't make this an angry diatribe. This will remain my 7 year old's review, in purest form, removed of my peculiar bias that girls be given better role models.I have to say, this huge issue aside, the writing was fun.

Being nice is more important than being beautiful or being rich in this version of the tale, in which the sleeping princess ends up staying asleep. The nasty princess says "stupid, stupid, stupid" which my daughter likes to parrot, unfortunately. (I tried pointing out that in the book, this results in a curse which makes her produce toads when she talked. My daughter, like the heroine, likes toads, and did not see the downside here.) The language is good, and the story is satisfying. Nobody in it behaves perfectly (using the princess for a coatrack is a bit mean), but that's OK with me.