The Princess Tales, Volume One

A kind sister and a cruel one. A charming prince. A spiteful fairy. A hundred-year snooze. A pea under a pile of mattresses. A kiss.

All the familiar ingredients, but why is the punished sister happy? Where did that extra prince come from, and what does a flock of balding sheep or a fleck of tuna in a chocolate cake have to do with anything?

Gail Carson Levine has waved her magic wand over three well-known fairy tales, and presto! They are transformed - and sparklingly funny -in these delightful retellings.

Includes:
- The Fairy's Mistake
- The Princess Test
- Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep

Eh. Three stories, I've read all of them before and none of them much impressed me. The delicate girl, the gifts that went wrong (jewels and bugs), and the smart princess. The last (Princess Sonora) is the best - but it's still annoying just to read, let alone imagine having to live with those two. Levine is an excellent writer - which means that her stories draw me in and make me feel just how awful it would be to be a character (not the lead(s)) in some of these. I don't think that's her aim, but that's how the stories affect me.

I loved Ella Enchanted when I was a child. So I got this to read with my 7 and 8 year old daughters. They are lighthearted and fun, and a slightly more complicated that a straight telling of fairy tale, though I don't know if I would claim they had a lot of depth. I think The Fairy's Mistake was the favorite, maybe because its more graphic with the bugs and the jewels. Also there is usually at least one character that has a very practical, down-to-earth disposition that grounds the fairy tale nicely. We will be getting the other set of Princess Tales to read.

My love affair with fairy tales isn't something new, but it was pretty much comatose for a good 10 years. Then, in 2007, I selected "Myth and Fairy Tales" as one of my electives in college and the affair was transformed into a bona fide relationship. That class, its textbooks, and the papers I had to write were lightning bolts of inspiration. And they helped me hear my muse for the first time in years.

So I selected Princess Tales purely on the fairy tale aspect, not knowing its author, while browsing the kids section with my daughter. I don't normally go in that section with a list and prefer to simply go stack-by-stack when I'm on the hunt for something new. I've found the best little treasures and surprises doing it that way...finish show more reading this review. show less

Seems to be written in the style of Princess Bride, but just fell very flat. Cute stories if you're a very young child without any real literary experience.

This short book is about a girl who has a smile that's like a rainbow, and laughter like the sound of music. But the only thing was she only smiled four times during her childhood, and laughed three time in her childhood too. Most of the time, she just cried and whined. When she was in her early preteen years, she stopped crying and whining, and started getting colds very often.

At the end, a prince falls in love with her, and tries to marry her, but will his mother and father allow him to? Find out by reading the book.

Fun retellings of classic fairy tales.