fairy tales Archives

Fractured fairy tales are those stories that take traditional fairy tale plots and put a twist on the story everyone knows. This genre of book is pretty hot right now in children’s literature. A new book that I just finished reading in this book category is The Secret Destiny of Pixie Piper by Annabelle Fisher. This book caught my attention because it was a mash-up Mother Goose nursery rhymes rather than traditional fairy tales (and I liked the pet goose side story). I am definitely going to recommend it to my fourth graders when we go back to school next month. My daughter, Miss Priss, highly recommends Rump, Red, and other companion books by Liesl Shurtliff; they were her favorite books this summer.

Upper Elementary

Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Fairest by Gail Carson Levine (Enchanted series)
The Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley (The Sisters Grimm series)
Happily Ever After by Anna Quindlen
If the Shoe Fits by Jane B. Mason (Princess School series)
The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell series by Chris Colfer
Rapunzel, The One With All the Hair by Wendy Mass (Twice Upon a Time series)
Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin by Liesl Shurtliff (and others by this author)
The School for Good and Evil series by Soman Chainani (5th grade+)
A Tale Dark and Grimm series by Adam Gidwitz
The Wide Awake Princess series by E.D. Baker (and others by this author)

Middle School

Beauty Sleep by Cameron Dokey (and others by this author)
Enchanted by Alethea Kontis (Woodcutter series, mixed reviews)
Entwined by Heather Dixon
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman
The Princess Bride by William Goldman

And lots of picture books…

Honestly, Red Riding Hood was Rotten by Trisha Speed Shaskan (and others in this series)
Jack and the Baked Beanstalk by Colin Stimpson
The Rough-Face Girl by Rafe Martin (and other Cinderella re-tellings like Cinder-Elly by Frances Minters)
The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka

One of my students loaned me a book called The Land of Stories by Chris Colfer. You might recognize the author name as one of the Glee actors (yes, the TV show). The book sat on my nightstand for over a month before I finally picked it up. The student was starting to ask questions, and I was getting embarrassed. I judged the book by its cover– or rather the actor/author name and had pretty low expectations, but I needed to be able to make a few comments to my sweet student about the story. I was pleasantly surprised. It is a fun spin on the “ever after” of all of the best fairy tale characters.

Throw a library card, and you will hit a fairy tale spin off book. The books are everywhere right now, and I am hooked. Here is my suggested list. I have read only a few and most are on my “to read” list. Which one should I read next?

Upper Elementary

Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Fairest by Gail Carson Levine (Enchanted series)
The Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley (The Sisters Grimm series)
Happily Ever After by Anna Quindlen
The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer
Rapunzel, The One With All the Hair by Wendy Mass (Twice Upon a Time series)
A Tale Dark and Grimm series by Adam Gidwitz
The Wide Awake Princess by E.D. Baker (and others by this author)