Fairy Tales and Princesses

I read two great books this week. There are several fairy tale readers in our class this year and I think there are probably lots of fairy tale readers in all middle grade classrooms who will love these two books.

I was lucky enough to get an arc of Liesl Shurtliff's newest fairy tale at NCTE. Grump: The (Fairly) True Tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I love this series and so many students love it. I finally got ahold of this book after it being passed around the classroom since I brought it back from NCTE! Everyone loved it and many said it was their favorite in the series.

This is a great retelling of Snow White. Really I don't know how Leisl Shurtliff does this over and over again--reimagining these fairy tales in ways that can't help us think about them in new ways.  I love this series and really enjoyed this newest book.  Grump is a great character as is Snow White.  I love the humor and the few surprise nods to other fairy tales woven into the story. This was a fun read and a great addition to the series. I can't wait to see which one comes next.

I also read and loved  Who Wants To Be a Princess? by Bridget Heos. With all the princess craze this is a fun informational book that straightens up a few misconceptions about princesses. I think princess fans as well as fans of all the middle grade fractured fairy tales will enjoy this book. The book is nonfiction and takes a look at the things we THINK about princesses based on fairy tale movies/books and compares those things to the REAL things about princesses.  For example, a real castle didn't look quite like the one we know as Cinderella's castle.  Each two page spread takes on an idea about princess and tells the truer thing. This is a simple book and a quick read but does take away some of the ways our students may be thinking about princesses in general.  I imagine all of the students in my class who love Leisl Shurtliff's books will also like this picture book. A fun informational compare/contrast book.