The Disney versions of the fairy tales that most Americans grew up with were not the tales I was used to. The version of Cinderella I grew up with for example, was based on the Brothers Grimm story where the step-sisters each cut off parts of their feet to fit into the glass slipper. Cinderella also exacts vengeance on her sisters, summoning doves to peck out their eyes after her wedding to the prince. Bedtime stories for little children, these were not.
In Faery Tales, Duffy takes these saccharine sweet children’s tales back to their terrifying roots. The former British Poet Laureate has quite the way with words. I actually found it quite hard to read this book through, or even in chunks. I suppose this is perfect for our 160 character sized attention spans. Perfectly terrifying reading to be done in short spurts, one or two short stories at a time.
Tomislav Tomic’s illustrations are detailed and fantastical, a great addition to the macabre stories Duffy tells.
Fairy tales were originally told to scare children into submission. These hold true to that and might even scare an adult or two.
Written by Carol Ann Duffy
Illustrated by Tomislav Tomic
Ages: 8-12
Publisher: Faber
Faery Tales (Hardcover at Amazon)*
More books for this Age Group can be found here.
My thanks to Faber for providing a Review Copy of this book. All opinions provided herein are my own.
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