ONCE UPON A TIME...?!

OR

SECOND TIME AROUND

Retold Fairy & Folk Tales & Legends

a sub-genre of Fantasy!!

Retold Fairy Tales: Why read them?

*History

Oral stories have been told throughout the ages in every culture of the world. Eventually these stories were written down. Charles Perrault and the Grimm Brothers were some of the first to record the stories. They recorded myths, legends, folktales, and fairy tales. One of the most popular of these genres is the fairy tale also known as the "magic" or "wonder" tales. Witches, evil step-mothers, dragons, magic & trickery, royalty & peasants, and 'good' abound in these stories. The plots are simple, time passes quickly, and settings are vague, underdeveloped characters, and characters are either good or evil. In the past few years, these tales have been expanded to fully developed novels for teens. They keep the kernal of the story but use subplots and add a twist to the original story or character.

 

*Author Quotes

Orson Scott Card, "Adolescence is a natural time for science fiction and fantasy to be the literature of choice, especially for the best and brightest."

Terri Windling, " The wealth of material from myth and folklore at the disposal of the storyteller has been described as a giant cauldron of soup into which each generation throws new bits of fancy and history, new imaginings, new ideas, to simmer along with the old. The storyteller is the cook who serves up the common ingredients in his or her own individual way, to suit the taste of the new audience."

Jane Yolen, " Folklore reflects the society that creates it...But these stories come out of and then go back into society, changing the shape of that society in turn."

Tamora Pierce, "They take up causes...Young adults are also dreamers; this is expected and to a degree, encouraged, as they plan for the future. They need fuel that fires idealism...That fuel can be found in the mighty symbols of myths, fairy tales, dreams, legends---and fantasy. Fantasy is the literature of empowerment. "

Donna Jo Napoli, "What attracts me to a story is some behavior I cannot understand---something that seems vile or bizarre. Like locking your daughter in a tower for years. Or bragging that your daughter can spin straw into gold and thus threatening her life. I've always been more interested in why people do things than in what they do...That's what attracts me to a story."

*Featured Author-Donna Jo Napoli

*Donna Jo Napoli's Books

*If you like Donna Jo Napoli's Books Try These: Books

*Web Sites

Created by Cathy Senior as a Reading Promotional Website for LIS404LE, Young Adult Literature Class at the University of Illinois.

Please send comments to: <cathymsr@yahoo.com>

Last Updated: April 11, 2005.