fairy tales – Page 2 – Peaceful Reader

Fairy Tale Fridays

Tif Talks Books hosts Fairy Tale Fridays and since I love fairy tales and I’m doing a fairy tale unit with 2nd grade I like to particpate. This week I found a fantastic book of fairy tales in my library-that I must have ordered last year and must not have had a chance to crack the cover. There’s a Wolf at the Door; Five Classic Tales retold by Zoe B. Alley, with pictures by R.W. Alley is the perfect combination of old school tale with a few funny twists to keep things lively. The illustrations are comic book style with little arrows (every once in awhile) to help young ones find their way, their own bread crumbs, trailing through the book. The five tales include The Three Little Pigs, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Little Red Riding Hood, The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, and The Wolf and the Seven Little Goslings. I’ve explored the first few and plan to take it home as my peaceful girl loves anything Little Red Riding Hood. I’ll leave you with an excerpt:

Blake (the third little pig) threw an apple as hard as he could at the wolf, hit him smack on the head, and ran for home. Surprised and hurt to the core, the wolf realized he’s been tricked again. p. 4

It’s funny and I will have a great time sharing one of these stories with 2nd grade students next week. Students will also love how tall the book is! For now I’m heading home to blog hop without my school filter getting in the way!! Happy Friday!

School Library Journal’s thoughts on There’s a Wolf at the Door.

Wildwood Dancing

Juliet Marillier
(2007)

If you do judge a book by its cover…this one would live up to it. The cover shows us so much of what you will find inside. If you look closely you can see the frog, Gogu resting on Jena’s shoulder.
Inside the front cover lies a simple blurb:

Five adventurous sisters…

Four dark creatures…

Three magical gifts…

Two forbidden lovers…

One enchanted frog…

Cross the threshold into the

Wildwood, and enter a land of magic, daring, betrayal…

and true love.

I already love fairy tales and this is tale is brilliantly written and inspired by The Twelve Dancing Princess, but mixed into the pot is a baba yaga /witch of the forest, an enchanted frog and a little bit of Sleeping Beauty thrown in.

Let me share two quotes:

I suppose the secret was not completely ours; Gogu knew. But even if frogs could talk, Gogu would never have told. Ever since I’d found him long ago, crouched all by himself in the forest, dazed and hurt, I had known I could trust him more than anyone else in the world. ( p. 1)

and

It made no difference that we had done this over and over. The sense of thrilling strangeness had never gone away. Every Full Moon, our bodies tingled with the magic of it. The lamp shone on the blank wall. One by one, we stretched out our hands, and the lantern light threw the silhouettes onto the stones. One by One, we spoke our names in a breathless whisper:

“Tatiana.”

“Jenica.”

“Iulia.”

“Paula.”

“Stela.” ( p. 9)

Can’t you just hear the whisper of their voices as they cross over into the Wildwood for a night of dancing among the creatures of the forest. Find this book at your local library and fall in love with the adventurous tale of Jena, her sisters and her friendly frog. I now want to read Juliet Marillier’s follow-up book, Cybele’s Secret. If I trust the cover-it looks just about as good as the first!

***2010 Reading from my Local Library Project***

5/5 peaceful stars

Highly recommended for middle grade/YA/adult readers

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
~Grab your current read
~Open to a random page
~Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
~Be careful not to give away to much-you don’t want to spoil the book for others.
~Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here is my teasers:

The danced. All by themselves, beyond the farthest fringe of the crowd, they circled and swayed, met and parted, turned and passed. Even when the steps of their dance drew them apart, their heads turned to look, and look, and look, as if they would drown in each other’s eyes. p. 75 ~Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

I love this book. It is has a connection to The Twelve Dancing Princesses and is very well-written. I’m on chapter six and have to get back to reading…
ta ta for now.

What’s your teaser for the day?

Peaceful Reading~