Fairy Tales

The Frog Prince Continued…- Jon Scieszka/illustrated by Steve Johnson  

Type: Picture Book- Cartoon Stenciling

Intended for children ages 5-10

                The Frog Prince Continued… is a fairy tale parody about what happened after happily ever after for the Frog Prince and his princess. They have an unhappy marriage, and the Frog Prince leaves his home to try and find a witch to turn him back into a frog.

                I really enjoyed reading this book; just like Scieszka does with The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, he has masterfully taken a classic children’s story and put his own twist on it. Using characters that have already been created by other authors, Scieszka takes these characters and puts them in his own world and interpretation of their setting and story. It is a cute story about love and family that has a good moral at the end- although people who love each other sometimes fight; it does not mean they ever stop loving each other.

                I think this story would work really well in the classroom, and I would not have any problem using this book within that setting. Like I said with The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, a parody story like this could work really well with a genre study highlighting both different genres as well as parodies of said genres. This book also has a very sweet moral at the end that you could have your students talk about/ interpret in their own way

Cinderella- Susan Jeffers

Type: Picture Book- Watercolor illustrations

Intended for children ages 5-10

                Cinderella, by Susan Jeffers, is a pretty classic telling of the Cinderella fairy tale. Cinderella’s father remarries, and her stepmother makes her work in the house. Cinderella’s fairy godmother helps her go to the ball and she loses her slipper. The prince eventually finds out that her foot fits the slipper, and marries her. In the end of this version, Cinderella gives her two stepsisters a home in the court where they live and marry two lords.

                I liked this version; it was very Disney-esque and had beautiful watercolor illustrations. It contained the mystical elements and magic that children in this book’s age range love reading about. It is told in the third person omniscient point of view, and its characters have many of the same characteristics of the Cinderella stories we are used to hearing. Except, in this version, Cinderella’s step sisters are not all that ‘evil’ compared to her stepmother.  There were not any controversial elements that I found in this book, however I think it would work very well within a critical literacy class discussion. Every single character in this book is either a prince or a princess of noble blood, and they are all white. Even in the scenes of the book where there are masses of people, the ball for example, there are only white individuals featured. A discussion on power and social class could be one resulting lesson to partake in after reading this book, and multiple other fairy tales for that matter.  Considering children mainly in the age range of five to ten years show the most interest in fairy tales, I could see this book as being a great stepping stone to get kids started in critical literacy discussions that is going to keep their interest and get them talking.