Tell a fairy tale day

Today, February 26th, is National Tell a Fairy Tale Day, and what better way to celebrate then by featuring YA fairy tales that make the grade.

How do fairy tales maintain their popularity? Year after year they stay with us, the same story adhering to the modern age. Take Snow White for instance: the release of Mirror, Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsmen tells us she has not gone out of style. Some of the first books that we read (or that are read to us) are fairy tales. As young adults and adults, we are familiar with this world and want to revisit it. Fairy tales are not just about happily ever after, they are a medium for storytelling, for learning, and for transforming.

Entwined by Heather Dixon

Entwined is a YALSA 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adult winner and is a re-telling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses. A lush and eerie tale of one girl’s fight to save her family and herself. Check out the book trailer:

The Poison Apples by Lily Archer

Three girls, three evil stepmothers, one boarding school. The Poison Apples learn the true meaning of friendship once they realize they must align in order to overcome, you guessed it, evil.

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

Tender Morsels is a 2009 YALSA Printz honor book.

Based on Snow White and Rose Red, Tender Morsels is a truly imaginative tale that evokes the language of the oral tradition. This story takes us into the dark underbelly of the fairy tale, the place where violence, magic, and beauty co-exist.

Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

Castle Waiting is a YALSA Top Ten 2007 Great Graphic Novel. Part Sleeping Beauty, all graphic novel, Castle Waiting is a fun blend of fairy tale, folktale, and fable.

The Rose and the Beast by Francesca Lia Block

This collection retells nine fairy tales including Thumbelina and Bluebeard in Block’s characteristic dreamy prose. I’ve loved her books since I was a teenager and read Weetzie Bat for the first time. In fact, I can’t wait to read Pink Smog: Becoming Weetzie Bat, but that is another review!

Francesca Lia Block is the YALSA 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Award Winner

More beloved fairy tales:

• The Rumpelstilskin Problem by Vivian Vande Velde: six takes on Mr. Rumpelstilskin
• Beastly by Alex Finn: Beauty and the Beast and New York City
• The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli: the witch’s take on Hansel & Gretel
• Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine: why Cinderella is so very good

– Marie Penny, currently reading Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link