[Monday Reading] Mixed Up Fairy Tale Characters in Reinvented Children’s Stories

Myra here.

It’s Monday, What are You Reading is a meme hosted by Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers (new host of Monday reading: Kathryn T at Book Date). Since two of our friends, Linda from Teacher Dance and Tara from A Teaching Life have been joining this meme for quite awhile now, we thought of joining this warm and inviting community. 

One of the great things about our current reading theme is that it allows us to find reinvented stories that tap on intertextuality or knowledge of other books to make their narratives work. Here are two titles that do just that.

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There Is No Dragon In This Story [Amazon | Book Depository]

Written by Lou Carter Illustrated by Deborah Allwright
Published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books (2017)
ISBN: 1408864908 (ISBN13: 9781408864906). Borrowed from Singapore National Library Board Overdrive. Book photos taken by me. 

The story seems simple enough initially – in fact the first full page-spread shows this quite clearly. Except .. the dragon isn’t too happy that he is once more depicted as this fire-breathing villain who abducts princesses who needed to be rescued by knights. Enough already, he says, and he walks out of that tale to join another story.

I deliberately included the image above as this is one of the issues I have to contend with when reading picturebooks in their e-versions; sometimes, just ever-so-rarely, the typography gets jumbled up. At any rate, that is our Dragon walking out of his story.

However, he is beginning to realize that joining another story isn’t all that simple. Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks, even Hansel and Gretel refused to have a dragon in their stories. They pointed out that there are no dragons in their tales; so all he heard was a resounding “No!” That is, until the time the Giant in Jack and the Beanstalk sneezed and wiped out the sun, bringing darkness throughout this fairy tale town.

Gingerbread Man exclaimed that here is a time for Dragon to finally step up, because a hero is needed given this turn of events. Whether or not Dragon is able to change character and transform who he is, I shall leave for you to discover. A very entertaining story, especially to those who have an affinity for fire-breathing, well-meaning magical creatures.

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Goldilocks For Dinner: A Funny Book About Manners [Amazon | Book Depository]

Written by Susan McElroy Montanari Illustrated by Jake Parker
Published by Schwartz & Wade Books (2019)
ISBN: 0399552359 (ISBN13: 9780399552359). Borrowed from Singapore’s National Library Board Overdrive. Book photos taken by me. 

Goblin and Troll, as can be seen in the book cover, are good friends. They seem to have a lot of things in common: finding children gross and rude being one of them. And so, one lazy afternoon, they resolved to “find the rudest child of all and have it for dinner.”

The first child they encountered was Mary who was growing lovely silver bells, except that she seemed to be quite huffy, and with a gigantic chip on her shoulder. After deliberating whether she fit the criteria of being rude, Goblin and Troll decided that she was more Contrary rather than Rude, and so moved on to the next child.

After awhile, they arrived at the home of the three Bears who found a child rude enough to eat their porridge, break one of their chairs, and is, at that same moment, still sleeping on Baby Bear’s bed! Bingo! Troll and Goblin have found a winner, and so they decided to invite the snarky Goldilocks to their home for dinner.

Look at that huge cauldron Goblin is preparing for Goldilocks. Whether or not she gets devoured, I shall leave for you all to discover. This is an amusing and clever tale that is far from being didactic, a tad scary, but still highly entertaining.