The Fairy's Return and Other Princess Tales

by Gail Carson Levine

Hardcover, 2006

Status

Available

Local notes

Fic Lev

Barcode

320

Genres

Publication

HarperCollins (2006), Edition: First Edition, 400 pages

Description

Ever since Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine introduced the magical village of Snettering-on-Snoakes in the faraway Kingdom of Biddle, young readers have been laughing their way through her hilarious retellings of famous and not-so-famous fairy tales. Now, for the first time, the six beloved Princess Tales are together in one magnificent volume: The high jinks begin in The Fairy's Mistake, which pokes fun at a meddlesome fairy whose plans for good go terribly awry. In The Princess Test, the author spoofs the notion that a pea can prove a person's pedigree. Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep features a genius of a princess, a hundred years of snooze, two princes, and a flock of balding sheep! Cinderella is a boy in Cinderellis and the Glass Hill, and the glass slipper is a glass hill. In For Biddle's Sake, Parsley tries to forget her beloved prince and get used to life as a Biddlebum Toad. The road to happily-ever-after isn't easy when a baker's son and a princess fall in love in The Fairy's Return. Elements of the classics are woven into these not-so-typical retellings of "Toads and Diamonds," "The Princess and the Pea," "Sleeping Beauty," "The Princess on the Glass Hill," "Puddocky," and "The Golden Goose." The fresh and funny twists on favorite fairy tales will win the hearts and capture the imaginations of young readers everywhere.… (more)

Language

Original language

English

Physical description

400 p.; 6 inches

User reviews

LibraryThing member bunwat
This was just charming. It is a series of short stories based on traditional folk tales but with a funny twist to each one. Lily Taylor's voice is clear and pleasant and her pacing is good, she reads the stories rather than trying too hard to perform them, leaving me some freedom to imagine things
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for myself. That's the kind of narration I generally prefer.
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LibraryThing member NashNordin
The Fairy’s Return and Other Princess Tales is a collection of fairy tales that are retold by Gail Carson Levine. The book contained six princesses’ short stories — The Fairy Mistake (Toads and Princesses), The Princess Test (The Princess and The Pea), Princess Sonora and The Long Sleep
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(Sleeping Beauty), Cinderellis and The Glass Hills (The Princess and The Glass Hills), For Biddle’s Sake (Puddocky) and The Fairy’s Return (The Golden Goose).

I was a bit skeptical after reading the first story, The Fairy Mistake. I knew that I’ve heard the story before and I wasn’t expecting that Levine would do a good job on retelling other stories. But halfway through the book, I fell in love with Levine’s Princess Sonora and The Long Sleep — Levine’s version of Sleeping Beauty. This story is my favorite among all of them. In this version, Princess Sonora was granted with intelligence. She can talk when she was just a baby. Instead of avoiding herself from the curse where she would be prick by a spindle, she decided to prick herself when the right time comes. But then, an accident occurred…

The story was short and sweet. I kind of like Levine’s style in this book as compared to the last book I read from her, Ever. But I probably enjoy it a bit more if I were a child.
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Pages

400

Rating

½ (72 ratings; 3.9)
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