Here's a Secret

I was just on Felicity's Blog reading her interview with Gail Carson Levine (which I really adored by the way!) and read this line, "...well there's a retelling of a fairy tale. Maybe I could do a retelling of a fairy tale." You know what this reminds me of? Of course not but I shall tell you. A few nights ago I was trying to fall asleep and just couldn't because I had way too much on my mind. So I started thinking about books (big surprise there...) and particularly fairy tales. I think this might have been after I wrote the response to damsels in distress. I was thinking about retellings of fairy tales and what makes them good. I finally came to the conclusion that while it's important for the fairy tale to be a good story, it's equally important if not more so for the reader not to recognize the fairy tale at first.

When I first read Ella Enchanted I did not put the connection together that it was a retelling of Cinderella. Same with The Storyteller's Daughter by Cameron Dokey, which is a retelling of Arabian Nights. Nope. I was so engrossed in the story that I didn't realize the similarities. I love it when authors can do that. Shannon Hale does a fantastic job with this as well.

Retellings of Fairy tales make me so happy :)

So sound off people. What's your favorite retelling of a fairy tale?

~Firefly~