By author Hilary McKay and illustrator Sarah Gibb (Macmillan Children’s Books)
With wonderful silhouette-style illustrations, McKay and Gibb’s ‘Fairy Tales’ is a book that goes far beyond a simple “retelling” of ten of the most well-known fairy tales.
These versions of the tales are written in a contemporary style which, for a number of them, turns the traditional view of the stories on their heads, giving you a deeper understanding of the characters and their motivations.
Each entry expands on the original plot and, by introducing some “unknown” backstory and context, goes on to add different and often intriguing dimensions.
With modern narrative and dialogue, these old classic tales gain a new lease of life, which I feel would appeal well to older primary-age children. McKay also includes a page of “further reading” at the end, for those who want to read the originals or understand some of the themes surrounding the stories, which is a nice touch.
I found each retelling utterly convincing and, in some cases, the final outcomes were rather surprising! Gibb’s beautiful artwork which accompanies each rendition is striking and evocative, and further adds to the magical charm.
It’s a hard choice but, if I did have to choose, I’d say that my favourite of the stories was Rapunzel, which showed that being locked in a tower has more consequences than one might immediately expect. You’ll have to read it if you want to find out what I mean!
