Swan Sister: Fairy Tales Retold

By Ellen Datlow

Book Overview

Just as fairy-tale magic can transform a loved one into a swan, the contributors to this book have transformed traditional fairy tales and legends into stories that are completely original, yet still tantalizingly familiar.The stories include a Rapunzel whose most confining prison is her loneliness; a contemporary rendering of the Green Man myth; two different versions of Red Riding Hood; a tale that grew out of a Celtic folk song; Sleeping Beauty's experience of her enchantment; two works inspired by the Arabian Nights; and more.FAIRY TALES TOLD BYBruce CovilleGregory FrostNeil GaimanNina Kiriki HoffmanKathe KojaTanith LeeLois MetzgerChristopher RoweWill ShetterlyMidori SnyderKatherine VazJane YolenPat York

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689878370
• ISBN13: 9780689878374
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.27 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.2" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

seems light, but is haunting

Several months after reading this collection, the final story, "My Swan Sister," continues to pop up in my mind in strange ways. "Greenkid" as well. I enjoyed the entire collection and would recommend it to fairytale-loving kids and adults.

Really Enjoyed The Twist On The Old...

... and the fesh take each author brought to familiar tales. Definite appeal for the right age group--perhaps eleven and up--and probably more for girls than boys, though boys would enjoy it if they would give it a chance! (Hate to be stereotypical, but my experience is that it is the rare male child who will pick up fairy tales, more's the pity.)

A Gorgeous Collection of Stories

This book is a gorgeous collection of stories, each at once familiarand strange.  From the slick prose and grungy setting of Shetterly's"Little Red and the Big Bad" to the opulence of Snyder's "Golden Fur,"to Hoffman's haunting "Chambers of the Heart," these reinvented fairytales are crafted to whisper on even after you've closed the book.