Fairy

This page was originally constructed in 2003 by Martha Jane Stewart, who is now a children's librarian at the Boston Public Library. We removed the page last spring, but because there continue to be scores of requests for it each week, we are reprinting it here. The call numbers on the books are local to our library. They might be quite different elsewhere.

Respun Fairy Tales and Adaptations of Myth and Folklore for Young Adults

• Card, Orson Scott: Enchantment. (1999) A multi-layered romantic adventure exploring what happens when a 20th century scholar kisses awake a 10th century Carpathian Sleeping Beauty and arouses the wrath of Baba Yaga. SF CARD
• Galloway, Priscilla: Snake Dreamer. (1998) A contemporary psychological thriller using the myth of Medusa and the Gordon sisters. J FIC GALLOWA
• Highwater, Jamake: Anpao: An American Indian Odyssey.(1977) Traditional tales from North American Plains Indians woven into one story that relates the adventures of one boy as he grows to manhood. J FIC HIGHWAT
• Highwater, Jamake: Rama: A Legend (1994). A fantasy inspired by the Ramayana, a central epic from India and Southeast Asia. J FIC HIGHWAT
• Hoover, H.M. The Dawn Palace: The Story of Medea (1988). A rich novel of the princess Medea, her love for and betrayal by the Greek adventurer Jason, and Medea's subsequent character assassination by the citizens of Corinth and Euripedes. J FIC HOOVER
• Lewis, C.S. : Till We Have Faces. (1956). A novel retelling of the story of Psyche and Eros. FIC LEWIS


• Maguire, Gregory: The Dream Stealer. (1983, 2002). Out of Russia's northern forests, once every generation or so, an evil wolf called the Blood Prince walks, causing two young children to seek the witch Baba Yaga and ask her help in saving their village. FIC MAGUIRE
• McKinley, Robin: Beauty : A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast ( 1978). Kind Beauty grows to love the Beast at whose castle she is compelled to stay and through her love releases him from the spell which had turned him from a handsome prince into an ugly beast. J FIC MCKINLE
• McKinley, Robin: Deerskin. (1993) A story about a princess who is beautiful and the image of her mother which forces her to flee with her faithful dog from the wrath of her father. Inspired by the Perrault fairy tale Donkeyskin, similar to Catskin (English) and Many Furs (Grimm brothers). SF MCKINLE
• McKinley, Robin: Rose Daughter. Yet another, more complex retelling of the story of Beauty and the Beast by the author of the beloved story Beauty. J FIC MCKINLE
• McKinley, Robin: Spindel's End (2000). A novel-length retelling of the story Sleeping Beauty. J FIC MCKINLE
• McLaren, Clemence: Aphrodite's Blessing: Love Stories from the Greek Myths. Retelling of three love stories: Atalanta and Milanion, Andromeda and Perseus, and Psyche and Eros. J FIC MCLAREN
• Napoli, Donna Jo: Beast. (2000)A story of Beauty and the Beast from the time an ancient curse is placed upon the prince. The Beast must combine human memories and beastly instincts with all the cunning he can muster to find forgiveness and redemption. J FIC NAPOLI
• Napoli, Donna Jo: The Magic Circle. (1993) After learning sorcery to become a healer, a good-hearted woman is turned into a witch by evil spirits and she fights their power until her encounter with Hansel and Gretel years later. J FIC NAPOLI
• Napoli, Donna Jo: Sirena. (1998) The gods grant immortality to the mermaid Sirena when she rescues a human man from the sea and they fall in love, but his mortality creates great conflict between love and honor when he is called to defend Greece in the Trojan War. J FIC NAPOLI
• Napoli, Donna Jo: Spinners (1999).Elaborates on the events recounted in the fairy tale, Rumpelstiltskin in which a strange little man helps a miller's daughter spin straw into gold for the king on the condition that she will give him her first-born child. J FIC NAPOLI
• Napoli, Donna Jo: Zel. (1996) Based on the fairy tale Rapunzel, the story is told in alternating chapters from the point of view of Zel, her mother, and the prince, and delves into the psychological motivations of the characters. J FIC NAPOLI
• Pope, Elizabeth Marie: The Perilous Gard ( 1974). In 1558 while imprisoned in a remote castle, a young girl becomes involved in a series of events that leads to an underground labyrinth peopled by the last practitioners of druidic magic. A historical novel with echoes of the Tam Lin story. J FIC POPE
• Spinner, Stephanie: Quiver. (2002) A fleet-footed Atalanta determines she will not marry unless the suitor can best her in a footrace. Those who she beats must die. J FIC SPINNER
• Strauss, Gwen: Trail of Stones .(1990) As they enter the dark wood, familiar fairy tale characters confront the issues of fear of love, shame, grief, jealousy, loneliness, and joy in this illustrated collection of poems. A haunting collection. J 811 STRAUSS
• Walker, Barbara G.: Feminist Fairy Tales ( 1993). Twenty-eight richly respun firy tales (with a few retold Greek myths and some original stories) featuring heroic women. Each story is introduced with a brief commentary on its origins and meanings. J FIC WALKER
• Yolen, Jane: Briar Rose (1992).An adaptation of the Sleeping Beauty legend set in time of the Holocaust. FIC YOLEN

Collections of fairy tale adaptations edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling:

• Black Swan, White Raven. (1997) SC BLACK
• Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears (1995) SC RUBY
• Silver Birch, Blood Moon (1999) SC SILVER
• A Wolf at the Door: and Other Retold Fairy Tales (2000) J FIC WOLF

Websites of Popular Young Adult Writers:

Robin McKinley
Donna Jo Napoli
Jane Yolen

Updated July 2003 - MJS

Fairy picture provided by: SyberGypsy's Theme Magik