I have mentioned many times that I love fractured fairy tales. These are the stories that take the well known tales like Cinderella or the Three Pigs and gives them a fresh look or a new twist. I have talked about some of these before when I wrote about the picture books I miss reading to students. Here are some of my favorites for all ages:
The Three Ninja Pigs – This book is perfect. It’s funny, the rhyme scheme is fantastic (not an easy feat), and it takes the basic story and gives it a fun martial arts shake up. My students always loved that it was the girl pig who saved the day in the end.
The Cat, the Dog, Little Red, the Exploding Eggs, the Wolf and Grandma – A cat is enjoying the story of Red Riding Hood, but the dog has a lot of questions about the story. This would be a fantastic story to turn into a readers theater. It is funny! There’s lots of drama as the cat gets frustrated that the dog just doesn’t get this great story. My students loved this one every time I read it!
Don’t Read this Book! – One of the things I did as a librarian was a unit on fractured fairy tales where my students and I compared and contrasted different versions of a familiar story. This book was a favorite because it doesn’t come right out and tell the story of the Princess and the Pea. Instead it is about a royal storyteller who has lost the story for the king. The pompous king tells the reader to go away while they retrace their steps to find the story. This is unusual and a lot of fun to read out loud!
Ninja-rella – This is one book in a line of graphic novel fractured fairy tales. I picked these up for my students towards the end of my time as a librarian, and the kids almost wore these out. Graphic novels were tremendously popular with my students anyway, but they especially loved the twist on familiar fairy tales. The series is called Far Out Fairy Tales. They published a Goldilocks story and a Sleeping Beauty one back in December 2016. They are releasing some new ones later this year called Far Out Fables. They look very fun!
Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible – I adore this middle grade series about a hamster princess who wants to fight dragons and save the day. I reviewed the most recent book in the series, Ratpunzel, here. The next book, Giant Trouble, comes out next week.
Rump, the True Story of Rumpelstiltskin – This is a terrific take on the story of Rumpelstiltskin. This time Rump is a kid who is trying to overcome an unfortunate name and therefore an unfortunate destiny. This is a fun quest story. The author has also written the true stories of Red Riding Hood and Jack of beanstalk fame.
The Wide-Awake Princess – I love this series about the sister of Sleeping Beauty. Princess Annie is completely immune to magic. This makes her the perfect person to rescue her kingdom from the sleeping spell or save a prince who has been turned into a bear. The sixth and final book in the series came out this spring. Lots of fractured fairy tales to enjoy in this series!
The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom – This series is hoot! Have you ever noticed that most of the princes in fairy tales are just called “Prince Charming?” Well, in this series you find out that they all are different guys with different names. It’s the singing, story-telling bards who have focused on the princesses and ignored the princes. But this time, the princes are going to be the ones to make a name for themselves when they save the day. There are so many fun twists and surprises in this three book series. I highly recommend them!
The Sisters Grimm: Fairy Tale Detectives – This series is celebrating its 10th anniversary with new covers and touched up stories. I read these faithfully when they were first released. If you like a certain TV show about fairy tale characters in the real world, you should check this out. Some of the ideas in the show were in these books first. I’m hoping my library invests in the re-issues so I can read them all again and not miss out on any revisions!
Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles) – This series for teens takes the stories of Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Snow White and sets them in a dystopian future. The main characters are trying to save the Earth from an evil queen from the Moon, Levana. The third book in the series, Cress (the Rapunzel character), is my favorite, but the whole series is solid if you like your fairy tales mashed up with some romance and science fiction (which I totally do!).
Geekerella – This book just came out this spring and I reviewed it here. This is an awesome ComicCon/Fandom mashup with the story of Cinderella. I loved it!
The Big Over Easy – I wish there were more than two books in this series! I have several Jasper Fforde books (Tuesday Next series and Chronicles of Kazam) that I haven’t read, but the books in the Nursery Crime series I have read more than once. In fact, I think I might just read them again right after I finish this post. These are great mysteries for adults. The first book looks into the murder of Humpty Dumpty.
So, those are some of my favorite fractured fairy tales. There are BUNCHES more out there. What are your favorites?