Bookie Mee » fairy tale

Fables Vol 2: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham

mee — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:00:46 +0000

In this second volume of Fables, Snow White and her sister Red Rose goes to visit Animal Farm, a place where all the fables that don’t pass as humans live. It’s interesting to see all the non-human creatures take the stage this time, but I didn’t get how some of them live there, like the woman with many kids living in a big shoe (aren’t they from Mother Goose?).

On the first night the sisters stay, Colin Piggy, the youngest of the three pigs gets killed. That’s gruesome. It is somehow disturbing to see one your fairy tale character gets killed, and for not a very good reason too in my opinion. They’re supposed to be immortal. But in Fables apparently they can die.

So Snow is forced to investigate and we are introduced to the rebellious force in the farm. Of course, at the end justice is served and the fables seem to be able to sort things out once again. Like the first volume, it’s pretty good introduction to the world of fables.

Some new fairy tale characters that make appearances are the ones from Three Little Pigs, Jungle Book, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and random giants. Does anyone know from which story Little Boy Blue comes from? (Okay I just searched Wiki and he’s apparently from some obscure nursery rhyme.)

2003, 128 pp

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My other reviews of Fables series: Fables Vol 1: Legends in Exile and Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

mee — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 05:41:56 +0000

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a delightful tiny book! To tell you the truth, I had low expectation when I picked up the book (which was accidentally just sitting on the library shelf when I passed by), because there’s nothing could be near as good as Harry Potter coming from J.K. Rowling, am I right? Well, even though I am right – it’s nothing Potter – I enjoyed it immensely.

First, if you have not read Harry Potter series, don’t pick up this book. Somehow I got the impression before that this was a stand-alone book. It is in a way, but it had major spoiler for the Potter series. So only pick it up if you have read up until Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at least (that’s number 6). I read this book in parallel with Deathly Hallows coincidentally, so I was fine. And it was somehow interesting that when I got to the point where Hermione received The Tales of Beedle the Bard, I was actually reading the Tales at the same time. It just made it more precious in a funny way. Like you KNOW the content of the book when they didn’t (because it hasn’t been translated at that point).

The Tales of Beedle the Bard consists of 5 short fairy tales (sort of, with no fairies): The Wizard and the Hopping Pot, The Fountain of Fair Fortune, The Warlock’s Hairy Heart, Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump, and The Tale of The Three Brothers (which appears in the last HP). Each followed by Dumbledore’s commentary. The tales themselves are short and nothing deep, like most fairy tales, but they’re about wizards and witches.

“Beedle’s stories resemble our fairy tales in many respects; for instance, virtue is usually rewarded and wickedness punished. However there is one very obvious difference. In Muggle fairy tales, magic tends to lie at the root of the hero or heroine’s troubles – the wicked witch has poisoned the apple, or put the princess into a hundred years’ sleep, or turned the prince into a hideous beast. In The Tales of Beedle the Bard, on the other hand, we meet heroes and heroines who can perform magic themselves, and yet find it just as hard to solve their problems as we do. Beedle’s stories have helped generations of wizarding parents to explain this painful fact of life to their young children: that magic causes as much trouble as it cures.

Another notable difference between these fables and their Muggle counterparts is that Beedle’s witches are much more active in seeking their fortunes than our fairy-tale heroines. Asha, Althelda, Amata and Babbitty Rabbitty are all witches who take their fate into their own hands, rather than taking a prolonged nap or waiting for someone to return a lost shoe. The exception to this rule – the unnamed maiden of ‘The Warlock’s Hairy Heart’ – acts more like our idea of a storybook princess, but there is no ‘happily ever after’ at the end of her tale.” ~ Introduction by J.K. Rowling

Now what I enjoyed most, was probably Dumbledore’s commentaries. They don’t add much to the story and sometimes he just rambles on. But they build this world that JKR has created. You get to know more details about wands, dark magic, animagus, transfiguration, and all the little details that build this fantasy world which you have spent time on for the past 6-7 books. I also like JKR footnotes explaining the commentaries. The whole format just makes you feel that you’re actually reading a book translated from the real thing.

At this point you might think that I’m such a Potter fan, that’s why I’d think highly of any books that are Potter related. But I don’t think that’s why I like the book. I just love it when a fantasy world gets created in such details that you get to believe that it might be true. That it might exist in some parallel universe out there.

Pages: 105
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Publication year: 2008

Award
Shortlisted for 2009 WHSmith Children’s Book of the Year (lost to Breaking Dawn)

First line
The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a collection of stories written for young wizards and witches.

Last line
Even I, Albus Dumbledore, would find it easiest to refuse the Invisibility Cloak; which only goes to show that, clever as I am, I remain just as big a fool as anyone else.

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Fables Vol 1: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham

mee — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 07:29:08 +0000

I read Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall last month, fell in love straight away, and couldn’t wait to pursue the rest of the series. Legends of Exile is really the first in the series (1001 Nights of Snowfall is the prequel). Here we get introduced to Bigby the Big Bad Wolf (though he assumes body of a man as explained how he came to be in the prose story at the end of the book) and our beloved heroine Snow White. Snow is the the Director of Operations in Fables, the kingdom of fairy tales folks that ran away from their homelands to New York City (the fictional land :), because they were chased away by the Adversary. New York City is called “dreary mundane place: the one world the Adversary seemed to take no interest in.” And so there stay the exiles, trying to live alongside each other in their new home. They created the General Amnesty, in which all past crimes, debts, and grievances are pardoned and can never be brought up again. So bad or good in their previous lives, they all start anew in the new world (theoritically, at least).

At the beginning of the story, Jack (from Jack the Beanstalks) rushes to Bigby’s office to tell him something bad has happened. He later found out that Rose Red, sister of Snow White, is missing and her apartment is totally wrecked, splashed with her blood all over. Jack is Rose’s boyfriend. We quickly get introduced to the other characters as well. Charming (The Prince): Snow’s ex husband, Beauty and the Beast, Flycatcher (the Frog Prince), Cinderella, The Pig (of the Big Bad Wolf. I love the pig!), The King, and Bluebeard.

Bluebeard drove me crazy. I kept wondering which character from which fairy tale he is taken from. My first guess was the King of Arab, who kills his newly wedded bride every single night (and that is mentioned for Bluebeard), but in 1001 Nights of Snowfall Snow White visited the King of Arab, so it’s not him. Somewhere in Wiki it’s mentioned that originally the Bluebeard character design was supposed to be that of Captain Hook, but got cancelled because of Copyright issues. Anyway, I guess at the end he’s a nobody, just one of the villains.

Did I say I loved this series? It’s great! I love the setting, the personality of the characters, the twisted fairy tales, everything. The main story itself of Legends in Exile is just so-so in my opinion, but it’s a great outlet to introduce all the characters in Fables. I also like how each Chapter is started, for examples:

Chapter One: Old Tales Revisited
In which we meet many of our principal players and get just the first hint or two of some of the myriad troubles to come.

Chapter Two: The (Un)Usual Suspects
In which our intrepid detective delves deeper into the mystery of the missing Fable, and a prince is reunited with his old lady love.

Will try to get the second in the series soon. Hopefully soon!

Rating: 4 out of 5
Pages: 127
Publication year: 2002

Awards
2003 Eisner Award for Best New Series and Best Serialized Story

First line
Once upon a time.

Last line
The End – for now.

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Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall by Bill Willingham

mee — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:09:21 +0000

Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall is a prequel to the Fables series written by Bill Willingham. Now I’ve been really really wanting to read Fables series, but just can’t get my hands on the books from my library (long story). So when I saw 1001 Nights, and read the introduction which says that I can read this part without having to read the main series beforehand, I grabbed it, and finished it in half a day.

In 1001 Nights of Snowfall, Snow White visited the Arab Sultan (the one in 1001 Arabian Nights, the one who marries a virgin every single day and kills her in the morning that follows) to seek alliance between Fabletown and the Sultan’s Kingdom. Instead of Scheherazade, Snow was in the company of the Sultan and tell him stories after stories about the past and tales of the Fables. From what happened to Snow White after she got married, how the Big Bad Wolf got to be, the devastating life events of the Frog Prince, the history of the witch who lived in the candy chocolate house (who trapped Hansel and Gretel), and some minor stories.

What can I say? I LOVE it! The art is amazingly good. For this particular book, there are a bunch of illustrators, who each illustrates one story. So you can see a big difference of style between one story to another, but equally great. It’s so good that I couldn’t stop flipping back and forth, indulging in the beauty of the illustrations. Gorgeous. Wonderful. (insert more words for “very good” here)

I don’t think this Fables is appropriate for young children. What with naked Snow White and more adult themes around some stories. To this day I can’t stop wondering why graphic novels are always placed near/at the “Children/Picture Book” section in the libraries. Having read some graphic novels, I can assure you I wouldn’t want my kids to read them in their early age. When would all adults realize that not all books with pictures are kiddies?

Anyway, this book is perfect for adults who enjoy fairy tales retellings. I can’t praise it high enough. Great cover too! I’d definitely chase after the rest of the Fables series. To be honest, if 1001 Nights is a representation of the series, I’d like Fables much more than the Sandman series (I realize I just read the first in the Sandman series and you all have said it’s not a good representation of the whole series).

Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Pages: 140
Publication year: 2006

First line
Once upon a time, as all stories of this type must begin, a lovely woman traveled to a far-off demon-haunted land of magnificent jeweled cities, cast adrift in a sea of wind-tossed desert.

Last line
“He likes stories,” Snow said.

Award
2007 Will Eisner Award for Best Anthology, Best Short Story (Bill Willingham and James Jean, for A Frog’s Eye View), Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (Jill Thomson, for “Fair Division”), and Best Cover Artist (James Jean) [source] [source2]

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everyday reads | Blogging for a Good Book | Fyrefly’s Book Blog | Tripping Toward Lucidity | things mean a lot

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

mee — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 09:23:16 +0000

I’d been wanting to read The Book of Lost Things for a while, since I read that it was sort of like a compilation of fairy tales retellings, which is exactly the kind that I like. The beginning of the book is great. So great, I knew I had to read it as soon as I read the first couple of paragraphs in the library.

The book tells the story about David, who lost his mother and found his dad marrying another woman with her son. Drowned in despair and jealousy, he was distant from his new family and retreated more into the worlds he found in story books. Not long after that, when a plane came crashing down the house’s garden, David was somehow brought into another world that wasn’t his own. A world with twisted fairy tales, with human-wolves, bad Little Red Riding Hood, a gay knight, obese Snow White, and vampire Sleeping Beauty. Don’t forget Rumpelstiltskin, the one who inspires the main villain in the story.

I though the book was interesting, but wasn’t amazingly good. Somewhere in the middle, I felt that it slowed down, and I quickly got disinterested with the half-wolves. I thought they were just ordinary creatures. At the back of my mind, I was worried that it was becoming just another adventure story, with a little kid that overcomes obstacles and beats the baddies at the end. So in a way it is, but then there are other elements to keep it unique among others. I enjoyed it but thought it could’ve been done even better. The ideas were great, but the details weren’t spectacular. Perhaps I just had a high expectation, so it’s hard to be met. Still, I’d recommend it for people who like adventure story with fantasy elements. Or for people who like twisted fairy tales.

Apparently John Connolly is originally a thriller/crime writer. That’s not exactly my favorite genre, so I doubt that I would read his other books. But who knows what might come next?

ps: I love the cover. (I read the blue one instead of the red one.)

Rating: 4 out of 5
Pages: 339
Publication year: 2006

Awards
Nominee 2007 Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year
2007 Alex Award

First paragraphs

Once upon a time – for that is how all stories should begin – there was a boy who lost his mother.

He had, in truth, been losing her for a very long time. The disease that was killing her was a creeping, cowardly thing, a sickness that ate away at her from the inside, slowly consuming the light within so that her eyes grew a little less bright with each passing day, and her skin a little more pale.

And as she was stolen away from him, piece by piece, the boy became more and more afraid of finally losing her entirely. He wanted her to stay. He had no brothers and no sisters, and while he loved his father it would be true to say that he loved his mother more. He could not bear to think of a life without her.

Last line

And, in the darkness, David closed his eyes as all that was lost was found again.

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