Fractured Fairy Tales

Fractured Fairy Tales seem to become more popular every year. They make great read-alouds for young children, and are fun teaching tools for story structure and character development.

A fairy tale is most commonly fractured in time, character, setting, or point of view. On the web there are several generators for creating a fractured tale with children but I think this is the best:

ReadWriteThink.org

Below is a list of picture book fractured tales, for novels and original story summaries and much more I suggest you go to SurLaLune Fairy Tales. It is by far the most comprehensive fairy tale website around.

Cinderella
Prince Cinders by Babette Cole
The Salmon Princess: An Alaskan Cinderella Story by Mindy Dwyer
Dinorella: a prehistoric fairytale by Pamela Duncan Edwards
Princess Furball by Charlotte Huck
Cinder Edna by Ellen Jackson
Bigfoot Cinderrrrrella by Tony Johnson
Bubba the Coyboy Prince by Helen Kettleman
Cinderhazel: the Cinderella of Halloween by Deborah Nourse Lattimore
Cindy Ellen: a Wild Western Cinderella by Susan Lowell
Cinder-Elly by Frances Minters
Cinderella Penguin, or, the Little Glass Flipper by Janet Perlman
Cinderella: an Art Deco Love Story by Lynn Roberts
Smoky Mountain Rose: an Appalachian Cinderella by Alan Schroeder
Seriously, Cinderella is So Annoying! by Trisha Speed Shaskan
Cinderella Skeleton by Robert D. San Souci
Sootface: an Ojibwa Cinderella tale by Robert D. San Souci
Little Gold Star: A Spanish American Cinderella by Robert D. San Souci
International Versions
Anklet for a Princess: a Cinderella Story from India by Meredith Babeaux Brucker
Egyption Cinderella by Shirley Climo
The Persian Cinderella by Shirley Climo
The Irish Cinderlad by Shirley Climo
Korean Cinderella by Shirley Climo
Jouanah: a Hmong Cindererella by Jewell R. Coburn
Angkat: a Cambodian Cinderella by Jewell R. Coburn
Domitila: a Cinderella tale from the Mexican Tradition by Jewell R.Coburn
Abadeha: a Philppine Cinderella by Myrna J. De La Paz
The Golden Sandal: a Middle Eastern Cinderella by Rebecca Hickox
Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China by Ai-Ling Louie
Rough-Faced Girl by Rafe Martin
The Gift of the Crocodile by Judy Sierra
Cendrillon: a Caribbean Cinderella by Robert D. San Souci
Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe

Emperor's New Clothes
The Emperor's Cool Clothes by Lee Harper

The Gingerbread Man
Stop that Pickle by Peter Armour
Gingerbread Mouse by Katy Bratun
Little Cajun Cornbread Boy by Dianne De Las Casas
Gingerbread Man, Superhero! by Dotti Enderle
The Library Ginderbread Man by Dotti Enderle
The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst
Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers by Lisa Campbell Ernst
Can't Catch Me by Ann Hassett
The Runaway Tortilla by Eric A. Kimmel
The Runaway Latkes by Leslie Kimmelman
The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristen Kladstrup
Gingerbread Man Loose in the School by Laura Murray
Runaway Dreidel by Leslea Newman
The Matzo Ball Boy by Lisa Schulman
The Gingerbread Cowboy by Janet Squires
Musubi Man: Hawaii's Gingerbread Man by Sandi Takayama
International versions
The Runaway Rice Cake by Ying Chang Compestine

Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Goldilocks Returns by Lisa Campbell Ernst
Goldilocks and the Three Bears: a tale moderne by Steven Guarnaccia
Goldisocks and the Three Libearians by Jackie Mims Hopins
Believe Me, Goldilocks Rocks! by Nancy Jean Loewen
Dusty Locks and the Three Bears by Susan Lowell
Goldi and the Three Hares by Margi Palatini

Hansel and Gretel
Hansel and Diesel by David Gordon
The Truth about Hansel and Gretel by Karina Law

Jack in the Beanstalk
Jim and the Beanstalk by Raymond Briggs
Jacques and de Beanstalk: a Cajun Tale by Mike Artell
Trust me, Jack's Beanstalk Stinks! by Erick Mark Braun
Waynetta and the Cornstalk: a Texas Fairy Tale by Helen Ketteman
Kate and the Beanstalk by Mary Pope Osborne

Little Mermaid
Princess Fishtail by Frances Minters

Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood: a New Fangled Prairie Tale by Lisa Campbell Ernst
Betsy Red Hoodie by Gail Carson Levine
Little Red Cowboy Hat by Susan Lowell
Litle Red: a Fizzlingly Good Yarn by Lynn Roberts
Honestly, Red Riding Hood Was Rotten! by Trisha Speed Shaskan
Carmine: a little more red by Melissa Sweet
International Versions
Pretty Salma: A Red Riding Hood Story From Africa by Niki Daly
Lon Po Po: a Red Riding Hood Story from China by Ed Young

The Shoemaker and the Elves
The Bootmaker and the Elves by Susan Lowell

Sleeping Beauty
Snoring Beauty by Bruce Hale
Sleepless Beauty by Frances Minters
Sleeping Bobby by Mary Pope Osborn
Waking Beauty by Leah Wilcox
Sleeping Ugly by Jane Yolen

The Three Little Pigs
Three Little Cajun Pigs by Mike Artell
The Three Little Rigs by David Gordon
Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Will Grace
Three Little Pigs and Architectural Tale by Steven Guarnaccia
Three Little Gators by Helen Kettleman
The Three Cabritos by Eric A. Kimmel
Three Little Tamales by Eric A. Kimmel
Alaska's Three Pigs by Arlene Lave
The Three Little Javelinas by Suan Lowell
The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot by Margaret McNamara
The Three Horrid Little Pigs by Liz Pichon
The Three Swingin Pigs by Vicky Rubin
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by John Scieszka
The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Travers
International Versions
Three Little Dassies by Jan Brett

Three Billy Goats Gruff
The Three Silly Girls Grubb by Ann Hassett
The Three Armadillies Tuff by Jackie Hopkins
The Three Silly Billies by Margie Palatini

The Princess and the Pea
Princess Pigtoria and the Pea by Pamela Duncan Edwards
The Very Smart Pea and the Princess-to-Be by Mini Grey
The Penguin and the Pea by Janet Perlman
The Real Princess: a mathmagical tale by Brenda Williams

Rapunzel
Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox
Rapunzel a Groovy Fairy Tale by Leah Wilcox

One World, Many Stories: Summer Reading Program

Around the World in 80 Books (give or take a few!)

Travel around the world with childrens books! Click on the above map and it will lead you to a larger version of this world map. Each region and that will lead you to a middle school book list for that region.

Check out your local library and see how you can participate in their summer reading program.

Sweet Treats & Secret Crushes by Lisa Greenwald

A Valentine's Day blizzard strands three 7th grade best friends in their New York City appartment building. Deciding to make the most of this legendary snow day (they almost never happen in NYC) Kate, Georgia, and Olivia learn how to make fortune cookies in Georgia's family restaurant and they deliver them to their unsuspecting neighbors. What happens is a bit magical, each fortune in each cookie seems to speak to the reciever in a very special way. But can the cookies deliver an important message to the girls who have been growing increasingly apart?

• Confident Kate is interested in boys, gossip, and making new friends, which may leave her two best friends behind.
• Observant Olivia has had an ongoing infatuation with PBJ (Philip Becker-Jacobs) that is no longer amusing but annoying to her two best friends. And her Observation Notebooks and trademark nature for investigating just might drive a wedge between all three girls.
• Quiet Georgia, has a secret crush that she does not feel like sharing with anyone, and is beginning to realize that being a best friend does not mean you have to share everything all the time.

All three girls are trying to bring their building together on a snowy day, get to know their neighbors, and maybe make some new friends. During their adventure, they get to know themselves and each other a bit better.

A great cozy coming-of-age book that is perfect for a winter night (or a snow day). Read it and pass it on. And make up some fortunes while you are at it.
The author even promotes her favorite sweet treats: http://www.emilys-edibles.com/, just to make you that much hungrier while you read this book.

Drizzle by Kathleen Van Cleve

When I first took a look at the cover, I wanted to love this book. People sitting in umbrellas in the rain riding around a ...well what the heck was that? Forget the old adage, I judge books by their covers all the time. The more interesting the cover, the more I will be willing to give a book a chance. And I am so glad this one followed through in my expectations of Dahl-like fun.

Once I read Drizzle I figured out that these lucky people on the cover have been to eleven-year-old Polly Peabody's family rhubarb farm. And they don't grow just any rhubarb, but they have rhubarb that tastes like chocolate, and their Weeping Willows really weep, and it rains every Monday at 1pm, where you can take the Giant Umbrella Ride around the Giant Rhubarb.

Van Cleve, you had me at chocolate rhubarb.

And not only is Polly's farm special, but Polly herself is too. She can talk to rhubarb, Harry is her particular friendly plant and the insects spell, albeit cryptic messages. But now Polly's beloved farm and family are in danger. The rain has stopped, the rhubarb are fighting back, and her brother becomes mysteriously ill. It all comes down to Polly to save her family and her farm, but can she figure out in time what she needs to to?

I am always up for a good coming-of-age novel, and this one fits the bill. It even throws in a bit of environmentalism with its whimsical magical realism. A truly delicious book.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

2010 Newbery Award Winner

6th grader Miranda is searching for more than a new friend when her best friend Sal stops speaking to her. In the streets of 1978 New York City Miranda knows where it is safe to go. She walks to school, finds a new friends, avoids bullies and strangers, and then she starts to receive mysterious letters and the sender seems to know a little too much about her.

When You Reach Me is a novel that works with several themes. There are the wonderful parent/child relationships between Miranda and her mother, and Miranda and her mother's boyfriend. Annemarie and her father, Sal and his mother are all examples of solid parent and child trying to figure it out in an imperfect world. Much like the book that this one mirrors, A Wrinkle in Time, a resonating theme throughout is family love.

And that is what makes this book so wonderful, is because nice, family stories are such a rarity in the children's book world. A problem novel, where the real problem is just growing up and trying to figure it all out, why does someone not want to be my friend? Why is someone a bully? Why are some kids popular and I'm not? It's ok to love your parent(s) and be frustrated with them at the same time. These are the questions and issues that are universal through the decades, and Stead treats them with geniune care and concern.

Much like I felt like time travel was an unnecessary device in A Wrinkle in Time, I felt much the same of its use in here, love of friends and family was the resonating theme in both books, and I think they should be read in conjunction with one another. I can't wait to see that Stead writes next.

2010 ALA Book and Youth Media Awards

Can you hear it? The cheers? Hundrends of librarians screaming, huzzahing, and applauding for their picks and winners of favorite titles for this years Youth Media Awards announced right here in Boston.

I sat at home at my computer and watched the snow and ice pound my windows and thanked goodness that I did not have to ride the T to go into town to hear the annoucements. I was drinking hot chocolate and watching the live webcast at 7:45am. For the first time in ages, many of my favorite titles have won something.



The John Newbery Award(for the best children's novel of the year)
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
(H) Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Philip Hoose
(H) The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelley
(H) Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Gace Lin
(H) The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick



The Randolph Caldecott Medal (for the best picture book of the year)
The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney
(H) Red Sings from Treetops illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, written by Joyce Sidman
(H) All the World illustrated by Marla Frazee, written by Elizabeth Garton Scanlon


The Michael L. Printz Award (for the best YA novel of the year)
Going Bovine by Libba Bray
(H) Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman
(H) The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey
(H) Punkzilla by Adam Rapp
(H) Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes

The Alex Awards (for ten adult books with teen appeal)
The Boy Who Harnassed the Wind: creating currents of electricity and hope by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
The Bride's Farewell by Meg Rosoff
Everything Matters! by Ron Currie
The Good Soldiers by David Finkel
The Kids are All Right: a Memoir by Diana, Liz, Amanda, and Dan Welch
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
My Abandonment by Peter Rock
Soulless by Gail Carriger
Stitches by David Small
Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson


The Coretta Scott King Book Awards (for the best book about the African-American experience)
John Steptoe New Talent
The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon
Author
Bad News for Outlaws: the remarkable life of Bass Reeves, deputy U.S. Marshall by Vaunda Micheaeux Nelson, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
(H) Mare's War by Tanita S. Davis
Illustrator
My People illustrated by Charles R. Smith, written by Langston Hughes
(H) The Negro Speaks of Rivers, illustrated by E. B. Lewis, written by Langston Hughes

Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement
Walter Dean Myers


The Pura Belpre Award (for the best children's book about the Latino/a experience)
Authors
Return to Sender by Julia Alvarez
(H) Federico García Lorca by Georgina Lázaro, illustrated by Enrique S. Moreiro
(H) Diego: Bigger Than Life by Carmen Bernier-Grand, illustrated by David Diaz

Illustrators
Book Fiesta!: Celebrate Children’s Day/Book Day; Celebremos El día de los niños/El día de los libros illustrated by Rafael López, written by Pat Mora
(H) Diego: Bigger Than Life illustrated by David Diaz, written by Carmen Bernier-Grand
(H) My Abuelita illustrated by Yuyi Morales, written by Tony Johnston
(H) Gracias Thanks illustrated by John Parra, written by Pat Mora


The Robert F. Sibert Medal (for the best children's nonfiction book of the year)
Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone
(H) The Day-Glo brothers: the true story of Bob and Joe Switzer's bright ideas and brand-new colors by Chris Barton
(H) Moonshot: the Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca
(H) Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Philip Hoose


The Schneider Family Book Award (for the best book about the disability experience)
Young Adult Novel
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X Stork
Middle Grade Novel
Anything but Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin
Picture Book
Django by Bonnie Christensen


The Theodore Seuss Geisel Award (for the best early reader book)
Benny and Penny and the Big No-No by Jeffrey Hayes
(H) Pearl and Wagner: One Funny Day by Kate McMullan
(H) Mouse and Mole: Fine Feathered Friends by Wong Herbert Yee
(H) Little Mouse Gets Ready by Jeff Smith
(H) I Spy Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold


The William C. Morris Award (for the best YA novel by a first-time author)
Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan


YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction
Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman
(F) Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone
(F) Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Philip Hoose
(F) The Great and Only Barnum: the tremendous, stupendous life of showman P.T. Barnum by Candace Fleming
(F) Written in Bone: buried lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland

The Margaret A. Edwards Award (for the YA author who's made a lasting contribution to the field)
Jim Murphy

The May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture Award
Lois Lowry


The Mildred L. Batchelder Award (for the best translated children's book)
A Faraway Island by Annika Thor, translated from Swedish by Linda Schenck
(H) Big Wolf and Little Wolf by Nadine Brun-Cosme, illustrated by Olivier Tallec, translated from French by Claudia Bedrick
(H) Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness by Nahako Uehashi, translated from Japanese by Cathy Hirano


The Odyssey Award (for the best children's audiobook of the year)
Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken by Kate DiCamillo
(H) In the Belly of the Bloodhound by LA Meyers
(H) Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
(H) We Are the Ship by Kadir Nelson

The Andrew Carnegie Medal (for excellence in children's video)
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus produced by Weston Woods

On the eve of the Newbery

Being the lucky Bostonian librarian that I am, I had the fortunate opportunity to attend ALA Boston Midwinter 2010 yesterday, and it was a bookapaloza of freebies. My beloved Lois Lowry gave an interview at the Horn Book Booth with Rodger Sutton and I got to see the wonderful writer and friend Bethany Hegedus sign copies of her fabulous book, Between Us Baxters for a line of people. I also got to give M.T. Anderson a hug hello (yes, I know him from Vermont College, it wasn't a rabid fan moment) before he was wisked off to do another interview.

But the buzz now is who will win tomorrow am? I don't know but you can bet I will be up, all cozied up to my computer while it snows away in Beantown, and I hope I can get through to the live webcast.

My Newbery predictions? Either Evolution of Calpurnia Tate or When you Reach Me, reviews of both to come later, but both are wonderful, fabulous books.

And I hope that Kekla Magoon gets the John Steptoe that she truly, (imho, of which you are all entitled to) deserves.