Before the Fairytale: The Girl with No Name (Seventh Night) by Iscah

Banished from her village, a young shape shifter sets out on a journey to find her place in the world...

The first of four "Before the Fairytale" stories, "The Girl With No Name" is told in a deceptively simple storybook style with the flavor of an original Grimm's fable, but don't expect your typical "once upon a time.."once upon a time scenario. This is a coming of age tale, humorously interwoven with social commentary.

This story is recommended for older children to adult readers (9 & up) but may not be suitable for younger children.GOODREADS

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Who doesn't like fairy-tales? And even if you don't ,you've probably been introduced to some in your youth. Hansel and Gretel,  Snow White, Red Riding Hood  Mulan...wait, Mulan is a Disney movie...

The Goodreads description of the book is fairly accurate. "Before the Fairytale", is indeed written in a storybook way and very easy to read.  I, being a fan of the Brothers Grimm, could find some of that in this book. 

Like most fairy tales there isn't much characterization .

Except for The nameless girl and Leifhound: The main character referrred to as The Girl , changes a lot and learns a lot about the world and its people. Leifhound turns out to be a very wise prince. I think as far as secondary characters go, Leifhound might be the one I liked the most, because for a prince he's something different. He wants to be a good king and does everything possible so Uritz can have a good future.

Other memorable characters are the bookshop owner that helps the girl and when the girl meets the witch. When she meets the witch, this scene is very well depicted as frightening and different from the other places the girl has visited.

The girl at first starts off on her journey wanting to find her father. She comes back to the town she was born in after years without having found her dad. This is kind of disappointing though for an ending. It's not what I expected but endings are never to a person's expectations.

Although this is a fairy tale and a fantasy novel. The pegasus and unicorns took me off guard.

It's not a bad thing and it worked in the book but it was surprising and unexpected.

I enjoyed reading this book just like I enjoy reading any fairy tale book. It's amusing and simple. Plus there's a wonderfully wise prince.

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The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy : and Other Stories by Tim Burton

From breathtaking stop-action animation to bittersweet modern fairy tales, filmmaker Tim Burton has become known for his unique visual brilliance -- witty and macabre at once. Now he gives birth to a cast of gruesomely sympathetic children -- misunderstood outcasts who struggle to find love and belonging in their cruel, cruel worlds. His lovingly lurid illustrations evoke both the sweetness and the tragedy of these dark yet simple beings -- hopeful, hapless heroes who appeal to the ugly outsider in all of us, and let us laugh at a world we have long left behind (mostly anyway).GOODREADS

I have this new addiction to stumble upon. This is one of my old reviews I decided to post here of a book I found through Stumble Upon.That's what led me to this book. It's an amazing book, funny, creepy, odd and very lovely. I like the illustrations. They're odd yet sweet, in a bizzar way. A match in love with a stick. He thought she was hot. and then quite literally burnt for her. Crazy parents who have an oyster baby. and end up killing him and eating him to help their sex life. The mummy boy who gets mistaken for a pineata. And Voodoo Girl, my favorite. So the stories don't really rhyme , sometimes they do (in my opinion). Some are also very short and very sad but all around awesome book. You can read this online (here's a link): The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy : and Other Stories by Tim Burton

Cat and Mouse in Partnership , Our Lady's Child , The Story of the Youth who went forth to Learn about Fear by the Brothers Grimm

A Fairy tale Treat 

From the complete illustrated fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm

2.Cat and Mouse in Partnership

A certain cat and a mouse play house. They hid a pot of fat away for the winter. The cat  becomes hungry and lies to the mouse about going to a christening where she is the godmother of the little kitty that's been born. The mouse gives her leave. The cat goes to the pot and licks the top of the fat off. Later the mouse asks her what they  named the kitty. Top-off she answers. This the cat does two more times with the same lie that she's been made grandmother again. The other two kitty's names then are half-done and all gone. When winter comes the mouse sees the pot is empty and understands what's happened . He's vexed at the cat and the cat eats him. verily that is the way of the world  

I like this story and how it ends. It's fun to tell to friends  The ending gets them every time. The last sentence , I guess, gives the moral of the story. A cat and a mouse can't be friends. The strong will always take advantage of the weak or rule over the weak. 

3.Our Lady's Child

Hard by in a great forest a woodcutter and his wife and their only child, a beautiful daughter but they could not care for her so then the Mother Mary comes and offers to take the child and raise her as her own. The child grows up in heaven and one day the Mother leaves on a journey and gives the child the keys to the 13 doors of heaven. She may look through all the doors except the 13Th. But the child breaks her promise and opens the 13th door . When the Mother returns she asks the girl three times if she opened the 13th door. 3 times the girl denied /lied that she did not. So the mother banished her to earth and took her voice. The girl is eventually taken in by a King . Who marries her and makes her his Queen. The Queen then has a son and the Mother comes again and asks her if she opened the door. Again she denies so the Mother takes her son. The people in the kingdom believe she's a man eater when they realize  the son is missing but because the King loved her he protected her. The Queen then had another son and the Mother came again and the Queen denied it again and lost her second son. and again the king protected her. One day the Queen had another child, a daughter. The Mother game again and showed her how happy her two sons were and said if she confesses she could have her two sons and her daughter. The Queen denied and the Mother took her daughter. This time the King could not protect her and she would be burned at the stake and at the stake is where the Queen confessed to opening the 13th door  and the Mother descended from heaven and gave the Queen her children, untied her tongue and gave her happiness for her whole life.

This is my favorite story so far. The lesson is 'he who repents his sin and acknowledges it, is forgiven"

I prefer honesty above anything. The Queen  should have been honest from the start. She had three chances and lied every time then she had more chances and still lied. She couldn't even tell the truth for the sake of her children but did for herself. Being honest isn't easy, it's hard at times but it's better for your own peace of mind.

The Frog-King, or Iron Henry by The Brothers Grimm

A Fairytale Treat

From the complete illustrated fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm

I've read some of Grimm's tales before and  I've bought the book recently. Actually I didn't buy it, my little brother(  the irritating bug) and I bought it so we co-own it. I don't think reviewing the whole book would do the different tales justice so I'll do it separately. It's worth it. We all love or loved fairy tales.

The Frog-King or Iron Henry is where The Princess and The frog is derived from (I think). . I'm basing this solely on the fact that there's a princess and a frog in this story. It's the first story from the book( my edition).

"In old times when wishing still helped one,

The story is written really fairy-tale like(like fairy tales are ) and five pages long and illustrated with one picture of the princess taking the frog up the stairs.

This is the tale of a beautiful Princess, whose more radiant than the sun itself. One day she goes off to play with her golden ball. She drops the ball into a fountain. She cries and wishes she had her ball back. So then the Frog appears and promises the Princess her ball back and in return the Princess will take him, the Frog, to her castle, she will allow him to eat with her and sleep in her bed. The Princess thinking the frog couldn't possibly get her ball back agrees. The frog retrieves her ball and the Princess was so happy she then runs home forgetting the Frog. At dinner with her father, the King, they hear some one knocking at the door.

"Princess! youngest Princess!

"Open the door for me!

"Dost thou not know what thou saidst to me

'"yesterday by the cool waters of the fountain?
"Princess,youngest princess!
"Open the door for me!'

The King hears this and asks the Princess what it's all about. After she explains he tells her to keep her promise to the frog. So she reluctantly gets the frog. She had promised to let the frog eat from her plate. this She  does . she hates this. She had also promised to let the Frog sleep in her bed, so she again reluctantly takes the Frog upstairs to her room. In the Princess and the Frog we know, the Frog turns into a Prince after he's kissed by the Princess. According to Grimm the Frog turns when the Princess throws him against a wall. Preferable and much more amusing. The prince then tells he's tale and then returns to his kingdom. Happily ever after.

It's a really nice tale and different. It's called the Frog-King because well the Frog is the king. Iron Henry is and alternative title. In the story the Prince is brought back to his kingdom by his most faithful servant, Henry. When the Prince was turned into a frog Henry had three iron bars placed around his heart, which broke one by one when the prince turned back in to prince. 

There a lot of use of what I''ll call old English, a lot of doth, saidst, thou etc. I'm guessing the moral of the story is that you should keep your promises .Hope you enjoyed this tale .

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