[Note: Correct bibliography form requires that you indent every line after the first line in an entry, but HTML restrictions make that a time-consuming job. Titles should also be in italics, but that is so difficult to read that I have used boldface to indicate titles instead. Pretend this is correct, please.]

Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes. Your basic fairy tale -- rewritten, modernized, fractured and/or beautifully illustrated.

Ada, Alma Flor. (1998) Yours Truly, Goldilocks. New York: Simon & Schuster.

_______. (1994) Dear Peter Rabbit. New York: Aladdin.

Ahlberg, Janet and Allan. (1986) The Jolly Postman or Other People's Letters. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. A postman delivers mail to fairy tale characters. Enclosures include personal and business letters, a birthday card, an advertising flyer, a postcard, a legal notice, a minibook, and a pound note drawn on the Wonderland bank.

_______. (1995) The Jolly Pocket Postman. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Pursued by a wolf in postman's clothes, the postman escapes into the book itself, meeting Alice of Wonderland and Dorothy of Oz, as well as assorted fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters. Enclosures include a postcard, a circular story, a spider-o-gram, a box of tin soldiers, a map, a get well card, a minibook and a magnifying glass because "there's more in here than meets the eye."

Babcock, Chris. (1993) No Moon, No Milk. New York: Crown Publishing. Martha whose great-great-grandmother jumped over the moon, refuses to cow around the pasture any more. No milk until she's a cowsmonaut. [A good example of reinterpreting a nursery rhyme if you want to include them in your unit.]

Black, Sheila. (1991) The Witch's Story / Hansel and Gretel. New York: Carol Publishing Group. Hungry misbehaving kids trap Agatha, a sweet old lady witch, whose evil reputation is undeserved because the kids tell such wild stories. Two books in one - straightforward Hansel and Gretel when reversed.

Briggs, Raymond. (1970) Jim and the Beanstalk. New York: Coward-McCann. In this urban version, Jack climbs up the skyscraper fire escape and is rewarded for helping the toothless, nearly blind bald Giant. (Some may be concerned about the pair's breakfast of beer and beef.)

Calmenson, Stephanie. (1989) The Principal's New Clothes. New York: Scholastic. Mr. Bundy, the vain principal of P.S. 88, takes pride in being a sharp dresser, until Moe & Ivy con him with a magic suit "invisible to anyone who is no good at his job or just plain stupid."

Celsi, Teresa. (1990) The Fourth Little Pig. Austin, TX: Steck-Vaughn.

Climo, Shirley. (1989) The Egyptian Cinderella. New York: Harper Collins.

Climo, Shirley. (1993) The Korean Cinderella. New York: Harper Collins.

Cole, Babette. (1987) Prince Cinders. New York: Putnam.

Dahl, Roald. (1982) Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes. New York: Puffin Books. Verse versions of "Cinderella," "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," "Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf," and "The Three Little Pigs" feature surprise endings in place of the traditional happily-ever-after. Rats nibblle at Cinderella's feet and a Little Red wears a furry wolfskin coat. How's this for an opening:

I guess you think you know this story.
You don't. The real one's much more gory.
The phoney one, the one you know,
Was cooked up years and years ago,
And made to sound all soft and sappy,
Just to keep the children happy (p 5).

de Regniers, Beatrice Schenk. (1972). Red Riding Hood. New York: Atheneum. Retold in simple verse for young children, the slightly odd illustrations by Edward Gorey will appeal to adults as well. My favorite in the book, the eyes of the wolf speak volumes.

Emberley, Rebecca. (1995) Three Cool Kids. New York: Little Brown.

Ernst, Lisa Campbell. (1995) Little Red Riding Hood: A Newfangled Prairie Tale. New York: Simon & Schuster. Cruising the prairie on her motorcycle, this Little Red delivers warm wheat berry muffins and cold lemonade to her tough not-so-little grandma. The wolf asks the traditional questions, but grandma has great big hands "all the better to crush you like a bug."

French, Fiona. (1986) Snow White in New York. New York: Oxford University Press. Art Deco 1920s version uses society headlines in the New York Mirror to tell the tale. Abandoned on the dark New York streets, Snow White finds her way into the Blue Diamond Club where seven jazz-men let her sing. Wicked stepmother, a poisoned cherry in a cocktail, and a newspaper reporter complete the tale.

Granowsky, Alvin. (1993) Cinderella/That Awful Cinderella (Another Point of View). Austin, TX: Raintree/Steck-Vaughn. The classic tale on one side, the reverse a re-telling from another point of view. In this instance Drusilla, one of the step-sisters, tells how Cinderella, not so sweet and innocent, plotted to rise above her station and entrap the prince. The retold stories have an ironic flavor that never quite belies the familiar original. Other retold titles available in the "Another Point of View" series include Giants have Feelings, Too; Wake Up, Rip Van Winkle; The Sheriff Speaks; Just a Friendly Old Troll; Brainy Bird Saves the Day; Help Yourself, Little Red Hen and Friends at the End.

Hay, Sara Henderson. (1982) The Story Hour. Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press. Verse re-tellings of fairy tales, usually with a philosophical twist. "The Builders," often anthologized in literature textbooks, has the wisest of the three pigs reflecting that he would have helped his less wise brothers, if they'd only admitted they were wrong. "The Formula" is just that. Every one of the forty sonnets has that aha! moment. [out-of-print so libraries or amazon.com are your best chances to locate a copy]

Hooks, William H. (1989) The Three Little Pigs and the Fox. New York: Aladdin.

Jackson, Ellen B. (1994) Cinder-Edna. New York: Lothrop Lee & Shepard. Cinderella and Cinder-Edna, both living with cruel stepmothers and stepsisters, yet each has a very different outlook. Cinder-Edna, not so beautiful as her neighbor, is a strong, spunky loafer kind of gal. Interesting use of comparison/contrast structure.

Johnson, A. E., trans. (1969) Perrault's Fairy Tales. New York: Dover. Interesting translations with verse morals, but the Gustave Doré illustrations could spark writing assignments all on their own. No teenager can resist the seductive image of the Wolf and Little Red abed.

Kitamura, Satoshi. (1995) Sheep in Wolves' Clothing. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Georgina, Hubert and Gogol get fleeced by Wolfgang & Brothers Quality Knitwear, hire Elliott BAA, private detective, enlist the aid of some ball-of-wool-chasing cats, and end up with some real cool sweaters.

Laird, Donivee Martin. (1981) The Three Little Hawaiian Pigs and the Magic Shark. Honolulu, HA: Barnaby Book, Inc.

Lattimore, Deborah Nourse. (1997) Cinderhazel. New York: Blue Sky Press.

Louie, Ai-Ling. (1982) Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China. New York: Putnam & Grosset. Retold Ancient Chinese tale, complete with orphan, wicked second wife, magic fish bones, tiny golden slippers, a kind uncle, entranced king and all.

Lowell, Susan. (1992) The Three Little Javelinas. Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Publishing. A chili-flavored Southwestern version with peccaries and a coyote, houses made from tumbleweeds, saguaro ribs, and adobe, a stuffed stovepipe and the source of the coyote's painful howl. Following note by writer explains her choices in the adaptation.

_______. (1997) The Bootmaker and the Elves. New York: Orchard Books. Made from "leather and dreams," elvish cowboy boots are the best in the West. How about a a pair made of "creamy glove leather, inlaid with lavender butterflies and pale pink hearts, and stitched in curlicues from top to bottom in sparkling thread"? Inspired, the bootmaker learns to "put some fancy" in his boots, too.

_______. (1997) Little Red Cowboy Hat. New York: Henry Holt and Company. With hair a color "somewhere between firecrackers and new pennies," Little Red is immediately wary of the stranger who stands so close she can "count the teeth in his smile." She and her grandmother make fast work of "that yellow-bellied, snake-blooded, skunk-eyed, rancid son of a parellelogram."

Lum, Darrell. (1994) The Golden Slipper. New York: Troll Associates.

Martin, Rafe. (1992) The Rough-Face Girl. New York: Putnam.

Meddaugh, Susan. (1997) Cinderella's Rat. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Turned into a coachman by Cinderella's godmother, a rat who "expected to be a rat all [his] days" tells the surprising story of his life.

Minters, Frances. (1994) Cinder-Elly. New York: Puffin Books. In this modernized rap version, New York girl gets Charming basketball dude, with the help of bag lady Godma, her magic cane, and a trashcan that turns into a street bike.

_______. (1996) Sleepless Beauty. New York: Viking. Beauty pricks her finger trying to play an old-time vinyl record, but outwits the witch in a perfectly logical way, saving herself, rather than being saved.

Munsch, Robert. (1980) The Paper Bag Princess. Buffalo, NY: Annick Press.

Perkal, Stephanie. (1967) Midnight: A Cinderella Alphabet. Arcadia, CA: Shen's Books.

San Souci, Robert D. (1994) Sootface: An Ojibwa Cinderella Story. New York: Bantam.

Scieszka, Jon. (1991) The Frog Prince Continued. New York: Puffin Books. Sequel with an unhappy couple who are not living happily ever after. The Prince wants to return to his frog form, but runs into the wrong witches (ones from "Sleeping Beauty," "Snow White," and "Hansel and Gretel")

_______. (1992) The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales. New York: Viking. More twists on the familiar. Here, an ugly duckling will just grow up to be an ugly duck.

_______. (1989) The true story of the 3 little pigs. New York: Viking. Misunderstood wolf, much abused by pigs, tells his version of the tale. Already a modern classic, this serves as a model for student retellings.

Stanley, Diane. (1997) Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter. New York: William Morrow and Company. The miller's daughter and Rumpelstiltskin escape via a spun gold ladder, marry, and raise a daughter who once again captures the greedy king's attention. The daughter, unable to spin straw into gold, works a different magic on the king himself.

Steptoe, John. (1987) Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale. New York: Lothrop and Shepard. An African fairy tale with a familiar moral, the true nature of each beautiful daughter being revealed in her daily actions and a disguised king who weds the one he deserves. African images and symbols enrich a tale about true beauty.

Stevens, Janet. (1987) The Three Billy Goats Gruff. New York: Harcourt Brace & Co. Watercolor characters enhance the traditional story, especially when the oldest and toughest of the billy goats comes calling in leather jacket and shades.

Thaler, Mike. (1997) Cinderella Bigfoot. New York: Scholastic.

_______. (1997) Hanzel and Pretzel. New York: Scholastic.

_______. (1997) Schmoe White and the Seven Dorfs. New York: Scholastic.

Trivizas, Eugene. (1994) The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. New York: Scholastic. A big, bad pig of a bully, sledgehammer in hand, is no match for the three little wolves, who start with a house of bricks and build up from there.

Vozar, David. (1993) Yo, Hungry Wolf!: A Nursery Rap. New York: Yearling. A retelling in rap verse of "The Three Little Pigs," "Little Red Riding Hood," and "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." Love for language makes this clever re-telling a read-aloud must. Who can hate a wolf who feels "sort of pretty in the old lady's lace" or resist lines like: "He lets out the air at the door with a roar / but the shack is intact as he slumps to the floor."

Walsh, Ellen Stoll. (1997) Jack's Tale. New York: Harcourt Brace & Co. Oh no, metafiction! In this charming model for story writing, the author convinces his main character Jack to participate in the fairy tale, warning him to "be extra careful in the middle."

Watts, Bernadette. (1988) Snow White and Rose Red. New York: North-South Books. Two sisters, both beautiful and both kind, rescue an enchanted prince by trying to help the evil dwarf who entrapped him.

Yolen, Jane. (1974) The Girl Who Cried Flowers and Other Tales. New York: Schocken Books [published 1981].If the title of the first story isn't enough to entice you into the book, David Palladini's delicate ethereal illustrations will.

_______. (1981) Sleeping Ugly. New York: Putnam & Grosset. An ironic re-telling that could easily have been trite, charms the reader with a prince who thinks before he kisses and prefers the smell of wildflowers to superficial beauty.

_______. (1990) Sky Dogs. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company. A Blackfeet Indian boy, present when his tribe first encounters horses, becomes the one who learned first the nature of the sky dogs. Even as an old man, he remembers their snorting laugh, their smell "like the plains after the buffalo have passed," and how they changed his people forever.

Young, Ed. (1989) Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China. New York: Philomel. In this Chinese folktale, the wolf comes knocking on the children's door at dusk, but our girl outwits the wolf, saving her sisters as well. Young's illustrations add an eerie depth to the familiar tale, something to be expected after his dedication "to all the wolves of the world for lending their good name as a tangible symbol for our darkness."

Fairy Tales for Adolescents & Adults . Seductions for teachers, but read through before recommending to younger teens.

Barth, John. (1972) Chimera. New York: Random House. Scheherazade's kid sister retells the Arabian Nights and the myths of Perseus and Bellerophon. Given the sexual nature of the stories, adult language is no surprise. National Book Award.

Barthelme, Donald. (1967) Snow White. New York: Atheneum. Absurd, compelling modernization in which Snow White "adds a dimension of confusion and misery" to the lives of Kevin, Edward, Hubert, Henry, Clem, Dan, and Bill. Worrying about which prince will come, she lets down her hair black as ebony when she tires of being just a housewife. Non-traditional narrative structure yields pages which can stand alone for class use, my favorite being the questions at the end of Part One (82-83).

Carroll, Jonathan. (1990) Sleeping in Flame. New York: Vintage. Almost too late, Walker Easterling recognizes that Rumpelstiltskin has invaded his movie-business "real" life, that the price of passion is too high, and that the girl in red at the door is dangerous.

Cashorali, Peter. (1997) Fairy Tales: Traditional Tales Retold for Gay Men. New York: Harper. Drawn from traditional sources, these witty "teaching tales" touch upon contemporary issues --including coming out, "looksism," AIDS, and aging. Though certainly not for everyone, the stories feature "fairy tale staples such as fickle princes, talking animals, and inanimate objects with incredible powers, plus personal trainers, aging boy-toys, a poignant Ugly Duckling, a movie-mad Hansel, and a Rumpelstiltskin with a riddle about HIV" (well put in the card catalogue description).

Coover, Robert. (1996) Briar Rose. New York: Grove Atlantic. This sensual deconstruction of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale is told through the dreams of the sleeping princess and the meditations of the determined prince forcing his way through the briars that imprison them both. Beauty is told, "You are that flame flickering like a burning fever in the hearts of men, consuming them with desire, bewitching them with your radiant and mysterious allure." As much about storytelling's power to enchant as it is about beauty's power to seduce, this erotic, funny book is not for the innocent.

Datlow, Ellen and Terri Windling, eds.(1994) Black Thorn, White Rose. and (1990) Snow White, Blood Red. New York: Avon. These anthologies of modern tales reinvent, rather than retell, exploring the dark side of classic fairy tales. Although distinctly modern in theme, these unsanitized feminist versions recapture the feel of earlier oral literature -- grim but magical, haunting and unforgettable. Because so many different writers are included, examine each story, whether blessing or curse, on its own.

Fabry, Chris. (1991) Spiritually Correct Bedtime Stories: Parables of Faith for the Modern Reader. : Intervarsity Press. An unusual twist on a serious subject, the titles reveal the traditional sources -- "The Three Theological Pigs," "Beauty and the Mark of the Beast, and "The Emperor's New Bible," for example. Religious and spiritual, but with a sense of humor, Fabry's stories teach, not preach.

Fisher, David. (1996) Legally Correct Fairy Tales. New York: Warner. Looking at fairy tales from a lawyer's viewpoint, Goldilocks is guilty of trespass and Prince Charming of sexual harassment.

Garner, James Finn. (1995) Once Upon a More Enlightened Time and (1994) Politically Correct Bedtime Stories. New York: MacMillan. Proper versions of familiar tales, a bit tongue-in-cheek. For example, in this version of Little Red Riding Hood, all the characters enter therapy and live a happy alternative life style.

McKinley, Robin. (1993) Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast. New York: Harper Trophy. Not nearly as beautiful as her elder sisters, Hope and Grace, this awkward sixteen-year-old is clever and brave. The Beast's most seductive qualities are intelligence and compassion. This juvenile romance is about love, not lust. Nicknamed Beauty, the heroine's real name is Honour.

Sexton, Anne. (1971) Transformations. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Sexton's seventeen poems are modernist twists on familiar tales. This is a sample: "Beauty is a simple passion/but, oh my friends, in the end/ you will dance the fire dance in iron shoes."

Wilde, Oscar. (1912) The Happy Prince and Other Fairy Tales. New York: Putnam. Wilde's tales are too dark for children, but appeal to teenagers. "The Nightingale and the Rose" with its nightingale who sings of love all night long, a rose thorn pressed to its breast, dying a white rose red, is both romantic and tragic.

Bettelheim, Bruno. (1976) The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Bettelheim contends that fairy tales treat the child's existential predicaments seriously, conveying overt and covert meanings. Art first and foremost, fairy tales present different meanings to different children and to the same children at different times in their lives. He focuses on the child's need for magic, the satisfaction of vicarious experience, the conscious recognition of truths, the importance of externalized dangers and fears, the power of transformation. His detailed analysis of familiar tales is insightful and intriguing, even when arguable or uncomfortably psychoanalytical. A must-read for any serious study of fairy tales.

Campbell, Joseph. (1970) The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Campbell shows how many stories, including fairy tales, fit an adventure plot pattern that includes a call to adventure, a threshold crossing, various tests and helpers, and an ultimate return crossing with the elixir (or benefit for the community) which earns the hero his reward. Sounds complicated, but Campbell's paradigm is an excellent source for analysis and as a way to structure original tales. George Lucas imitated this pattern when creating his modern Star Wars fairy tale.

Fromm, Erich. (1951) The Forgotten Language: An Introduction to the Understanding of Dreams, Fairy Tales and Myths. New York: Rinehart. Fromm sees fairy tales as metaphoric dramatizations of psychological truths. Expressed in the symbolism of the unconscious mind, fairy tales speak the language of dreams, the source of their emotional energy. Similar to analysis by Freud and Jung, Fromm's writing is much more approachable.

Jones, Steven Swann. (1995) The Fairy Tale: The Magic Mirror of Imagination. New York: Twayne. Jones traces the history of fairy tales and critical approaches - psychological, socio-historical, and formalist. His first chapter, "The Folklore Origin and the Definition of the Fairy Tale," covers all the major players and their attempts to determine the essential qualities of a fairy tale. Additional chapters cover major thematic categories, literary history of the form, characteristics of tales with male or female protagonists, and the contemporary influence of fairy tales. The bibliographic essay, recommended reading, chronology, and annotated end notes are excellent classroom resources and springboards for further research.

Propp, Vladimir. (1975) Morphology of the Folktale. 2nd ed. rev. and ed. by Louis Wagner. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. [First published in 1928.] Propp identifies a sequential pattern of 31 elements of the fairy tale's plot structure. An ambitious undertaking which is useful for analysis, even though some of the elements (or functions) are very general and he sometimes tries too hard to make every story fit his quest pattern.

Tatar, Maria. (1987) The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Murder, mutilation, cannibalism, infanticide, and all that is dark and forbidden in fairy tales only makes them more compelling. Tatar opens our eyes to the truly ghastly details we sometimes overlook in tales which have become tame in their familiarity. For example, most readers ignore the infanticide and cannibalism at the core of a story like "Hansel and Gretel." She discusses how ever the Grimm Brothers expurgated their own text and what we lose when these tales are no longer grim.

Tolkien, J.R.R. (1965) "On Fairie-Stories." Tree and Leaf. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Warner, Marina. (1995) From the Beast to the Blonde : On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Warner's flair for the apt phrase enlivens every page of this social and cultural history of fairy tales and their tellers. Not the expected feminist analysis, the books nonetheless focuses on women with unexpected visions and impressive observations.

Yolen, Jane. (1983) "Introduction: The Bright Ring of Words." Tales of Wonder. New York: Schocken Books.

Zipes, Jack. (1994) Fairy Tale as Myth, Myth as Fairy Tale. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. Zipes traces the history and development of the literary fairy tale as a genre. With a decidedly sociological twist, he contends that modern interpretations have distorted classic fairy tales for consciously ideological purposes. He uses "Beauty and the Beast" to trace 300 years of the literary fairy tale, including texts, illustrations, and film/video. Zipes examines contemporary topics -- Walt Disney, L. Frank Baum, Robert Bly, The Princess Bride and others -- more closely than anyone else.

Anholt, Laurence. (1996) Degas and the Little Dancer. Hauppauge, NY: Barron's Educational Series.

Cumming, Robert. (1995) Annotated Art. New York: Dorling Kindersley Limited.

Denman, Cherry. (1995) The History Puzzle. Atlanta, GA: Turner Publishing

Donoghue, Emma. (1997) Kissing the Witch. New York: HarperCollins.

Hall, Susan. (1994) Using Picture Storybooks to Teach Literary Devices. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press.

Laden, Nina. (1998) When Pigasso met Mootisse. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.

Maguire, Gregory. (1995) Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. New York: Harper Collins.

Maruki, Toshi. (1980) Hiroshima No Pika (The Flash of Hiroshima). New York: Lothrop Lee OR William Morrow & Company.

Tater, Maria. (1997) Grimm's Grimmest. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.

Weis, Margaret. (1995). Fantastic Alice. New York: Ace OR Berkeley.