PRINCESS FURBALL is a variant of Cinderella by Charlotte Huck.  The Princess is a beautiful young girl without a mother.  The nurse takes care of her as a daughter and the cook teaches her how to make soup and bread.  The nurse dies and poor Princess is left alone with her coldhearted father. He wants to marry her off for 50 wagonloads of silver.  She demands a dress as golden as the sun, a dress as silver as the moon, a dress as glittering as the stars, and a coat made from skins of 1,000 animals on the kingdom grounds. Her callous father produces the goods and Princess decides the only way to avoid the wedding is to leave.  The fairy tale develops with the repeated pattern of threes.  She takes three dresses, three of her mother’s treasures, and stuffs these items into three walnuts for her journey into the forest.  She falls asleep and is discovered by the hunters and is taken to the king. She is named “Furball” because of her furry fur coat of 1,000 animal skins.  She works as a servant for the servants for a long time.  The king has a ball and Princess Furball asks if she may attend.  She dances for a short while with the king in her dress as golden as the sun. Time flies by and she must return to the kitchen.  She prepares soup and puts a golden ring in the soup bowl.  Two more times she attends a ball, two more times she makes soup, and two more times the king is intrigued with her beauty.  They fall in love and live happily ever after.

PRINCESS FURBALL is a classic fairy tale.  Her father is the evil character in the story.  His cleverness and demeanor do not change. The fairy tale begins with the typical; “once upon a time,” and ends with “and they lived happily ever after.”  The pattern of threes is carried through out the story.  Princess Furball asks for three dresses, takes three treasures that belonged to her mother and hides the items in three walnuts.  The king entertains the kingdom with three balls and Furball makes soup three times.  I discovered another fairy tale, “All-kinds-of-Fur,” a German Tale, which contains many of the same story elements of Princess Furball.  The Princess portrays a strong female character.

The use of similes is very common in this fairy tale.  For example: golden as the sun, silver as the moon, and glittering as the stars are just a few portrayed.

Anita Lobel’s illustrations are a bit primitive, but in tune with the European style of dress and surroundings.  The watercolor and gouache paints were used for the full-color art.  Ms. Lobel used the warm browns, reds and white in her drawings.  The reader can tell by the characters dress that the story happened many years ago.

I have read this fairy tale to my students before and they were intrigued with how her dresses fit in the walnuts.  Using Princess Furball and comparing it to the traditional Cinderella would be a great lesson for intermediate students.

To view other fairy tales similar to Princess Furball, go to: http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/donkeyskin/stories/allfur.html

THE TRUE STORY OF THE 3 LITTLE PIGS by Jon Scieszka is a hilarious Fractured Fairy Tale. Mr. Scieszka’s version of The Three Little Pigs had my intermediate students laughing at every page. 

The story begins with “Way back in Once Upon a Time time.”  The wolf is making a cake for his poor ole Granny.  He runs out of sugar and decides to visit his neighbor.  He walks down the street and knocks on the door of the straw house which belongs to Mr. Pig.  Mr. Wolf only wants to borrow a cup of sugar. The pig tells him to go away.  Mr. Wolf, “AL,”   has a cold and commences to sneeze.  The straw house collapses and “the pig is as dead as a doornail!” Al feels it would be a “real shame to leave a perfectly good ham dinner lying there in the straw.  So he eats it up.” The story continues with Al visiting the next pig in the stick house.  He has another sneezing fit and also enjoys another ham dinner.  Al arrives at the brick house continuing his search for a neighborly cup of sugar. To his surprise, Mr. Pig outwits Al with the arrival of the police cars.  Poor Al is taken to jail and claims he has been framed!

This Fractured Fairy Tale contains mixed up elements of the real story of The Three Little Pigs. Mr. Scieszka writes his tale with Mr. Wolf telling his point of view of what really happened.   Mr. Wolf feels he is the victim and that we have the story all wrong.  Scieszka uses the same characters, but adds a twist to the good and evil of the tale.

Lane Smith’s illustrations add a somewhat dark feeling to the story.  Mr. Wolf is typically the villain and the dark browns and black portray this emotion. I liked the way Mr. Smith used the sausage links for the first letter “N” in Now.  He also used newspaper to spell the “T” in The on one of the last papers.  It draws the reader’s attention to what is going on in the story and adds a little diversity to the page.

My intermediate students really enjoy this tremendously funny Fractured Tale.  They appreciate the humor and the nonsense the tale contains.

To access additional information on Jon Scieszka, go to this site:

http://t3.preservice.org/T0401441/jonscieszka.htm

SCARY STORIES 3 MORE TALES TO CHILL YOU BONES was collected from folklore and retold by Alvin Schwartz. Mr. Schwartz is known for his retelling of folklore. He gathers and researches around the world and then tells his version of the story.  Children are intrigued with his stories and line up in my library to check-out the three copies.

MORE TALES TO CHILL YOUR BONES is divided into six sections.  Each section contains one or more stories that are similar in some way.  For example: On The Edge contains “Bess”, “Harold”, “The Dead Hand”, and “Such Things Happen.”  Each of these stories exemplifies stories that could not happen or some say they did happen.  “Bess” is based on an old European legend and “contains many themes that are frequently found in folk literature: What seems weak may be strong, what seems impossible may be possible, the greatest danger we face is from ourselves.” Page 97   “Harold tells of a doll that is taunted and then comes to life. “The Dead Hand” is a legend that was told in England in the nineteenth century.  Tom was braver than his friends, but ended up taken in by the evil spirits.  “Such Things Happen,” is a traditional “American Legend in which a person believes he is being tormented by a witch and tries to stop her.” Page 98 These four stories lead the reader to think, did it happen or could it happen or maybe it did not happen. 

          The notes about each of the stories bring a better understanding for the reader.  Mr. Scwartz allows his readers to learn where the legends and folktales originated.  He lets his readers know that these stories were created many years ago.  His stories are embellished with his twists, turns, and fabrication of the character. “The heroes in legends are rooted a bit more firmly in history.”  Jaccob and Tunnell, Pg. 79.

          The illustrator, Stephen Gammell is very ingenious.  His black and white drawings are scary, spine-chilling, and ghostly. The eerie creatures and unnatural figures bring the reader into a strange world.  I find the illustrations creepier than the text. 

          “Just Delicious” was humorous to me.  George was the chauvinistic husband in the story.  His wife Mina would do anything for him.  Cooking liver for George was the biggest mistake Mina made.  The liver simmered all day and smelled so good to Mina.  She tasted it and couldn’t stop eating it.  George was coming home soon and she was very worried.  Her friend had just died.  She went to the church and stole her liver.  She cooked it for George.  He thought it was the best liver ever.  The voices came to her in bed that night and scared her to death.  The voices were asking, “Who has my liver?”  Mina told the voice that George had the liver.  The lights went out with George screaming and screaming.

          I had never read the Scary Stories in my library and now I know why the students enjoy them.  I personally do not enjoy frightening things, but I was able to find some humor in these.  The illustrations were the alarming part to me.

THE PERSIAN CINDERELLA is a Cinderella variant told by Shirley Climo. Sattareh’s mother died when she was very young.  She lives with her two heartless stepsisters, four female cousins, and two aunts, but the women ignore her.  Her father does not interact with the women because he is in the world of men.  Her father announces to the women that “Prince Mehrdad invites all to the Royal Palace for No Ruz, the New Year.”  He gives each woman a golden coin to buy a new gown for the ball. The women rush to the market place and find fabric to make a dress. Settareh gets lost in the business of the market and finds herself shopping alone.  She first buys some almonds, gives some coins to a beggar and then spends the last of her coins on a cracked blue jug. Her stepsisters ridicule her for making such silly choices.  Sattareh sits alone and as she is rubbing the blue jug, she discovers it has magical power.  She asks for the jug to be filled with Jasmine blossoms and it is filled. She politely asks for several other items, including a beautiful dress for the ball.  She attends the No Ruz and is observed by Prince Mehrdad. The evening ends and Sattareh runs off and loses her diamond anklet.  The queen goes from household to household searching for the owner of the anklet. The stepsisters oil their ankles so they can squeeze the anklet on.  They laugh when Sattareh asks if she can try it on.  The anklet fits beautifully.  The wedding is set and the stepsisters are very envious and menacing to Sattareh.  They resolve to rub the blue jar in hopes of wishing for their sister to be vanished from the grounds.  They drop the jar and some hairpins fall to the floor.  They ask Sattareh if they can wash her hair.  As they are combing her hair, they stick the hairpins in and Sattareh vanishes.  The Prince is devastated about her disappearance.  The Prince pets a turtledove perched on his window and feels some pins.  He pulls all six of them out and behold the spell is broken and Sattareh appears.  The wedding ceremony follows.  The stepsisters were so angry that their eyes bulged, their cheeks burned and their hearts burst.  The Prince and the Persian Cinderella lived happily ever after.

          The notes in the back of the book give the reader additional information about this tale.  “A pari, or fairy, is unique to Persian mythology. It is always beautiful and usually helpful to humans.”  The pari can be a male or female and can change in shape or form.  In the PERSIAN CINDERELLA, the Princess changed to an animal-the turtledove.  The setting of the story was typical for a fairy tale-the castle.  The character of the Princess was the good, whereas the stepsisters were the evil.   The theme of the PERSIAN CINDERELLA is good triumphs over evil and love conquers all.  Similes are used often in the story, for example:  Settareh “brows arched as gracefully as the path of an arrow” and “her hair gleamed like polished ebony.” 

          The illustrations in the PERSIAN CINDERELLA are vibrant and very typical of Persia.  The illustrator, Robert Florczak, used models for the book characters.  The bright jewel-like colors of the fifteenth century bring the stunning paintings alive for the reader.  Each page contains intricate frames which makes each page stand out.

          Intermediate students will enjoy the Persian diversity of this Cinderella tale.