Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Bean Stalker and other Hilarious Scary Tales by Kiersten White -NO

White, Kiersten Bean Stalker and other Hilarious Scary Tales, 240 pages.  Scholastic, 2017.  $7.  Language: G (o swears); Mature Content: G; Violence: G.

Short chapters containing twisted re-tellings of classic fairytales like: Unfair Hair, which is a re-telling of Rapunzel. It features a wordy horse, a prince with grammar issues, and a very surprising Rapunzel. Snow White, Blood Red features a dark and creepy snow white and a vain but well meaning step mother. Some illustrations scattered throughout.

I am a big fan of fairytale re-tellings/twisted tales. This one didn’t work at all for me. It wasn’t funny in the slightest, the characters were all so abhorrent that there was no one to root for and connect to,  the sarcasm and word play kept knocking me out of the stories, and the darkness wasn’t spooky and intriguing it was more icky. I think the original Grimm versions are creepy enough and at least have some history to them –so I will stick with those for students who want a real scare.

EL– NOT RECOMMENDED.  Stephanie, Elementary School Librarian & Author

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