Traditional Literature Picture Books

The Nutcracker

This book was a great representation of the ballet, The Nutcracker.  I enjoyed both the story, which was on point with the ballet, as well as the colorful illustrations which were also very reminiscent of the play.  I think this would be a great book to read to a class during Christmas and could also be used for comparison and contrast if studying plays, ballets, musicals, etc.  

CinderEdna

Cinder Edna was quite an interesting book and not at all what I was expecting.  The idea behind the book was to compare the princess attributes of Cinderella's story with a "Cinderella" story that wasn't so girly, frilly, and perfect....the not-so-girly fairy tale perhaps.  The notion the author had was good, but I'm just not so sure it was carried out the best way possible.  The plot was a little confusing at times and sometimes the illustrations didn't match what was going on in the story at that part.  It did have a lot of humor, especially in little words and phrases hidden in the illustrations, that middle school students would definitely find funny. I'm just not sure that the plot is super easy to understand all the time.  I definitely got slightly confused, so I think younger students could as well.  All in all though, I liked the idea behind changing up the fairy tale and think it would be great to read a book like this and then get your students to do a writing project based off changing around a fairy tale.  

Beauty and the Beast

I have only ever seen the Disney adaptation of Beauty and the Beast and the musical at the Fox Theater.  This book was definitely very different than either of those versions.  It was more like a folk tale or old-timey fairy tale than the more modern versions I've been exposed to. Differences like these would be interesting to explore in the classroom so that students can see how important it is to see how stories evolve throughout time.  I think it is also important to study differences between different versions to see if the aspects that are changed about the stories might be misrepresenting a culture, a problem this week's article addressed.