edited by Vivian Yenika-Agbaw, Ruth McKoy Lowery and Laretta Henderson was released earlier this month although it's availability with various online retailers is inconsistent. This book helps to fill a largish hole about Black (as in races with dark skin tones, and no, not just African American because that is more limited) interpretations of fairy tales. I haven't read the book yet--don't own a copy yet--but I am intrigued and interested in it.Book description:
The all new essays in this book discuss Black cultural retellings of traditional, European fairy tales. The representation of Black protagonists in such tales helps to shape children's ideas about themselves and the world beyond--which can ignite a will to read books representing diverse characters. The need for a multicultural text set which includes the multiplicity of cultures within the Black diaspora is discussed.You can preview the book's first pages including the introduction on Amazon so I captured a screen shot of the Table of Contents. It is a refreshing and diverse collection of essay topics so I am even more intrigued. Some I expected--such as Pinkney (how about I link to both father and son) and Rachel Isadora--and some I didn't expect because there hasn't really been enough scholarship in this particular area yet. (On the other hand, some collections with different themes, say fairy tale and film, are all too predictable these days. I can almost give you the essay themes before I look inside the book. Disney's Snow White, check. La Belle et la Bete, check. Company of Wolves, check. Etc.)
The tales referenced in the text are rich in perspective: they are such as Aesop's fables, Cinderella, Rapunzel and Ananse. Readers will see that stories from Black perspectives adhere to the dictates of traditional literary conventions while still steeped in literary traditions traceable to Africa or the diaspora.
About the Editors
Vivian Yenika-Agbaw is an associate professor of language and literacy education at Penn State University, University Park. Ruth McKoy Lowery is an associate professor in the College of Education at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. Laretta Henderson is an associate professor at the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Table of Contents:
and 
of which I have an earlier version, nearly identical. (I lucked out again on a clearance price at a seldom visited K-Mart one day when I ran in looking for something else.) These are some of the most popular toys at my house and I love that they are not connected to a TV show and other merchandising. And the girls in my life like it as well although there needs to be more girl figures with the toy series, my biggest complaint with it. But they just use the girls from the 
that I also own. Before they made gender specific versions instead, darn them. But I have one enjoyed by all without any color programming. I know, you have a hard time imagining me with castle toys, right? 
and preceding 
neither of which are discounted right now although Sisters Red has been previously.
