Bargain Ebook: The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry

The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry, which some reviews have compared to Cinderella, is currently $4.88 as a Kindle book. I downloaded it myself, although I haven't read it yet. It's $7.99 in paperback. so that is a goodly savings and a way to read Berry's backlist. She has been on my "be aware" of list which is the same as the TBR (to be read) list, I guess, but with a SurLaLune influence. A good portion of my pleasure reading has nothing to do with SurLaLune. I can't do this every minute of the day. Really. I don't. :) Her latest book, Secondhand Charm, is also on my TBR list.

Here's the book description if you are interested:

When a mysterious piece of jewelry and a strange visitor arrive in the jewelry shop where she works for her evil aunt, Lucinda's course takes a surprising turn. With the help of the Amaranth Witch, a young (and harmless) con-artist, and a prince, Lucinda uncovers secrets about her own royal past. A strong seller in hardcover, this original fairytale marks an exciting debut from a lyrical new voice.

Per usual, the review from Booklist is more descriptive and helps to convey the Cinderellesque qualities:

Intriguing characters, fine plotting, and a richly worked narrative carry the reader into Lucinda’s vaguely medieval world. Orphaned as a small child when her wealthy parents were killed in a carriage accident, Lucinda has grown to the age of 15 as the maidservant in her goldsmith uncle’s home, suffering abuse at the hands of his wife. Life changes quickly for Lucinda after her uncle dies when she attempts to complete an errand to return a strange glowing stone to a woman locally known as the Amaranth Witch. A street thief, the local Prince Charming, a goat with the manners of a loving dog, and an evil chief justice are among the characters who complicate and enrich Lucinda’s life as she discovers her own past and the otherworldliness of Beryl, the amaranth lady. Tamora Pierce fans will particularly appreciate Berry’s smoothly rendered first novel, where magic and historically accurate courtly rites are balanced with Lucinda’s maturing sense of independence, fate, and self.

Berry is compared most often with Jessica Day George, author of Princess of Glass and Princess of the Midnight Ball.

Another Article About Fairy Tales at the Movies

A few excerpts from Live-action fairy tales are ripe for plucking by adult filmgoers by Susan Wloszczyna at USA TODAY:

Want to see a bedtime story, not just hear one?
The kind of yarn with a big, bad wolf, a jealous queen or a wicked witch?

Hollywood certainly hopes so. Apparently, grim times at the box office call for Grimm-inspired adventures. With movie attendance in a slump, studios are attempting to lure filmgoers back into the dark of the multiplex forest with, of all things, a fairy-tale revival.

and

In the pipeline are no fewer than three Snow Whites, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton (premise: the grown-up tormented siblings are out for revenge) and Jack the Giant Killer, a twist on Jack and the Beanstalk directed by Bryan Singer of X-Men fame.

Other variations on popular fables include a Tim Burton-directed Maleficent, a Wicked-style takeoff on Sleeping Beauty that focuses on the evil queen and is a role that Angelina Jolie has been circling; Oz: The Great and Powerful, a story about the origins of Dorothy's wizard with Sam Raimi behind the camera; and Tink, with Elizabeth Banks as Peter Pan's pixie pal.

and

"The good news is that these movies can be done without rights," says Roth, who is also behind Oz: The Great and Powerful. "The bad news is they can be done without rights. Anyone can do them." Besides his Universal release, Relativity's Snow White project directed by Tarsem and Disney's kung-fu Snow and the Seven are in various stages of development.

But as countless screen adaptations have proven since the dawn of cinema, fairy tales are nothing if not infinitely malleable. The former Disney chairman says this Snow White will be a swashbuckler, more in the style of Pirates of the Caribbean. The plot: The evil queen sends a huntsman out to bring her the heart of Snow White. Instead, he ends up joining forces with the princess against her stepmother. Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender of Inglourious Basterds have been in talks to star.

Tangled Stats

  

I don't know about you, but I've been curious about Tangled's numbers. After all, this is what will influence whether or not Disney will eventually return to some animated fairy tales (live action ones are in development) which has been upsetting some folks. From Examiner.com: 'Tangled' triumphs worldwide with $395 million -- and climbing:

Of all the movies that were thrown at audiences in the Hollywood holiday theatrical push, so far Disney's Rapunzel-based Tangled ranks No. 1 worldwide at the boxoffice.

Boasting international boxoffice receipts of $214.02 million and $395 in ticket sales worldwide, The Numbers reports that the animated tale is expected to climb to well over $500 million -- and the film has yet to open in the UK, Japan, Spain, and Scandanavian countries and other parts of the world.

And that still doesn't include DVD and Blu-ray sales. The film is slated to release on March 29th, by the way. This also means that Tangled will come close to doubling or even more than doubling the worldwide tickets sales that Princess and the Frog made, once again not including home movie sales for either. Tangled has already surpassed the latter's full gross including DVD sales.

And, no, the comparison didn't include Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1. But the numbers are impressive.

Caperucita Roja by Beatriz Martin Vidal

Several months ago, I posted about a new book, Caperucita Roja (Red Riding Hood) by Beatriz Martin Vidal along with several illustrations. I didn't have any print information at the time and there was interest in it, so I am posting it here now. Unfortunately for most SurLaLune readers, the book is only available in Spanish at this time and not listed in most English language bookstores online. Vidal kindly sent more information on the book:

The publisher is Oxford University Press España. Here's the link:

http://www.oupe.es/es/Literatura/CuentosMaravillosos/caperucitarojanacional/Paginas/caperucitarojanacional.aspx

According to Vidal, there will be an English version sooner or later, but for now you can hopefully find it somewhere online.

More Cinderella Ate My Daughter

Unsurprisingly, Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein is making its publicity rounds in media channels. Yesterday ParentDish had an interview with Orenstein about the book. I found one part interesting:

From New Book 'Cinderella Ate My Daughter' Looks at Effect of Girly-Girl Culture by Ted Henderson:

PD: How can an alert parent counteract the cultural influences of things like Disney princesses?

PO: Parenting is always present tense. I wanted to give parents a toddler to tween arch, but these issues are ongoing. You're not going to be able to avoid these images. They're everywhere. You can't walk into a store without being bombarded by them.

And you can't constantly say "no" to your daughter.

That's one of the reasons I called my book "Cinderella Ate My Daughter," which is obviously very overblown and over-the-top. I believe in fighting fun with fun.

In my previous post, I gave the book an overall positive review, so that is not what this post is about. My question is whether anyone here found the title to be "obviously very overblown and over-the-top" and "fighting fun with fun?" Yes, it is humorous but I don't know how many casual shelf browsers will pick up on that especially considering the book blurbing. Hmmmm....

No big deal, but marketing always fascinates me as well as the topic of this book. I have certainly received enough questions and queries on the topic over the years, so I am interested to see how the book sells and what the overall response to it will be.

New Book: The Runaway Wok: A Chinese New Year Tale

The Runaway Wok: A Chinese New Year Tale by Ying Chang Compestine is a new book which celebrates the Chinese New Year which falls on February 3rd in 2011. The original story borrows elements from Jack and the Beanstalk and The Gingerbread Man with several twists and final message about the joy of generosity.

Book description from the publisher:

When a boy goes to the market to buy food and comes home with an old wok instead, his parents wonder what theyÕll eat for dinner. But then the wok rolls out of the poor family's house with a skippity-hoppity-ho! and returns from the rich man's home with a feast in tow!

I didn't want to save this one for February 3rd for then it would be too late to really use the story for the holiday. The bright and colorful illustrations are fun. It has been well-reviewed so far, so it sounds like a great way to discuss the holiday with the children in your life.

Now Live: SurLaLune Book Club January 2011: Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

I'm a day late, but I finally created a thread for discussing this month's SurLaLune Book Club discussion. You can visit it here: SurLaLune Book Club: January 2011: Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce  The board does require registration but you can use an alias if you prefer. The registered user feature is necessary to help control spammers. So head on over and join the discussion. This is our first month and I am expecting a huge learning curve on my part, so bear with me as we figure out how to make this work.

An interview with author Juliet Marillier by DA Kentner

  

Many of us here cherish Juliet Marillier's work with folklore and fairy tales, so I wanted to share this link and an excerpt from An interview with author Juliet Marillier by DA Kentner:

I do believe my work spans quite a few genres: historical novel, fantasy, romance, adventure, family saga, even gothic/ghost story in the case of “Heart’s Blood.” I quite like the fact that they are not easily boxed. For instance, I have many readers who tell me they don’t read any other fantasy, but love my books. I don’t consider my novels to be any particular genre. I just write the stories that I want to write and leave such categorisation up to booksellers, librarians and readers. While my books are set in real history and all contain love stories, they are probably a bit more than historical romances because of the strong folkloric and magical elements, the spiritual aspect, and the way they delve quite deeply into human motivations and personal journeys.

New Book: Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture

Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture by Peggy Orenstein is officially released on Tuesday. I received a review copy of this through Amazon's Vine Program, wondering how much it would pertain to fairy tales and SurLaLune readers. Well, actually, it does much more than I expected. The topic of fairy tales and their influence on children, especially girls, as well as pop culture is one of the more popular topics on SurLaLune. I had to build pages to Children and Fairy Tales and Women and Fairy Tales to help answer all the many, many queries I receive about these topics. Then there's the whole kettle of fish under Disney and Fairy Tales, too. This book can be added to all three lists to some degree.

The book developed from a somewhat famous article by Orenstein in the New York Times on December 2006, What’s Wrong With Cinderella? It is no surprise it developed into a book deal. The article is rather inflammatory and received quite a bit of response on the web.

One of my complaints about these types of articles and books--usually--is the lumping of fairy tales in general with Disney fairy tales in particular. Orenstein avoids this. In her book, she discusses Disney as a separate entity and also goes back to the source tales. Of course, most of the direct fairy tale interpretation and criticism she invokes is Bettelheim, no surprise really, despite Bettelheim's fall from grace with academia. Not that the there is much discussion of fairy tales at all, some pages, not even a full chapter. The relief is that fairy tales are not really blamed for anything, treated more as symptoms and representations of issues. The focus is on Cinderella with Little Mermaid, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty getting pretty much equal second billing together. She admits that not all Cinderellas are created equal. She is actually somewhat enamored with Aschenputtel.

That said, fairy tales are not really the case in point here although they are represented. The book covers Orenstein's interactions with Disney, American Girl, Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana, beauty pageants and even Twilight. The surprise to me was that despite my assumptions from the book description as well as the original inspiration article, the book is not very inflammatory. Orenstein is sincere and tries to find a balance between the extremes as she explores American pop culture of young girls and its influence upon them. She doesn't offer solutions--which other reviewers have wanted--but she makes the point that parents pretty much have to circumnavigate this difficult period in history to their best style and choices according to their daughters, and sons for that matter.

Overall, this is not a scientific book although Orenstein references some research and other sources, such as the well-reviewed Girls on the Edge. The examples are mostly anecdotal, and in this case that means the anecdotes are mostly from San Francisco and New York, not cities that represent most of the country's experience although there are certainly commonalities. That was also my issue with the Babies movie in which the children from tecnhologically advanced countries were from Tokyo and San Francisco.  Those children's experiences are almost as foreign to the average American kid as the Mongolian and African children. That said, I certainly enjoyed the movie all the same. Mostly, I don't know many children as materially privileged as the ones discussed in this book. This is a book for sparking thought and discussion, starting the discussion of girls' needs and wants under the influence of a supersaturated media culture. I can see it really sparking in a book club meeting. Nevertheless, many of Orenstein's anecdotal experiences are similar to my own. The Princess culture lives and breathes just about everywhere little girls live in the US.

So, yes, I recommend the book if the topic interests or even scares you. The book offers benefits to the princess culture--and surprisingly enough Twilight--despite the author's initial apprehensions. It doesn't celebrate, mind you, but it doesn't wholeheartedly condemn them either, seeing value. The nature vs. nurture debate is also strong and discussed--this is where the most scientific research is shared. There are no easy answers and Orenstein serves only to ask the questions and give a little comfort, surprisingly enough. She admits to her own imperfections and wobbles, too. In the end, she is another mom wanting her daughter to grow-up with the freedom and inspiration to be whoever and whatever she wants to be without insecurities or hang-ups, or at least the minimum amount possible.

The marketing, I admit, fascinates me for it is more inflammatory than the book itself. I fear it may alienate some of its needed audience, those who throw it all out due to the extreme sounding descriptions. I left the book with more of a loathing for marketing to children in general. I am of the last generation that didn't get the full court press from media marketing although I experienced my fair share. My younger siblings did get it in the 80s and I experienced a little bit of it with them. It's a scary, scary machine.
Product description from the publisher:

The acclaimed author of the groundbreaking bestseller Schoolgirls reveals the dark side of pink and pretty: the rise of the girlie-girl, she warns, is not that innocent.

Pink and pretty or predatory and hardened, sexualized girlhood influences our daughters from infancy onward, telling them that how a girl looks matters more than who she is. Somewhere between the exhilarating rise of Girl Power in the 1990s and today, the pursuit of physical perfection has been recast as a source—the source—of female empowerment. And commercialization has spread the message faster and farther, reaching girls at ever-younger ages.

But, realistically, how many times can you say no when your daughter begs for a pint-size wedding gown or the latest Hannah Montana CD? And how dangerous is pink and pretty anyway—especially given girls' successes in the classroom and on the playing field? Being a princess is just make-believe, after all; eventually they grow out of it. Or do they? Does playing Cinderella shield girls from early sexualization—or prime them for it? Could today's little princess become tomorrow's sexting teen? And what if she does? Would that make her in charge of her sexuality—or an unwitting captive to it?

Those questions hit home with Peggy Orenstein, so she went sleuthing. She visited Disneyland and the international toy fair, trolled American Girl Place and Pottery Barn Kids, and met beauty pageant parents with preschoolers tricked out like Vegas showgirls. She dissected the science, created an online avatar, and parsed the original fairy tales. The stakes turn out to be higher than she—or we—ever imagined: nothing less than the health, development, and futures of our girls. From premature sexualization to the risk of depression to rising rates of narcissism, the potential negative impact of this new girlie-girl culture is undeniable—yet armed with awareness and recognition, parents can effectively counterbalance its influence in their daughters' lives.

Cinderella Ate My Daughter is a must-read for anyone who cares about girls, and for parents helping their daughters navigate the rocky road to adulthood.

Theatre: La Belle et la bete

I haven't been posting many reviews or descriptions of fairy tale theatre productions. Honestly, there are so many that it takes a while to find some that appear to offer unique or unusual takes on the tales which is my primary criteria for posting them. Then there's the time it takes to create the post and this hasn't appeared to be one of the more popular SurLaLune blog themes.  That said, I've found a few recently and wanted to share. 

From a review by Pat Donnelly for La Belle et la bete being performed in Montreal as interpreted by Michel Lemieux, Victor Pilon and Pierre Yves Lemieux at Théâtre du Nouveau Monde:

This La Belle is a dedicated 21st-century visual artist rather than an obedient, aspiring bride.

As in a Diana Gabaldon novel, the love affair between her and La Bête reaches beyond time. A modern woman falls for a 3,000-year-old recluse.

What they have in common is their solitude. La Belle, having recently lost her mother in an accident, specializes in scarred female nudes, which she splashes with red paint. (A very Wajdi Mouawad moment.)

For comic relief, there’s a size-shifting female hologram (a sister who seems more like a mother, played by Violette Chauveau) offering chatty advice.

For mystery, there’s the phantom horse (an escapee from Cavalia?) that floats in to lead La Belle to La Bête, so she can return a rose medallion borrowed for artistic inspiration.

Besides the rose and the horse, other symbols from the traditional story, like the magic gloves appear, within altered contexts. Statues (Peter James, on screen, in multiples) come to life. The castle’s thorny forest grows beyond the proscenium and threatens to engulf the audience, as does the pseudo rain, which falls in a torrent.

Article: Hollywood fairy tales take on an edge

Interesting article at Variety: Hollywood fairy tales take on an edge: Stuff of children's dreams now aimed at older auds by Justin Kroll.  Here are some highlights:

First:

Studios are endlessly searching for familiar properties with name recognition and spinoff potential. And fairy tales, with their European origins, are tailor-made to appeal to international auds as well as domestic. Another factor? Special effects and 3D have enabled more sophisticated ways for filmmakers to reimagine the yarns in ways that couldn't have been done 10 or 15 years ago.

And,

Some bizzers are feeling fairy-tale fatigue before the first round of redos even opens. Several lit agents say that the market is saturated with such specs, and agents continue to come to their clients with ideas for fairy tale reinventions.

Tired? Maybe some are but plenty of other Hollywood execs see them as a brand that audiences are still drawn to.

Finally, an interesting plot as well as a judicious reminder that if you want to see more fairy tale films, you have to go see the current fairy tale films:

But finding that right balance that draws auds worldwide is, of course, tricky. There's more to it than just adding violence, fx and sex. One project that can't seem to get tractiontion isan untitled comedy that follows Prince Charming, who, though married to Sleeping Beauty, goes through a midlife crisis after after Snow White and Cinderella come back into his life. It sounds like a fun spin on a stock fairy tale character, but one lit agent says its big problem is that no one can figure out the demographic it's meant to target.

The performance of "Red Riding Hood" will likely help determine how many more fairy tales are greenlit, insiders say.

The article is much lengthier and discusses several films so do click through to read it all.

The Fairy Tale Struggles To Live Happily Ever After by Linton Weeks

  

NPR decided to jump into the discussion of fairy tale films, especially those from Disney and the announcement that Disney isn't making fairy tale films (for now). Here a link and an excerpt from The Fairy Tale Struggles To Live Happily Ever After by Linton Weeks:

Tangled, Disney's latest fairy tale movie, was shut out at the Golden Globe Awards last weekend. Nominated for two — Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Song ("I See the Light") — the retooled Rapunzel story won neither.

The critical shunning could be construed as a key indicator: Fairy tale movies have fallen on hard times. In fact, around Thanksgiving, the Walt Disney Co. revealed it has no plans to make another animated fairy tale.

It's hard to imagine a world without Disney's fairy tales. What do we tell the children? Kissed frogs don't turn into princes, wicked stepsisters win out, glass slippers just won't fit. And what colorful icons will we silkscreen all over kids' pillows and lunchboxes?

"Films and genres do run a course," said Ed Catmull, president of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Disney subsidiary Pixar Animation Studios, in a late-November Los Angeles Times story. "They may come back later because someone has a fresh take on it ... but we don't have any other musicals or fairy tales lined up."

It goes on quite a bit from that introduction, focusing on Disney's abandonment of the fairy tale storylines. (Again, I say, for now.)

And, to throw in one of my thoughts which is worth the pixels I've written it with, I think Tangled would have swept many animation awards almost any year but it lost to Toy Story 3 which just hit so many hearts and ended the franchise on a high note that Tangled didn't have a chance. They are both excellent movies, comparing apples and oranges like most movie awards do. But Toy Story 3 made people feel sentimental and cry more than once. There's no beating that when it comes to trophies. I thought almost all the movies in the best animated category at the Golden Globes deserved nomination for the best movies of the year. I am cheering for King's Speech, of course, but Tangled, Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon made my personal top five movies of 2010 list.