A Collection of Vintage Fairy Tale Treasures By Marissa Meyer

Today is the day! Cinder: Book One in the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer is released today. (Here's an ebook link if you prefer that.) This book is burning up the internet with buzz and talk and I agree that it is a fun book that made Cinderella interesting even to me. (When you do what I do on a daily basis, Cinderella can get stale at times, I admit.) I've enjoyed many of Marissa's guest posts around the online book world the past few weeks--she's had some clever ways of giving us variety as well as emphasizing that this book has something for all sorts of genre readers, from romance to science fiction--and she didn't want to leave out SurLaLune. Instead of another post about her interpretation of Cinderella, Marissa decided to share, well, never mind, I'll let her tell you herself. Here's Marissa's guest post:

A Collection of Vintage Fairy Tale Treasures

By Marissa Meyer

When Heidi offered me a chance to write a guest post for SurLaLune, a blog that I’ve been a long-time fan of, it occurred to me that I should probably talk about my debut novel—Cinder, a futuristic retelling of Cinderella. But I’ve been talking an awful lot about my book lately, and instead I thought this would be a great opportunity to write about something entirely different, that I hope SurLaLune readers will enjoy: a virtual show & tell of my vintage fairy tale collection.

Although people have been giving me old copies of The Brothers Grimm fairy tales since I was a kid, my collection of old fairy tale things only started about two years ago when I was at an antique show with my then-boyfriend (now husband). I came across this set of tiles with fairy tale illustrations:

Tiles: Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Pied Piper, & Cinderella

I fell in love with them immediately, and have been looking for fairy-tale inspired pieces ever since. Luckily, my husband loves antique stores and estate sales as much as I do (his weakness being early-twentieth-century baseball memorabilia), so I have lots of chances to go on the hunt.

Some of my favorite pieces include this Cinderella cookie jar:

This xylophone that includes both fairy tale characters and other storybook favorites (Cedric/Little Lord Fauntleroy, Snow White, Pinocchio, Hansel, Gretel, the Swan Prince, Cinderella, Tyl Tyl, Mityl, Red Hood, Alice, & Nils):

And this Snow White lunch pail which has an adorable board game on the back:

Generally, I try to stay away from Disney items because they’re so common the collection would no doubt take over my entire house, although some Disney knock-offs are too cute to say no to. I also refuse to look on eBay, as that would take all the fun out of the treasure hunt. I estimate most of my findings to be from the 30s and 40s, though I’m by no means an expert.

Red Riding Hood tin tea set

Greeting Cards—the set includes both fairy tale favorites, such as Goldilocks and Snow White, and also nursery rhymes, such as Little Miss Muffet. Interestingly, Jack and Jill make an appearance, but both are illustrated as girls.

Snow White vase/figurine, a recent wedding gift, along with my camera-hogging cat

A block puzzle that makes up six different illustrations

One peculiar trend that keeps popping up is the case of the blonde Snow White, as opposed to the well-known “hair as black as ebony” trait. See the xylophone above, along with this Snow White embroidered pillowcase:

And also this German-made piggybank (which has Red Riding Hood on the other side).

I also have 13 plates from the 1970s, each representing a different tale (well, two of them are Rumpelstiltskin), but I think this post has gotten picture-heavy enough. Perhaps Heidi will be kind enough to invite me back to share them with the publication of Book #2. :) (Yes, please do! says Heidi.)

If you think you’d like to start a collection of fairy tale treasures of your own, the only advice I can give is patience and diligence. Just like with any collection that involves old things, I might go months and months without finding anything, and then I’ll stumble onto three great new pieces at a single antique fair. You just never know when something new will catch your eye.

If anyone has any questions about the pieces I have, I can try my best to answer them! Thanks for having me on the blog, Heidi, and letting me share with your readers.

Marissa Meyer debut novel, Cinder: Book One of the Lunar Chronicles, comes out on January 3. You can follow her on Twitter (@marissa_meyer) or become a fan on Facebook (facebook.com/lunarchronicles and facebook.com/marissameyerauthor).

Back to Heidi: Thanks, Marissa! This was a fun post and perfect for SurLaLune. You know us well here!

France Month: Babayaga by Taï-Marc Le Thanh (Auteur), Rébecca Dautremer (Illustrations)

Here is Babayaga by Taï-Marc Le Thanh (Auteur), Rébecca Dautremer (Illustrations). No images of a chicken legged house in the online galleries although there may be one in thebook, but they are beautiful all the same.

Bargain Ebooks: Gregory Maguire Titles

Here are a few bargain ebooks by Gregory Maguire. I wish they were the fairy tale ones, but I know some readers here love Wicked with Bonus Material: Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Wicked Years), which is $1.99 for a limited time, down from $9.99

Son of a Witch (The Wicked Years) is $3.99, down from $7.99, also for a limited time, I imagine.

What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy is $1.99. This one fluctuates to lower prices while the others are usually higher, but I thought I would include it while I was here...

France Month: Blanche Neige by Eric Battut

Blanche Neige by Eric Battut (Auteur), Wilhelm Grimm (Auteur), Jakob Grimm (Auteur).  Yes, a French Snow White for today.

Bargain Ebook: Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George

I was browsing through the new January bargain book deals and feeling rather discouraged by them when I found this gem that made me smile and welcome the new list.  Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George is a Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling released originally in 2009 is marked down to $2.99 for the month of January in Amazon's 100 Books Deal. So if you don't have it, here's your chance for an inexpensive copy that still supports the author!

Book description:

Rose is one of twelve princesses forced to dance through the night in an underground palace. The key to breaking the spell lies in magic knitting needles, an invisibility cloak, and-of course-true love. Inspired by "The Twelve Dancing Princesses,"this novel is as captivating as it is fresh. Enchanted readers are sure to clamor for the new companion, Princess of Glass, also published.

After writing a few fairy tale inspired novels, including Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, George most recently had a successful release of Tuesdays at the Castle this past October and it will be a January birthday gift to my niece so I plan to read it myself in the coming weeks.

  

Happy New Fairy Tale Year!

Happy New Year, dear readers!

I don't have much to say other than I am grateful for all of you. I don't have profound words and I gave up New Year's Resolutions years ago, although I make plenty of resolutions throughout the year. I have enjoyed many of the holiday wishes and greetings this year, but I admit one stuck and I had to share in case you missed it. This is from Neil Gaiman's journal, just yesterday, but it is a wonderful sentiment and very liberating when the year feels fresh with no new mistakes in it.

And for this year, my wish for each of us is small and very simple.

And it's this.

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

So, yes, perhaps if I were to allow myself to make a resolution today, it would be a resolution to make mistakes, because they are inevitable if we are striving and learning and just simply trying, aren't they?

And the image is from KingBarbarossa on DeviantArt, originally part of a greeting card line from Duirwaigh Studios.

France Month: Peau d'Ane: L'ancienne et véritable histoire de la Peau D'Anesse

Peau d'Ane : L'ancienne et véritable histoire de la Peau D'Anesse by Jean-Jacques Fdida (Auteur), Jean-Marie Machado (Auteur), Nathalie Novi (Illustrations)

This month, I am going to be featuring French picture books of fairy tales with an emphasis on their illustrators since visual art crosses language barriers. I will offer primarily familiar tales since I don't have time to translate descriptions. Originally, I was going to offer fairy tale books from around the world but I got caught up in France and didn't exit, realizing that I have plenty for a month of posts from just one country. I may continue the theme from other countries during other months in 2012. For now, Happy New Year!

I won't be focusing on illustrators in these posts as much as the interpretations of the tales. Some illustrators are going to appear more than once, too, since some have plenty of fairy tale work.

Most of all, I am excited to share so many Donkeyskin/Peau d'Ane books since the tale is very much alive and beloved in its homeland.