In this book you will find:

• a Rapunzel whose most confining prison is her loneliness

• a contemporary rendering of the Green Man myth

• two different versions of Red Riding Hood

• a tale that grew out of a Celtic folk song

• Sleeping Beauty's experience of her enchantment

• two works inspired by the Arabian Nights

• and more

In the follow-up to A Wolf at the Door, thirteen renowned authors come together with a selection of new and surprising adaptations of the fairy tales we think we know so well. These fresh takes on classic tales will show you sides of each story you never dreamed of.

Swan Sister: Fairy Tales Retold

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Just as fairy-tale magic can transform a loved one into a swan, the contributors to this book have transformed traditional fairy tales and legends into stories that are completely original, yet still tantalizingly familiar.

The stories include a Rapunzel whose most confining prison is her loneliness; a contemporary rendering of the Green Man myth; two different versions of Red Riding Hood; a tale that grew out of a Celtic folk song; Sleeping Beauty's experience of her enchantment; two works inspired by the Arabian Nights; and more.

FAIRY TALES TOLD BY

Bruce Coville

Gregory Frost

Neil Gaiman

Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Kathe Koja

Tanith Lee

Lois Metzger

Christopher Rowe

Will Shetterly

Midori Snyder

Katherine Vaz

Jane Yolen

Pat York

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In Swan Sister: Fairy Tales Retold, ed. by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, 13 authors transform traditional fairy tales into original stories. "The Girl in the Attic" by Lois Metzger follows a lonely, silent 14-year-old girl who hides away in an attic room, in a story with parallels to Rapunzel. In "Lupe," by Kathe Koja, a girl enters the dark woods and bravely faces a wolf and a mysterious witch, in a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. Jane Yolen, Bruce Coville and Neil Gaiman are also among the contributing authors in this companion to the editors' previous collection, A Wolf at the Door. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature - Elisabeth Greenberg

This fascinating collection of classic stories-retold pairs each new story with a brief recollection by the author of where or how the inspiration for the story appeared, thus introducing the reader to the fun of playing with story. For example, Jane Yolen's story of magic first love sprang from the tales of the Greenman, but she moves her Greenman from the old country to the new...and magical havoc as well as teenage bliss follows. Other stories also explore the aspects of love; a dethroned prince fulfills three tasks to rescue the beautiful princess hidden in the tiny Golden Fur; a young neighbor girl becomes the last of Bluebeard's wives and lives with the knowledge of hidden death. Others introduce the complexity of story: Will Shetterley's edgy "Little Red and the Big Bad" explains "there's uno problemo," no ending, but for sure "one dies. One lives to tell the tale," thus moving the reader to confront the basic question of story and storyteller. Using classic tales as a springboard and language and story as their medium, the writers and editors create fun and fantasy for the reader. 2003, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Ages 8 to 12.

School Library Journal

Gr 4-8-In this anthology, noted children's and adult fantasy writers play with the bones of traditional stories, songs, and characters to create 13 vibrant, imaginative short stories. Bruce Coville, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Neil Gaiman, Tanith Lee, and Jane Yolen are among the contributors. In the tales, the fisherman and his wife are viewed from across the water by a lonely motherless girl; fairies give Sleeping Beauty a century of time to explore the world before she wakes up and settles down; Lupe, in her mother's red cape, faces down the wolf. Some stories are set in the folkloric past, others weave in contemporary details such as harried urban life, computers, and cell phones with pleasing results. The final moving story, Katherine Vaz's "My Swan Sister," based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Wild Swans," presents a family introducing their new baby, who is attached to an oxygen tank, to all of the pleasures of their New York neighborhood before she dies in the unfinished jacket her sister has knitted. The author says, "Rachel was a real little girl who did not live long, but-pretty as a swan, light as a feather-she managed to remind my family that even when time runs short, even when we cannot speak, we can still work wonders." There's something for everyone in this anthology, which proves once again the immense flexibility of traditional tales in the hands of gifted storytellers.-Susan Hepler, Burgundy Farm Country Day School, Alexandria, VA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Thirteen new stories along the lines of those in the editors¿¿¿ Wolf at the Door (2001), several by the same authors. Some tales stick closely to recognizable fairy tales, others are original creations that incorporate folkloric elements: Will Shetterly offers an urban, open-ended "Little Red and the Big Bad," Neil Gaiman¿¿¿s poem "Inventing Aladdin" captures the pressure on Scheherazade, Gregory Frost¿¿¿s "Harp That Sang" is a prose rendition of the "Cruel Sister" ballad. Lois Metzger¿¿¿s redemption of the stepmother in her Rapunzel-like "Girl in the Attic," and Pat York¿¿¿s tale of a wish-granting fish caught by a child who is wise beyond her years, aren¿¿¿t the only pleasant surprises that lurk here for readers up on their folktales. The collection ends on a strong note with Katherine Vaz¿¿¿s title tale about a child learning from her short-lived baby sister that joy is not measured by time. Despite perfunctory author¿¿¿s comments at each story¿¿¿s end, an above-average gathering. (introduction) (Short stories. 11-14)