Fractured Fairy Tales

Fractured fairy tales are a super fun genre of books that are twists on the classics many of us learn during childhood. These books can be fun to share with pre-schoolers and elementary students, but can even be fun to introduce a folklore unit in secondary level classrooms. Comparing and contrasting these tongue-in-cheek fairy tales to the more traditional tales can also be a great exercise in narrative skills and is great for cognitive development!

Here are some of my favorite fractured fairy tale books, check them out!

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka
This book is a Caldecott Honoree for its excellent illustrations. The print is actively part of the story and illustrations, and the stories are hilarious for both kids and adults, including bizarre and funny re-fashionings of tales like Chicken Licken and The Ugly Duckling.

The Frog Prince Continued by Jon Scieszka 

Picking up where the story of the frog prince left off, this story shows what happens after the "happily ever after."

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by A. Wolf as told to Jon Scieszka
Told from the perspective of "the big bad wolf," he argues that he was involved in a great misunderstanding and was really just suffering from an especially bad head cold, complete with huffing, puffing sneezes.

Don't Kiss the Frog: Princess Stories with Attitude chosen by Fiona Waters
A great collection of funny princess stories like "The Clumsy Princess" and "Sleepy Beauty".

Book Awards

This year's Caldecott and Newbery Award and Honors books were announced today!

This year's Newbery for children's book writing went to "Moon Over Manifest," written by Clare Vanderpool, published by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

The Caldecott for excellence in children's illustration went to "A Sick Day for Amos McGee" illustrated by Erin E. Stead, written by Philip C. Stead, a Neal Porter Book, published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing.

Another highlight of this year's awards was the Wilder Award, named for Laura Ingalls Wilder, which is awarded to a children's "author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children". This year's honoree was Tomie DePaola, one of my favorite children's authors. If you aren't familiar with his work one of my personal favorites is  the Big Book of Favorite Legends, which includes The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush.

Check out the complete list of American Library Association - Association of Library Services to Children honored books and media for this year here.