Beanstalker and Other Hilarious Scarytales
Beanstalker and Other Hilarious Scarytales
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Annotation: Snow White is a vampire, Little Red Riding Hood is a zombie, and Cinderella is an arsonist--and that is only some of the mayhem the reader will find in this collection of fractured fairy tales.
 
Reviews: 3
Catalog Number: #153591
Format: Publisher's Hardcover
Copyright Date: 2017
Edition Date: 2017 Release Date: 07/25/17
Pages: 211 pages
ISBN: 0-545-94060-5
ISBN 13: 978-0-545-94060-3
Dewey: Fic
LCCN: 2016040578
Dimensions: 22 cm.
Language: English
Reviews:
School Library Journal (Mon May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2017)

Gr 4-6Best-selling YA author White makes her middle grade debut in this creepy but hilarious collection of reimagined fairy tales. Readers will be quick to recognize familiar faces like Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Snow White, but the recognition stops there. These archetypal figures, along with their stories, are subverted by macabre characterizations that see them turning into zombies, vampires, or worse. In White's nameless "scarytale" kingdom, monsters and little girls might be the same thing. Princes and princesses might be locked in towers (or coffins) for a good reason. Each story blurs the line between good and evil, such that the only true foe is misunderstanding. With clever wordplay and confused homonyms (hair/Herr; pea/pee), White makes it clear that spelling and meaning matter greatly. But staying alive matters most of all. Even when the plot is frightening, readers can rest assured that there's a joke around the corner. Short, adapted nursery rhymes separate stories and elicit chuckles. Occasional spot illustrations also provide comic relief with their cartoony, exaggerated quality. The real star of this romp, though, is the narrator. Equal parts Terry Pratchett and Lemony Snicket, the unnamed omniscient narrator relates each scarytale. Some stories are scarier (and cleverer) than others, but the consistency of tone will have readers eagerly flipping from story to story. VERDICT For larger collections. This book will circulate best where fairy-tale retellingsespecially Adam Gidwitz's "A Tale Dark and Grimm" seriesremain popular.Alec Chunn, Eugene Public Library, OR

Kirkus Reviews

Zombies and vampires and Grimm, oh my!Nothing is quite what it seems in these morbidly fractured fairy tales. In the prologue, readers meet a prince with no eyebrows and a Rapunzel with a mohawk. But wait—what about her fair hair? A simple but dangerous mistake, it seems, as the narrator explains: "I thought she was saying hair, as in the thing that grows out of your head and on your arms and sometimes on your face….But really she was saying herr, which is the German word for ‘lord'!" As it turns out, Rapunzel's fair Herr is a very large, very angry snake, Cinderella is a pyromaniac, and Red Riding Hood has had a bit too much of that vile pease porridge. White offers nine short tales, each prefaced by creepy inversions of classic children's rhymes ("What are little girls made of? / Brains and wails and people entrails, / That's what little girls are made of!"), all woven together by a wickedly irreverent narrator ("FEE FIE FOE FUM, JACK, THAT PLAN WAS REALLY DUMB…"). Some may find the stories and accompanying illustrations a bit too scary, but White's abundantly evident glee keeps things from getting too dark. In keeping with the stories' European origins, nearly all characters are white—except for a few who have turned an undead-shade of gray…. Disturbingly delightful. (Fractured fairy tales. 8-12)

ALA Booklist (Mon May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2017)

What do you get when you blend the bloodier, scarier appeal of fairy tales with zombies and vampires and then mix in broad humor based on linguistic mix-ups? A mash-up that will appeal more to fans of Goosebumps or Adam Gidwitz's A Tale Dark and Grimm (2010) than to those who like the Disneyfied tales. In White's version, Rapunzel sports a Mohawk and is the proud owner of a very, very long snake named Herr; Snow White's more likely to drain you dry than smile sweetly; and Cinderella is prone to arson no live cinders are allowed in her fireplace. The common thread that ties the stories together is the stepmother st one o tries her best to keep all her oddball stepchildren from wreaking complete destruction. Can her most unlikely charge, Jack, who infamously mixes up the ingredients of pease porridge with pee, actually save the day? Readers who like this kind of humor will eat it up (just don't taste the porridge). A clever, if at times slightly disgusting, read. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: White's a reliable best-seller in YA, and she tackles a consistently high-interest topic in this foray into middle grade irresistible match.

Reviewing Agencies: - Find Other Reviewed Titles
School Library Journal (Mon May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2017)
Kirkus Reviews
ALA Booklist (Mon May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2017)
Word Count: 32,957
Reading Level: 4.7
Interest Level: 4-7
Accelerated Reader: reading level: 4.7 / points: 5.0 / quiz: 190932 / grade: Middle Grades
Reading Counts!: reading level:3.5 / points:9.0 / quiz:Q71883
Lexile: 630L

Kiersten White, the author of the NYT bestselling Paranormalcy trilogy, is ready to make her middle grade debut!

Once upon a time, a girl skipped into the forest and became a zombie.Wait, no, that's not how this story is supposed to go. Let's try again.Once upon a time, a boy did a horrible job as a sheep-sitter and burned his tongue on stolen pie.No, children in these stories are always good and virtuous. From the top.Once upon a time, a king and queen tried to find a princess for their son to marry, and he wound up fleeing from a group of very hairy vampires.Hmmm...What about, once upon a time, a bunch of fairy tales got twisted around to be completely hilarious, a tiny bit icky, and delightfully spooky scarytales... in other words, exactly what fairy tales were meant to be. Grab some flaming torches, maybe don't accept that bowl of pease porridge, and get ready for a wickedly fun ride with acclaimed author Kiersten White and fairy tales like you've never heard them before.

Unfair hair
Snow White, Blood Red
The princess and the-- pea?
Little dead riding hood
Cinders and ashes
Goldilocks and the three scares
Jack and the beanstalker
Bad apple
The boy who cried zombies
Vampires and zombies and stepmothers, oh my!

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