Recommended Reading: Two New Fairy Tales

If you grew up loving fairy tales like I did, you will not want to miss these two wonderful 2023 releases: THORNHEDGE by T. Kingfisher and THREE TASKS FOR A DRAGON by Eoin Colfer. To whet your reading appetite, here are my reviews of both.

THORNHEDGE:

Once there was a tower wrapped in a wall of thorns, and in that tower a princess lay sleeping...

We all know this story, recounted in many versions from Disney's animated Sleeping Beauty to Shrek and even Maleficient. The beautiful, innocent princess cursed by the angry fairy to punish the king and queen who hadn't invited the fairy to bless the child on her christening. But this version, as the author tells us, isn't about the princess.

This version is about her guardian, the lowly, ugly half-fae called Toadling, who is as much a prisoner of the thorns as is her charge.

Toadling is a simple creature who's spent centuries making sure the sleeper sleeps and the thorns keep out the curious until almost everyone has forgotten the tower exists. Almost, it seems, she herself has forgotten the why and the how of her task.

Of course, nothing lasts forever, and sure enough there comes a ragtag knight, adventuring alone, who loves stories. What follows is a sweet friendship as the two, initially frightened of each other, are drawn together out of their loneliness. But the tower and its secrets remain between them, binding Toadling to her duty and the knight to the satisfaction of his quest. Something has to give or the yearning they share will go unfulfilled. But as they tell each other what they know and what they believe, Toadling remembers precisely why she was given this task and how dangerous allowing the knight to break the curse will be. Each chipping away of the thorns exposes them to both possibility and threat.

This is a masterful tale that draws the reader straight into the heart and mind of Toadling as she discovers she may in fact have a choice, dangerous though it may be.

THREE TASKS FOR A DRAGON: 

Once there was a dragon who'd stolen away a girl, and a prince who did not really want to be a king, and a great evil upon the land that someone had to risk everything to fix...

So begins an age-old story with some surprising twists and characters with great hearts. A lovely, lovely illustrated book, it reminds me of the Golden Books of fairy tales I read as a child. The text is lyrical and each page is a water color artwork that depicts the characters and events. It's a magical blend that feels timeless, like all good archetypal stories of a dragon and a prince and a quest, although this one blames not the stepmother but the stepbrother, a nice change. A good book to share and/or read with a beloved child.

Happy Reading!