Lesson 25

Story

Part One

Watch the video and do the exrecises

Part Two

Top Three Fairy Stories according to Readers' Digest

Little Red Riding Hood

Though the story was probably intended as a warning for children to follow directions, the rebellious character of Little Red Riding Hood is the most modern of the fairy tale heroines. In this fairy tale for kids, Red sets off alone to visit her grandmother with instructions not to step off the forest path—advice she promptly disregards, attracting the attention of a talking wolf who sets out to eat and impersonate Grandma. What happens next depends on what you read. In the 17th-century French version recorded by Charles Perrault, Red gets gobbled up by the wolf. The End. In other tellings, across Europe, North America, China, Japan, and Ghana, she's saved at the last minute by a guy with an axe, or the wolf chokes on her hood, or he eats both Grandma and Red but is forced to vomit them up unharmed.

Beauty and the Beast

No plot could be more romantic than this one: A kind Beauty offers herself as a hostage to free her father from the castle of a fearsome Beast. When she falls in love with the Beast despite his outward appearance, he's transformed into a handsome Prince.

Of all the many retellings, one favorite is French director Jean Cocteau's surreal 1945 film version La Belle et la Bête, but the Disney version is certainly the most prevalent (and lucrative). So far Beauty and the Beast has rung the company's cash register as a cartoon, a Broadway musical, a soundtrack album, and of course, a live-action film with Emma Watson. It's also produced innumerable related merchandise items such as Disney's Enchanted Rose Jewelry Box, princess-pink sheet sets with the motto "Beauty is Found Within," and ornately cut gold foil B&B-inspired wedding invitations. Did you know that you can even buy Disney wedding gowns?

Cinderella

"Cinderella" is the classic fairy tales for kids. Once there was a hardworking girl with a heart of gold and a wicked stepmother. She got a makeover from a fairy godmother and scored a dream date at the ball with a prince who tracked her down by her single lost glass slipper... and this story crossed the globe for thousands of years, winning hearts wherever it went. Although our version of "Cinderella" was recorded by 17th-century French writer Charles Perrault, there may be as many as 1,500 traditional variants of the tale around the world, including "The Girl with the Rose Red Slippers" from ancient Egypt, and a ninth-century A.D. Chinese version that just might explain the story's fascination with small feet.

This is the fantasy that just won't quit. There have been countless modern retellings including Walt Disney's iconic 1950 cartoon, the blockbuster film Pretty Woman, some even saw the familiar fairy tale in the excitement around Meghan Markle's engagement to Prince Harry.

Part Three

Some suggestions for Young Adult Readers

The White Darkness: Geraldine McCaughrean (Oxford)

"From the Arctic to the Antarctic, with the incomparable McCaughrean. I don’t know many writers of any kind who have her apparently effortless consistency. Her books are always a thrilling read, with intricate plotting, characters you instantly feel you know personally and utterly beautiful writing; The White Darkness is no exception. It’s the story of awkward teenager Sym (who is in love with the very-long-dead Captain Oates) and her “uncle” and their lunatic mission to the Antarctic. Things surely can’t end well … The book is dark, clever, and menacing, and, if you’ve never read McCaughrean before, you’re about to make a glorious discovery." Guardian

On Amazon Kindle

The Book of Dust Vol 1: La Belle Sauvage: Philip Pullman

"Reading this novel is like standing in a room in which suddenly all of the windows have blown open at once." —Slate

"It's a stunning achievement, the universe Pullman has created and continues to build on." —The New York Times

"A phantasmagoric waterborne odyssey. Mr. Pullman is a supple and formidable writer." —The Wall Street Journal

"Enthralling, enchanting. The first half reads like a thriller. The story becomes darker, deeper and even more engrossing when a cataclysmic flood overtakes Southern England. Too few things in our world are worth a seventeen year wait: The Book of Dust is one of them." — The Washington Post

"Pullman's writing is as deftly brilliant as ever. A triumphant return to the alternate Oxford we love."—Bustle

Amazon Japan

Revolver: Marcus Sedgwick (Orion)

"Sedgwick has written across the age ranges, from children to adults, but it is his dark and atmospheric YA-branded work that best shows off what he can do. In Revolver, all his skill is compacted into something small and potent, controlled and devastating. As it begins, 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle, in 1910, 15-year-old Sig discovers his father’s corpse; but how did he die? The arrival of a threatening stranger forces Sig to investigate his parents’ past and confronts him with big questions about his own future. Set over just a couple of days, Sedgwick’s spare, crisply written narrative flips between the past and recent present, but the tension never disappears, and as he creates this most hostile of environments, it’s impossible not to be drawn in." Guardian

Amazon Japan

The Graveyard Book: Neil Gaiman

Perhaps this isn’t a young adult book. Really, who is to say? It won the Booktrust teenage prize, and as far as I recall, the judges – I was one of them – had no category anxiety; we just knew it was something that needed to be read. It is one of those books that gives you a whole world – small and wonderful – which is entrancing for eight chapters, and which you feel very sorry to leave. It is set, as the title suggests, in a graveyard, where young Bod (short for “Nobody”) makes his home after his parents are murdered. Bod finds himself a new family and new friends – most of them long dead – a set-up that allows Gaiman’s macabre imagination to run wild. Along with the great characters and friendships, there is a gripping story – episodic with echoes of The Jungle Book – some delightful humour, and, as a bonus, a set of typically superb black-and-white illustrations, by Chris Riddell or Dave McKean, depending on your preferred edition.

Amazon Japan

Chaos Walking trilogy: Patrick Ness

For ambition and scale, this highly accomplished trilogy is hard to beat. The opening volume, The Knife of Never Letting Go, introduces us to Todd Hewitt, who lives in a place where there are no women, and where the thoughts of every man can be heard all the time (this is called Noise). Todd meets a girl, Viola, and they go on the run. Tensions build as a great battle breaks out between two factions, with Todd and Viola forced into involvement on opposing sides. The war explodes in scale and complexity, and stakes rise before a thrilling and satisfying conclusion to the series. The story is excitingly paced and has a cast of engaging characters, but taken together, the trilogy is also a complex study of responsibility, difference, maturity and power.

Amazon Japan