Master storyteller Robin McKinley here spins two new fairy tales and retells two cherished classics. All feature princesses touched with or by magic. There is Linadel, who lives in a kingdom next to Faerieland, where princesses are stolen away on their seventeenth birthdays-and Linadel's...
Ralph said, "Rain tomorrow." Burt said, "Barley needs it. You're covered with cinders, Ellis." Ralph thought that was funny. "That's funny." He laughed. "That's what we should call him—Cinderellis." Burt guffawed.
In this unusual spin on the old favorite, Cinderella is a boy! He's Cinderellis, and...
There she was, chartreuse and warty and smiling at him. Such a nice smile. Something in his heart fluttered.
© 2002 Mark Elliott
The young maiden, Parsley, will eat nothing but parsley, which in Snettering-on-Snoakes grows only in the fairy Bombina's garden. All is well—until Bombina is...
© 1999 Mark Elliott
A spiteful fairy. A beautiful princess. An outstretched finger. A spindle. A hundred-year snooze. A charming prince. A kiss. All the familiar ingredients.
But wait! Where did that extra prince come from? And those fairy gifts that have never been there before? And what does...
Once upon a time, in the village of Snettering-on-Snoakes in the kingdom of Biddle, Rosella fetched water from the well for the four thousand and eighty-eighth time.
So begins this hilarious retelling of a favorite fairy tale. Sweet Rosella is kind and helpful to the fairy Ethelinda. Her reward:...
Twenty years ago, Robin McKinley dazzled readers with the power of her novel Beauty. Now this extraordinarily gifted novelist returns to the story of Beauty and the Beast with a fresh perspective, ingenuity, and mature insight. With Rose Daughter, she presents her finest and most deeply felt...
All the creatures of the forest and field and riverbank knew the infant was special. She was the princess, spirited away from the evil fairy Pernicia on her name-day. But the curse was cast: Rosie was fated to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a poisoned sleep-a...
Azalea is trapped. Just when she should feel that everything is before her . . . beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing . . . it's taken away. All of it.
The Keeper understands. He's trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. And so he extends an...
Beauty has never liked her nickname. She is thin and awkward; it is her two sisters who are the beautiful ones. But what she lacks in looks, she can perhaps make up for in courage.
When her father comes home with the tale of an enchanted castle in the forest and the terrible promise he had to make...