Project: Fairy Tale + Sign Up

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I really love the idea of fairy tale retellings. They’re so much fun to read! When I started thinking about it, I realized I haven’t actually read many of the original fairy tales. I’m familiar with the basic idea of the story (from movies or other pop culture) but I hadn’t read the story. I thought about making my way through some fairy tales by reading the original story and then reading a retelling or two of it. That’s a lot of work though and I don’t want to spend months on end working my way through the fairy tales.

Banner by: Alisa @ Picture Me Reading

I decided to try to make it an event, involve other bloggers in the fun and share the work! Here’s the basic idea of what I would like to do for Project: Fairy Tale:

  • Have a month devoted to Fairy Tales. February 2013. That will give us adequate time to read and schedule our posts.
  • Each blogger chooses a fairy tale. They must read the original fairy tale and at least 3 retellings/spin offs of the story. They write a review of each book and post them during the month of Project: Fairy Tale.  It’d be awesome if you could compile a list of other retellings  of your fairy tale as well. (Preferably the retellings will be Young Adult books or younger.) That’s it!
  • Other optional fun things to do: You can make a whole month of it on your blog if you’d like. More reviews,  read the fairy tale from another culture, movie reviews, integrate your fairy tale with any features/memes you do, discussion posts, list posts (favorite retelling, most creative retelling, etc), comparing and contrasting the retellings with the original story, anything you can imagine involving your fairy tale! Do as much or as little as you’d like.
  • You don’t have to devote the entire month to the event. Just the reviews are required. 🙂
  • It’s not required but after I ‘clear’ your fairy tale I would love for you to do a sign up post on your blog. Nothing too fancy.  Just tell your readers about this project, the fairy tale you chose, and maybe brainstorm your ideas. Plus it’s a great, central place for us to suggest or recommend books about your fairy tale.
  • I’ll keep a master post for the month and add people’s posts to it as they’re posted.

The idea is we all will learn a bit more about each fairy tale without having to read everything. We might even find some retellings we need to read! Of course making new blog friends is awesome too.

Does that sound like something you’d like to participate in? Please comment below with which fairy tale you’d like to take. One blogger per fairy tale. First come, first serve. There’s no limit to how many bloggers can participate. I’ll add your name and fairy tale choice to the list. (Comments are moderated.) Sign up ends November 30, 2012.

Feel free to dig a bit deeper with the fairy tales. Cinderella and The Little Mermaid are great choices but it would be fun to explore some of the lesser known fairy tales as well. Try perusing Grimms’ Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales, or this list of collections of fairy tales for inspiration. Fairy tales from other cultures are welcomed.

Any questions? Leave them in the comments!

Are you stuck with selecting a fairy tale? I’ve listed some ideas to help you out.

Blogger—Fairy Tale

1.Alison @ The Cheap Reader— Rapunzel
2. Rhin @ Perfect Nostalgia— Beauty and the Beast
3. Brittany @ The Book Addict’s Guide— Cinderella
4. Katie @ Words for Worms— Little Red Riding Hood
5. Candice @ The Grown Up YA— Snow White
6. Opal @ The Akamai Reader— Sleeping Beauty
7. Cait @ The Hopeful Heroine— The Snow Queen
8. Quinn @ Quinn’s Book Nook— East of the Sun, West of the Moon
9. Emily @ Books For Breakfast— The Elves and The Shoemaker
10.Christine @ The Dead Authors Club—Twelve Dancing Princesses
11. Mandy @ The Reading Diaries— The Little Mermaid
12. Hayley @ Cats in Boxes— Jack and the Beanstalk
13. Faith @ Student Spyglass— Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
14. Katie @ Doing Dewey— Robin Hood
15. Alisa @ Picture Me Reading— Snow White and Rose Red
16. Chrissy @ Quirky Chrissy— Rumpelstiltskin
17. Tally @ Bookmarks —The Frog Prince
18. Susan @ The Sisters’ Tale— Hansel and Gretel
19. Alice in Readerland— Puss in Boots
20. WNK @ Excellent Library— Bluebeard
21. Michelle @ Pink Polka Dot Book Blog— Peter Pan
22. Amanda @ Late Nights with Good Books— Tam Lin
23. Courtney @ Courtney Reads A Lot— The Six Swans
24.  Susan @ Looking Behind the Cover of a Good Book— Three Billy Goats Gruff
25. Emily @ Too Many Books— The Goose Girl
26. Charlene @ Bookish Whimsy— Mr. Fox
27.  Dee @ Dee’s Book Blog— The White Cat
28. Carla— The Pied Piper
29. L. M. Sherwin @ Unearthing Words— The Boy Who Cried Wolf
30. Rachel @ Resistance Is Futile— Donkeyskin
31. Alyssa @ Books Take You Places— The Wizard of Oz
32. Bunnita @ Worth Reading It?—The Ugly Duckling
33. Oana Matei @ All Fantasy Worlds— Aladdin and His Magic Lamp
34. Andrea @ Beauty But A Funny Girl— King Arthur
35. Jessica @ That Girl Reads—The Crow
36. Kate @ The Red Thread Quartet— Thumbelina
37. Alyshamichelle—  The Juniper Tree

142 thoughts on “Project: Fairy Tale + Sign Up”

  2. OMG this is AWESOME!!!!!
    I’ll say that despite how much I LOVED Tiger Lily, I don’t really like Peter Pan all that much so I’ll leave that for someone else 🙂
    I’d really like to request Cinderella if no one’s requested it yet! I have a lot of ideas brewing for that one already!

  4. Oh man, I am over the moon with this idea! I love love LOVE Rapunzel; one of my favorite fairy tales. Have you read Zel yet? If not, definitely read it as part of this project!

    Now, for my fairy tale… hm… my favorite, hands down, is the 12 Dancing Princesses, but I’ve already done a Featured Fairy Tale (my fairy tale thing I do on my own blog) so I kind of feel like that would be cheating myself out of finding a new one! Can I do Snow White?

  6. I’m in!! I love love this idea!! I thought about doing something I knew, but I think I’m going branch out… I’d like The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson

  7. What a wondreful idea! If no one has claimed East of the Sun, West of the Moon, I would love to do that one. I hope there are three retellings of the story, though. I know there are 2. If I can only find two, is that a problem?

    • It’s all yours! If you can’t find any more that’s fine. I understand. Maybe you could do one of the extra posts to “make up” for not having other retellings? You can always do more of the extra stuff if you’d like!

  8. Pingback: Project: Fairy Tale Sign Up Post « Perfect Nostalgia

  9. This sounds like a great idea, I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the books I read as a kid and just finished UnEnchanted by Chanda Hahn which fits in perfectly with you idea as it’s about all the fairy tales.
    I would love to join in and read The Elves and The Shoemaker.

    • Awesome! Great to have you on board. Interesting choice! I’m not too familiar with that fairy tale but I’m curious to learn more. It’s yours now!

  10. I love fairytale retellings! Can I grab Twelve Dancing Princesses, if no one else has taken it? Otherwise, I’ll take Rumplestiltskin and hope for the best.

  11. Pingback: Project Fairy Tale | The Akamai Reader

      • I know 🙂 It’s one of my all time favorite fairy tales..and it’s really a completely different story!

        • Okay! Just wanted to make sure! I look forward to your project. I didn’t know they were two different stories until I started researching. I’m going to learn so much from this project!

          • I also wanted to ask how strict it has to be because there is a book I have already that is also about a prince hidden as a bear which is based on the “The Polar Bear King”..and I think Snow White/Rose Red was based on that one as well..could I include that book?

            • That will be fine. For looser retellings just make sure to comment or explain how it’s connected to your fairy tale.

              I’m thinking someone else might be reading that book (which is totally fine) for the East of the Sun, West of the Moon fairy tale. I think a lot of fairy tales have over lapping elements which we don’t normally notice. It will be cool to see the connections when everything is laid out for this project.

  19. This is an awesome idea! I have spent the last hour reading up on retellings and I think I’m going to choose Hansel and Gretel because I found a few already. I really wanted Sleeping Beauty, but H&G is a great runner-up (I actually thought about Bluebeard too). It’s okay for a re-telling to be a short story right? Because I found one that’s part of a bigger anthology. Let me know what you think! 🙂

  23. Pingback: Tally Monday: THE MARK OF ATHENA + Project: Fairy Tale « Bookmarks

  26. I have been totally obsessed with this idea. I read about it on Kate’s blog Words for Worms. Could I do the Three Billy Goats Gruff? It was always one of my favorites.

  27. This is so cool! I saw it on the Pink Polka Dot blog. Is Swan Lake too close to Six Swans? I don’t know that story. If it’s not the same thing, I’d like to do Swan Lake. My back up is The Goose Girl. Just let me know what you think. Thanks!

    • I think Swan Lake is more of a ballet than a fairy tale so I don’t know if it would work for this project. You can have The Goose Girl though!

  28. This sounds like such a fantastic idea. I’ve already taken over fairy tales and folk lore as the one thing I’m most interested in. I wish I could participate but I have an extra large load next term so year after? 😀

    • I wish you could participate! Maybe I can try something similar in the future with folk tales or mythology.
      If you change your mind about wanting to join, let me know! I’ll squeeze you in. Or if you want to go a guest post/review, let me know! I’d be happy to host it. 🙂

  33. How about Donkeyskin? Unfortunately, there aren’t too many retellings of it though! But it looks like it’s open. 😉 But I’m doing a Social Justice theme read on my blog during February, so I’d really prefer March!

  34. HELLLLOO Alison! Wizard of Oz it is, please!! I will send you the link to my post as soon as possible (and as soon as you give me the A-OKAY!!)

    this is very exciting!!

    Also the new Oz movie is out in March so that would be awesome, if not Feb is totally cool as well!

  38. Hello!
    I’d really like to participate in this project. I think it’s one of the most interesting things I’ve found on the book blogosphere lately.
    My blog is new (it was launched 2 weeks ago) and it doesn’t have many posts – http://www.allfantasyworlds.com However, it will grow until February-March and I hope it will have more followers. If this doesn’t bother you (the fact that it’s new and it doesn’t have followers) I’d like to choose the story of Aladdin and his magic lamp from the Arabian Nights. I checked the list above and saw that no one has chosen it yet. If it’s still available, I’d like to do it.
    Thank you in advance!

  41. How about King Arhtur? I know it’s kind a legendy, but there’s magic and such. Also, I’m having a very difficult time thinking of a fairy tale that I’m fond of that hasn’t been taken. If Arthur is a no-go I’ll take The Princess and the Pea

  43. Hello! I am new on here, but fairy tales are the theme of my (fairly new) blog, and I love them:) I am seeing that no one has claimed Thumbelina? I’d love to participate, if I can have her?
    -Kate

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