There were several storybooks that caught my attention, each for a different reason. The first storybook that I had a particular liking for was the very first one that I looked at, "Tales of Gothic Creatures." It was the featured storybook when I clicked the link. The framework of the story is a ghost tale - the ghost of a young woman is telling the story of the night that she died, a night that she and her friends went into the woods and attempted to freak each other out telling scary stories. Each scary story that the kids told had a Gothic element: werewolves, vampires, demons. I love those kinds of stories, which is what originally drew me in, but my favorite part of the storybook was the way the author incorporated an almost Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde twist into her framework story.
The second storybook that I liked was called "The Villain's Side." I've always enjoyed reimagined tellings of old stories from a unique perspective, and the misunderstood villain angle is one of the best. Fairy tales, in particular, seem to lend themselves well to it. Snow White seems to be one of the best to get really dark and creepy with. This author kept his tales a bit more lighthearted than some that I've read, and I thought it was fun and interesting.
Finally, I was drawn to the storybook "My Brothers Grimm." It checked two of my favorites off right away: fairy tales, and a smart woman getting things done. The framework of the story is a younger sister explaining to the patrons of a bar, and her brothers (the famous Grimms), how she is secretly the one responsible for their success. She retells some of the Grimm brothers' famous triumphs, filling in all of the parts that they were oblivious to, with an occasional lecturing aside about their incompetence. It was a funny and entertaining storybook, with a somewhat bittersweet ending.
I am so glad you saw that Gothic Creatures Storybook, Nancy: it is one of the most dramatic projects anyone has done for this class ever because the plot has a very dramatic and surprising twist at the end. Not all the Storybooks has surprise endings, but that one definitely does! And about My Brothers Grimm, here is something really cool: that student also took Indian Epics the next semester, and she actually found a way to bring Charlotte and her brothers into the world of the Indian epics! Here is that one: My Brothers Grimm: India Edition ... with imagination, anything is possible! :-)
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