The Sleeping Beauty

The Sleeping Beauty by C S Evans

Sweet Dreams Briar-Rose!
   

The tale of the sleeping princess awoken by her handsome prince is a well known one. The precious child long sought after by a prosperous King and Queen is finally delivered to the great joy and delight of the kingdom. However disaster strikes when an offended fairy, not invited to the christening through her own reclusiveness that caused others to forget her existence, proceeds to curse the child to death on her fifteenth birthday. Luckily another fairy was able to alter the curse so that not death but sleep would befall the princess. And so a hundred years later the sleeping princess was awoken by her prince and they all lived happily ever after.

The Sleeping Beauty is a classic story for so many reasons; it is a tale of caution, to not offend powerful fairies or go wandering into locked towers. But more than this it demonstrates that you cannot run from your fears but must face the inevitable, come what may. A story that speaks to the romantic in all of us, that true love is worth waiting for, even if it takes a hundred years. Ultimately, though, it is about the curse of ignorance and the power of knowledge, for if someone had thought to tell the poor girl of her curse she might not have been so keen to use a spinning wheel. A much beloved classic here retold that should be reread.
  

On sale: 02 November 1993
ISBN: 9780679428145
Recommended age: 6+
In a word: Sleeping Beauty
Re-read it: yes
Recommend: yes
Star rating: five out of five
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Cinderella

Cinderella by C S Evans

"How Ella Became Cinderella"
   

Everyone knows the story of Cinderella, a girl reduced to living amongst the cinders and ash, forced to become a servant in her father's home at the hands of her stepmother. Her stepmother and stepsisters being spiteful and mean-spirited take an instant disliking to her, but Cinderella remains kind-hearted and beautiful despite her rags and mistreatment. Then at the age of sixteen, after years of servitude, her fairy godmother appears one night to transform her into a princess and sends her off to the ball where she meets a handsome and charming prince. She and the prince fall in love and they all live happily ever after.

Cinderella's story is a classic for a reason; it is the ultimate rags to riches story combined with the ultimate romantic notion of love at first sight. Combining themes of persecution and triumph over adversity with the magic of wishes coming true and a happily ever after, this story is universal in its ability to demonstrate karma, forgiveness and finding true beauty within. This classic story has been retold, re-imagined and adapted so many times and in so many ways that it can sometimes be taken for granted, but everyone at sometime in their life should read or reread this classic fairytale.
 

On sale: 06 May 1993
Price (AU):
ISBN: 9781857159141
Recommended age: 6+
In a word: Cinderella
Re-read it: yes
Recommend: yes
Star rating: five out of five
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