A Wolf at the Door and Other Retold Fairy Tales

“A Wolf At The Door And Other Retold Fairy Tales”

Edited by: Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling

The book “A Wolf At The Door And Other Retold Fairy Tales” is a collection of traditional stories told with a twist. Every chapter in this book has fairytales written in poetic, imaginative, and creative way that make the reader question traditional storytelling. The authors’ retold fairy tales give the reader the opportunity to relieve each story in a completely different way. Instead of only being able to relate to the characters through morals and lessons the reader is given the opportunity to relate to them as people they would either personally know or be.

Jane Yolen, is an author in the book that writes the fairy tale title named “Cinder Elephant”. The main character is a girl named Eleanor who was big and had big feet. She lived with her father in a large house and they did mostly everything together. One day Eleanor’s father married a woman so thin “it took her three trees to throw a shadow.” The stepmother had two daughters, one of them was as skinny as a straw and the other as a reed. The two sisters were named Reen and Rhee and always made fun of Eleanor. Eleanor’s stepmother and stepsisters made her serve as the maid and clean everything. One day they had a invitation to a ball and Eleanor was excited to go, but her stepmother made her stay and do more chores while they went to the ball. Eleanor meets two blue birds that were singing and rhyming. They gave Eleanor a dress made of feathers and the glass slippers made out of twigs. The birds took her to the ball and where she meets Prince Junior and they both fall in love. When clock struck 12 she had to leave and the only thing left for Prince Junior was a glass slipper made of twigs. The prince roamed all around the kingdom and villages to look for her. Prince junior had found Eleanor and they both got married and lived happily.

The story “Cinder Elephant” is a retelling of the the fairytale “Cinderella”. Eleanor has a stepmother and 2 stepsisters that are mean and abuse her making her their maid. The events in “Cinder Elephant” are similar to “Cinderella” but they are not identical. Both stories tell the story of a young girl who has lost her mother and lives with her loving father. Both have a cruel stepmother and stepsisters and a magical creature who help the main character go to the ball and find her love. One of the most obvious differences is that Eleanor is not the traditional beauty that Cinderella is usually told to be. She is “plump” and her stepfamily is extremely thin. Neither are what we are usually told is the definition of beauty, in fact after her transformation she looked like a hen instead of a princess. This story makes a point to note Eleanor’s untraditional beauty and focus on her intelligence. Prince Junior is told that “Princes marry Swans not hens” but the Prince did not fall in love with Eleanor because of the way she looked but because of the conversation they had.

Gregory Maguire is another author in the book that writes the story called “The Seven Stage a Comeback.” The story is about seven dwarfs that had a daughter that had eaten a poisoned apple and fainted. A prince had woken her up from her coffin and took her away and married her. The dwarfs were depressed and gloomy that they would say “we’re better off without her.” The seven dwarfs were sad and had talked about her how she complained for them to wash their hands before