{"id":30,"date":"2013-09-25T12:17:48","date_gmt":"2013-09-25T16:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/retellingsoffairytales\/?page_id=30"},"modified":"2013-09-26T11:42:47","modified_gmt":"2013-09-26T15:42:47","slug":"rationale","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/retellingsoffairytales\/rationale\/","title":{"rendered":"Why teach retellings?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Developing readers often know about fairy tales from Disney movies or books their parents read to them.\u00a0 They know the basic parts of the tale.\u00a0 For example, most children could tell you about Cinderella:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Cinderella has a wicked stepmother and two step-sisters.\u00a0 She wants to go to the ball but her stepmother won\u2019t let her. \u00a0Her fairy godmother steps in and gives Cinderella a beautiful dress and glass slippers but she has to be home before the clock strikes twelve.\u00a0 When she leaves she accidently leaves a glass slipper behind.\u00a0 The prince wants to find her so he has all the girls try on the slipper. \u00a0He finds Cinderella and the slipper fits so they live happily ever after.<\/span><\/p>\n

The above section is just the bare bones of the Disney version of Cinderella.\u00a0 What a retelling does is take the child\u2019s view of tales like Cinderella and change it.\u00a0 In Donna Jo Napoli\u2019s novel Bound<\/i><\/a>, a Chinese retelling of Cinderella, Xing Xing is bound to her stepmother and step sister who treat her terribly.\u00a0 This novel has the classic Cinderella elements: the ball, the slippers (albeit not glass) and the prince. \u00a0Not only is this different because it takes place in China during the Ming Dynasty, but it also doesn\u2019t have a fairy godmother and it incorporates many Chinese elements that make this a unique version of Cinderella.\u00a0 Children reading this book see Cinderella in a different light.\u00a0 This is not the classic fairy tale with magic wands and pumpkins.\u00a0 This is story about a girl in the same exact circumstance as Cinderella, except she doesn\u2019t rely on magic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Bound<\/a><\/p>\n

This genre allows children to experience beloved fairy tales in new and exciting ways.\u00a0 These retellings are often just as good as the original tales, except they have a new twist to it which makes them unique. \u00a0Retellings challenge what children already know about the fairy tales and ask the big question \u201cwhat if\u2026..?\u201d\u00a0 By challenging what children already know we are making them into critical thinkers.\u00a0 If they know a fairy tale one way and are exposed to the same tale except without the magic or in a different era, then we are challenging what they know.<\/span><\/p>\n

The major caution in this genre is to make sure that what the children are reading is age-appropriate.\u00a0 The \u201cretellings of fairy tales\u201d genre is very trendy right now, not just in literature but in television, with shows like Once upon a Time and Grimm, and movies like Shrek and Happily N\u2019ever After.\u00a0 With this genre being so popular now, it can be easy to find books in this category that are made for an older audience, such as the A Tale of the Five Hundred Kingdom series by Mercedes Lackey. \u00a0For this reason it is important that the children read books that were meant for them, not adults or teens.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Developing readers often know about fairy tales from Disney movies or books their parents read to them.\u00a0 They know the basic parts of the tale.\u00a0 For example, most children could tell you about Cinderella: \u00a0Cinderella has a wicked stepmother and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2509,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-30","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/retellingsoffairytales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/retellingsoffairytales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/retellingsoffairytales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/retellingsoffairytales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2509"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/retellingsoffairytales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/retellingsoffairytales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/retellingsoffairytales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30\/revisions\/71"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/retellingsoffairytales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}