Second Picture Book Reviews - Katelyn Heath

For my picture book review I decided to use one book that is made up of a bunch of different fairy tales. I decided that I wanted to look at this book to see if there is some recurring themes or gender roles in the fairy tales we grew up with. The book has eighteen different fairy tales in it and I just decided to look at the first five. One thing that I noticed though about the book in general is that it is presented rather fancy. The edges of all the pages are gold colored, the cover is written in script, and all the pictures in the book are vibrant and colorful.


The first story in the book is Beauty and the Beast. Now the first thing that I realized after reading this version of Beauty and the Beast was that it was very different from the typical story. There was still a girl who loved a Beast who was under a curse but really most of the other details were different. I just felt it was odd that the story was so different yet under the same title. Also I know that it is common to rewrite fairy tales but it was strange to see a different version of the classic story in a book portraying that is a collection of what you think are classic fairy tales. As far as gender roles go in this story of Beauty and the Beast I felt like in general Beauty was not depicted badly. She found the beast to save her father and was portrayed as brave and not over powered by the beast or anything. However at the end the author chose to end it with something like the Beast took care of her forever and they lived happily ever after. I feel like the author could have just left that out and the story would not have reinforced the typical gender roles.

The second story in the book is Rapunzel. Now this story was also a bit different then the version that most people are used to. However, one thing that I noticed in this story was that even though the prince did rescue Rapunzel from her circumstances she still had a key in her own escape from the witch. It was not just the typical guy saves girl and girl gets everything she ever wanted story. The prince tried to save her but would have not succeeded if it was not for Rapunzel. I found that interesting that the author chose to give the women a little more helpfulness.

The third story in the book is Aladdin. Just like the other stories this Aladdin had the same backbone but very different details. I don’t exactly know how copyright and things work for fairy tales and things of that sort but it surprises me that the stories can go by the same name as other stories that are very different from one another. All these stories so far have even changed the name of the characters other then the main one. One thing that I did notice about gender portrayal in this story was that the princess was portrayed kind of dumb in this story. She gave away the magic lamp, was taken away, and cried a lot. The only contribution she had to help Aladdin find her was tying her hair ribbon around Aladdin’s mongoose, who came and found her. Also I feel like the author could have chose to have her tie a note to the mongoose or something that wouldn’t have made her seem so girlishly beautiful but not intelligent.

The fourth story that I read was Sleeping Beauty. One of the things that I noticed about this story was how the pictures portrayed the princess. She was very beautiful but in general seemed to have a kind of dumb look on her face. The story often referred to how beautiful she was and graceful and similar characteristics but not really to her intelligence. The story depicted her as the usual helpless princess. I just feel like since the author did take some time to rewrite Sleeping Beauty over they could have portrayed the character without the normal gender expectations.

The last story that I read was Cinderella. Like the others it was its own more unique version of the story. The story however did portray Cinderella as being rather intelligent. She used seemingly large words when she spoke and really portrayed an intelligent woman. Also the pictures really helped to create a somewhat majestic feel that often comes with the story of Cinderella.

I found that overall this book deviated sometimes from normal gender roles but not always. A lot of times it depicted women as unintelligent but then different times it gave them good distinguishable qualities. The pictures of the book seemed to add a little to the stories but not overall a whole lot. Then also I really found it interesting how far the author varied away from the general known fairy tale. I found it really different that they went under the same name but almost all the details in the stories were different.

Goldenberg, Dorothea, and Bette Killion. Treasury of Fairy Tales. Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, Ltd., 1994. Print.