Skip to main content

Worlds of fairy tales

 


Book Review

Title: Beyond Fairy Tales

Authors: Deepika and Shalini

Format: PDF E-book

Fairies inhabit a world different from ours. In that world, they hold mirrors to us wherein we may see the images of our inner selves. Or sometimes we see the images we wish to see, as the authors say in this book:

The women of the globe secretly call,

To the mirror on their wall.

 

They see in themselves the beauty of Snow,

To uplift their spirit that might be lying low,

Not bothering about opinions of a friend or a foe,

They help their unique grace and enchantment grow.

Fairy tales were created at different times for different purposes. They entertain little children while teaching them certain lessons of life. They engage children creatively. Yet many of them don’t seem to be meant for children at all. This book presents us 26 fairy tales taken from various sources. The presentation is unique and that is what makes this a special book. We are given minute details about each story, its history and other background, various versions and adaptations, and related trivia as well. Moreover, there is a poem about each story too. The book can fascinate all types of readers – children and adults, beginners and scholars.

The authors interpret each story making its meaning and message clear to the reader and sometimes warning the reader about cruelty or other evils that may not be quite apt for children. Occasionally we come across subtle comments from the authors about adult issues like patriarchy too. Sample this:

OK! Now, anyone who rubbed the lamp would be the master, but not the mother of course. She is a woman. How could a genie take orders from a woman? That can’t happen so Aladdin is the master. What happens to Aladdin’s character after this? Does he realise his responsibility? No. He becomes lazier, never lifting a finger to work, but ordering the genie to do his work, from getting food to clothes everything. Talk about teaching work ethics to children. So, the story has gender bias and Aladdin is not proving to be an idol either. [Aladdin and the Magic Lamp]

In many places, the authors blow a whistle about serious moral issues involved. For instance, Aladdin’s story (cited above) ends with this paragraph:

We really need to stop here. Why are we telling this tale to our kids again? Does this story contribute in any way towards teaching them a single value that they can use in their life? This tale needs to be rewritten if at all we want to read it to our children. Include magic by all means, but improve Aladdin’s character, who remains consistently lazy, conniving and careless.

Let us take one more example. Presenting the Master Cat or Puss in Boots, the authors worry: “Yet, the cat achieves everything by cheating, lying and threatening people. Means justify the end, don’t they? But here it says, as long as you become rich and overturn your fortune, any means are justified. Basically, the Beyond Fairy Tales kids will learn that you can get away with lying if you are not caught and if lying is giving you good results, why not?”

This is not a book of fairy tales. It is an ocean of information about 26 fairy tales. Anyone who has some kind of interest in fairy tales, both children and adults, will find reading this book very rewarding. The poem added to each tale is a bonus.



PS. This book is free now here.

This book is part of The Blogchatter’s E-book carnival and my contribution to it is  LIFE: 24 Essays.

Comments

  1. UnknownJune 3, 2021 at 2:06 PM

    Thank you for your lovely words. Glad you liked it.
    Deepika

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yamini MacLeanJune 3, 2021 at 3:12 PM

    Hari OM
    Now that is an interesting take - and valid too! Thanks for bringing this one to attention, as I had not spotted it. YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 3, 2021 at 4:22 PM

      I was amused by these chapters during the a2z period.

      Delete
  3. magiceyeJune 4, 2021 at 6:23 AM

    Sounds interesting. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rajeev MoothedathJune 4, 2021 at 10:41 AM

    An insightful review of a book (most of which I had read during the challenge) that can be enjoyed at various levels. As aptly observed by you, "The book can fascinate all types of readers – children and adults, beginners and scholars"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJune 4, 2021 at 11:10 AM

      I too had read much of it in the a2z days and was fascinated.

      Delete
  5. You Can Join the Award-Winning Web ActivityJune 22, 2021 at 5:50 AM

    Hello, Your blog contains useful content for humanity, we think it is a work that should be appreciated. You can participate in the web awards event organized by different categories among websites. In this way, you provide visitors to your web page through organic promotions about your website on the toplist, and you also strengthen your place in the channels where blogs gain effectiveness by creating your brand value with promotional evaluations and various social events. If you want to apply with your blog now, you can check the link where you can review the details and Join now.

    Mail: contact@blogaward.tk
    Join: www.webawards.tk
    Web: www.blogaward.tk

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ayodhya: Kingdom of Sorrows

T he Sarayu carried more tears than water. Ayodhya was a sad kingdom. Dasaratha was a good king. He upheld dharma – justice and morality – as best as he could. The citizens were apparently happy. Then, one day, it all changed. One person is enough to change the destiny of a whole kingdom. Who was that one person? Some say it was Kaikeyi, one of the three official wives of Dasaratha. Some others say it was Manthara, Kaikeyi’s chief maid. Manthara was a hunchback. She was the caretaker of Kaikeyi right from the latter’s childhood; foster mother, so to say, because Kaikeyi had no mother. The absence of maternal influence can distort a girl child’s personality. With a foster mother like Manthara, the distortion can be really bad. Manthara was cunning, selfish, and morally ambiguous. A severe physical deformity can make one worse than all that. Manthara was as devious and manipulative as a woman could be in a men’s world. Add to that all the jealousy and ambition that insecure peo...
39 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
16 comments
Read more

Bharata: The Ascetic King

Bharata is disillusioned yet again. His brother, Rama the ideal man, Maryada Purushottam , is making yet another grotesque demand. Sita Devi has to prove her purity now, years after the Agni Pariksha she arranged for herself long ago in Lanka itself. Now, when she has been living for years far away from Rama with her two sons Luva and Kusha in the paternal care of no less a saint than Valmiki himself! What has happened to Rama? Bharata sits on the bank of the Sarayu with tears welling up in his eyes. Give me an answer, Sarayu, he said. Sarayu accepted Bharata’s tears too. She was used to absorbing tears. How many times has Rama come and sat upon this very same bank and wept too? Life is sorrow, Sarayu muttered to Bharata. Even if you are royal descendants of divinity itself. Rama had brought the children Luva and Kusha to Ayodhya on the day of the Ashvamedha Yagna which he was conducting in order to reaffirm his sovereignty and legitimacy over his kingdom. He didn’t know they w...
30 comments
Read more

Liberated

Fiction - parable Vijay was familiar enough with soil and the stones it turns up to realise that he had struck something rare.   It was a tiny stone, a pitch black speck not larger than the tip of his little finger. It turned up from the intestine of the earth while Vijay was digging a pit for the biogas plant. Anand, the scientist from the village, got the stone analysed in his lab and assured, “It is a rare object.   A compound of carbonic acid and magnesium.” Anand and his fellow scientists believed that it must be a fragment of a meteoroid that hit the earth millions of years ago.   “Very rare indeed,” concluded the scientist. Now, it’s plain commonsense that something that’s very rare indeed must be very valuable too. All the more so if it came from the heavens. So Vijay got the village goldsmith to set it on a gold ring.   Vijay wore the ring proudly on his ring finger. Nobody, in the village, however bothered to pay any homage to Vijay’s...
47 comments
Read more

Dharma and Destiny

  Illustration by Copilot Designer Unwavering adherence to dharma causes much suffering in the Ramayana . Dharma can mean duty, righteousness, and moral order. There are many characters in the Ramayana who stick to their dharma as best as they can and cause much pain to themselves as well as others. Dasharatha sees it as his duty as a ruler (raja-dharma) to uphold truth and justice and hence has to fulfil the promise he made to Kaikeyi and send Rama into exile in spite of the anguish it causes him and many others. Rama accepts the order following his dharma as an obedient son. Sita follows her dharma as a wife and enters the forest along with her husband. The brotherly dharma of Lakshmana makes him leave his own wife and escort Rama and Sita. It’s all not that simple, however. Which dharma makes Rama suspect Sita’s purity, later in Lanka? Which dharma makes him succumb to a societal expectation instead of upholding his personal integrity, still later in Ayodhya? “You were car...
28 comments
Read more