Fairy Tale Fridays - Bit and Pieces

I got a new fairy tale book last Friday when I stopped at Half-Price Books to sell some books. I always hit up their clearance section, sometimes with good luck, sometimes not. The books are always a bargain and yet I often pick them up and then put them back down. But when I found Kate Bernheimer's Horse, Flower, Bird, I didn't hesitate. It will be full of modern, grownup fairy tales that just might be the kick I need to pull out my basket of fairy tale books and get back to reading them.

I read an interesting article on Tales of Faerie about the tale of the frog prince and wondering if it was meant as a statement about the marriageable age of girls in medieval times. The princess in this tale gets a bad rap as being selfish and not keeping her promise. But we seem to be overlooking the fact that the princess also appears to be a very young girl,  one we would certainly consider too young to be marrying. She is, after all, playing with a ball when she meets the frog, a ball she is so fond of that she will promise anything to get it back. Is it any wonder, then, that she would act immature later when the frog tries to force her to keep her promise?

The Guardian, this week, posted this quiz about the Brothers Grimm and their fairy tales. Don't even ask me how I did. So embarrassing! I need to go grab my book and catch up on my Grimm tales!