Themed Reading List: 20 Twisted Tales

A fractured fairy tale is a story that is based on a fairy tale you know with changes to some part of the story, such as character, setting, or point or view. Sometimes even part of the plot is changed. Let’s say it presents a new twist to the original tale. Our list of 20 unique retellings of classic tales offer humor and lots of new ways to look at the original tales.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

	Cinderelephant By: Emma Dodd A lonely elephant, mistreated by her warthog cousins, charms Prince Trunky with the help of a furry godmouse.
	Fairest By: Marissa Meyer Queen Levana is a ruler who uses her “glamour” to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, Levana lived a very different story – a story that has never been told . . . until now.
	Falling for Rapunzel By: Leah Wilcox Illustrated by: Lydia Monks To rescue Rapunzel from her tower, a prince yells for her to throw down her hair; but being too far away to hear clearly, she tosses out various items from her room, including her maid.
	Goldilocks and Just One Bear By: Leigh Hodgkinson Little Bear, all grown up, finds himself lost in a noisy, busy city where he happens to bump into someone with golden hair who remembers exactly how he likes his porridge.
	Hensel and Gretel: Ninja Chicks By: Corey Rosen Schwartz and Rebecca J. Gomez Illustrated by: Dan Santat To save their father from being stir-fried, two ninja chicken sisters take on a dark tangled forest, a tricky house made of corn bread, and an even trickier fox.
	Honestly, Red Riding Hood was Rotten!: the story of Little Red Riding Hood as told by the wolf By: Trisha Speed Shaskan Illustrated by: Gerald Guerlais The Big Bad Wolf, who claims to be a vegetarian, tells his side of the story of Little Red Riding Hood and her granny.
	Jack and the Baked Beanstalk By: Colin Stimpson After their cafe fails, Jack takes his mother’s last few pennies and exchanges them for a can of magic baked beans that then lead Jack on a journey to a giant who is bored with counting his fortune.
	Little Red Gliding Hood By: Tara Lazar Illustrated by: Troy Cummings Little Red is an excellent ice skater, but she will need a good partner for the skating pairs competition and the only one available is a certain Wolf, who needs new skates as badly as Little Red does.
	Prince Cinders By: Babette Cole A fairy grants a small, skinny prince a change in appearance and the chance to go to the Palace Disco.
	The Princess and the Pig By: Jonathan Emmett Illustrated by: Poly Bernatene Inspired by the Prince and the Pauper and other well-known fairy tales, a princess and a pig unwittingly swap places. While the princess is brought up by the poor farmer and his wife, the pig lives a life of luxury in the royal household.
	Ratpunzel By: Ursula Vernon It is Princess Harriet Hamsterbone to the rescue when Heady the hydra’s egg is stolen, but her search leads her to a castle accessible only by a rat with a very long tail.
	Rump: the true story of Rumpelstiltskin By: Liesl Shurtliff Relates the tale of Rumpelstiltskin’s childhood and youth, explaining why his name is so important, how he is able to spin straw into gold, and why a first-born child is his reward for helping the miller’s daughter-turned-queen.
	Senorita Gordita By: Helen Ketteman Illustrated by: Will Terry Resets the tale of the Gingerbread boy in the southwest, where the scrumptious Gordita escapes from the frying pan and eludes her pursuers until she meets a clever owl.
	Snoring Beauty By: Bruce Hale In this fractured fairy tale (Sleeping Beauty), a fairy is upset at not being invited to the christening of the baby Princess. The angry fairy casts a spell on the baby that says she will be run over by a pie wagon and die at the age of 16. The last fairy to cast a spell, however, is hard of hearing and makes minor changes to the spell that just might make matters worse.
	A Tale Dark & Grimm By: Adam Gidwitz Follows Hansel and Gretel as they walk out of their own story and into eight more tales, encountering such wicked creatures as witches, along with kindly strangers and other helpful folk. Based in part on the Grimms’ fairy tales Faithful Johannes, Hansel and Gretel, The Seven Ravens, Brother and Sister, The Robber Bridegroom, and The Devil and his Three Golden Hairs.
	The Three Little Tamales By: Eric A. Kimmel Illustrated by: Valeria Docampo In this variation of “The Three Little Pigs” set in the Southwest, three little tamales escape from a restaurant before they can be eaten, and set up homes in the prairie, cornfield, and desert.
	Twisted Tales By: Richard Tulloch and Terry Denton Illustrated by: Valeria Docampo From a restless princess who didn’t feel the pea to a friendly wolf who was just very hungry, offers rewrites of six classic fairy tales as told from different perspectives.
	The Ugly Dumpling By: Stephanie Campisi Illustrated by: Shahar Kober An ugly dumpling is ignored and sad until an encouraging cockroach sees the dumpling’s inner beauty and helps it discover its true identity and realize being different is beautiful after all.
	Waking Beauty By: Leah Wilcox Illustrated by: Lydia Monks Prince Charming tries all sorts of silly ways to wake Sleeping Beauty before he learns how he is really supposed to wake her up.
	Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty?: And other notorious nursery tale mysteries By: David Levinthal and John Nickle Police detective Binky investigates the theft of a golden goose, the poisoning of Snow White, and other fairy tale crimes.