Fractured Fairy Tales: Fun for All Ages, for All Readers...and the Common Core Standards

A Fractured Fairy Tale is a twisted, tweaked version on an older, familiar fairy tale that has been reworked to provide a different perspective.  While they are often fractured to be funny, there are many poignant fractured tales that have been retold to present a different political, moral, or historical angle. These tales are "fractured" because characters, settings. plots, and/or points of view and been 'broken' and 'reset' to entertain and inform the 'modern' reader.

The Rocky and Bulwinkle show and Jon Scieszka (The Frog Prince Continued -a retelling of The Frog Prince, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs - a retelling of The Three Little Pigs, and The Stinky Cheese Man - a retelling of The Gingerbread Man) immediately come to mind when I think of fractured fairy tales, although there are so many other incredible choices. This post lists some great fractured fairy tale suggestions for home/school reading for kids of all ages and I hope you leave your own favorites in the comments.

Aside from being powerful tools of entertainment, fractured fairy tales lend themselves to fabulous teaching as they present competing perspectives with other existing works, often add cultural perspectives, and provide an avenue for critical comparison and evaluation.

Fractured fairy tales are potent learning tools because:

• they are motivating, inspiring and stimulating (both strong and reluctant) readers and writers to create their own fractured tales;
• familiarity with a tale makes it easier to read because readers can anticipate words and plots,  and are familiar with the characters making them easier to understand;
• writing and reading these tales involve creativity in having to take something familiar and 'twist' and 'tweak' it;
• in order to successfully fracture a tale, the writer/story-teller must not only be familiar with the original tale, but must also understand character development, plot, story structure and have a facility with language;
• when kids create their own fractured tales they have an existing (familiar) template they can easily work with, allowing students to change and tweak select points of their choice;
• these tales neatly meet the new Core Curriculum Standards as

• Fractured fairy tales require readers to read closely as they compare and contrast key ideas and details of the various story versions.
•  Fractured fairy tales require readers to understand the craft and structure of the tales.  When asking students to write their own tales, they must first understand the basic story and its underlying structure before successfully creating their own.
• Fractured fairy tales require readers and writers to integrate their own ideas with the ideas presented in the original version to create a cohesive 'fracture' of the tale
• Fractured fairy tales allows students to play within a range of reading and level of text complexity
• Fractured fairy tales can serve as a wonderful vehicle integrating language arts, history, and science in creative, interactive multi-modal medium.
  

The best reason to read and use fracture fairy tales:  THEY ARE PURE FUN: They are cognitive puzzles that lace language, culture, history, creativity and the arts in one neat package.  Who doesn't like a great fractured fairy tale???

Here are some fractured fairy tale suggested readings for readers of all ages:

The Three Little Pigs

• The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka - Picture book for all ages- this is the classic story from the Wolf's perspective...and it all started with a sneeze!
• The Three Little Wolves and the Bid Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas and Helen Oxenbury - Picture book (Picture book - Grades 1-5)
• The Three Pigs by David Wiesner.  Caldecott Medal Book. (Picture book - Grades 2-5)
• BB Wolf and the Three LPs as told by JD Arnold with illustrations by Richard Koslowski (graphic novel, Grades 10+) provides plenty of twists to this story for teens and older. In this tale, the wolf is a Southern farmer by day (living in Money, Mississippi, 1920) and blues musician at night until the PPP try to buy wrangle his family farm. While built on the story of the Three Little Pigs, this is an excellent allegory that touches on the Delta Blues, the Klu-Klux-Klan, the Jim Crow laws of the South, and the powerful effect of segregation and discrimination.  This is also an excellent lesson of how history is written by the more powerful or victorious.  

Cinderalla

• Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story From China by Ai-Ling Louie (Picture book Grades 2-6). 
• Seriously, Cinderella is SO Annoying! The Story of Cinderella as Told by the Wicked Stepmother (Other Side of the Story) by Trish Sue Speed Shaskan and Gerald Guerlais. (Picture book grades K-3)
• Prince Cinders by Babette Cole (Picture book Grades 3-6)
• Cinder by Marissa Meyer (Chapter book -TEENS) Cinder is the best machanic in New Beijing - a girl with serious know-how and guts...and she's a cyborg who takes charge of her life and invests in her own rescue and save the prince.
• Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine - Ella is cursed with 'obedience' and must do all that her step mother and stepsisters command.  She too takes matters into her own hands, however, as she tries to free herself of the curse and live happily ever after with her prince.  (Newbery Honor Chapter book Grades 4+)

Rapunzel 

• Rapunzel: A Groovy Fairy Tale retold by Lynn Roberts, illustrated by David Roberts. (Picture book - Grades 2-6)
• Rapunzel by Rachel Isadora - the Rapunzel story told in a lush African setting.  (Picture book - Grades K-5)
• Rapunzel by Jessica Kaye - chapter book; story with a twist (Grades 4-8)
• Tangled - Disney - while a popular Disney movie, you can also find this in book format.

Little Red Riding Hood

• Red Riding Hood (retold by James Marshall) - Picture book (Grades K-3)
• Little Red Riding Hood.  Into the Forest Again by Shaunda Kennedy Wenger. (Chapter book with some illustrations - Grades 3-6)
• Honestly, Red Riding Hood Was Rotten: The Story of Little Red Riding Hood as Told by the Wolf (The Other Side of the Story) by Trisha Speed Shaskan. (Picture book for all ages)
• Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China by Ed Young. Caldecott Medal winner. (Picture book Grades 2-6)

Sleeping Beauty

• Sleeping Ugly by Jane Yolan (Picture book Gr. 2+) is a wonderful twist about a beautiful but horrible princess named Miserella, a young woman of the woods named Plain Jane, and an infuriated fairy who turns all their lives upside-down.
• Briar Rose by Jane Yolen (Chapter book Gr. 6+) is a brilliant retelling of Sleeping Beauty. This is a serious story about 'Becca who must research her Grandmother's dying wish and unravel the scary version of Sleeping Beauty her grandmother told her as a child. In her search, Becca unravels the horrors of the Holocaust. I have used this in language arts and history classes.
• Below is a YouTube presentation of "Leaping Beauty" a fractured fairy tale featured in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.  What is so particularly awesome (aside from the ridiculous number of puns and word play) is how language usage has changed since this first aired in 1960's, and there are so many ways teachers and parents can 'depart from the text' to talk about language usage and how it changes over time. For example, you might discuss the use of "gay," "broom out of here," and "bore" versus "boar." There is also wonderful use of alliteration (for example"from my magic medium come ennui and tedium..") and the use of rhyme to entertain:

Other notable fractured Tales:

• American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (graphic novel - Grades 5+) incorporates the retelling of one of the oldest Chinese Fables, the Monkey King, with two other stories - one about Wang, the only Chinese American in his school and the other about his cousin Chin-Kee the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype who comes to visit him. This book brilliantly weaves American and Chinese cultural issues and is a great 'coming of age' story and is all about cultural heritage. It is an Eisner Award winer, Michael L. Printz Award Winner, and National Book Award Nominee. Here is a super glimpse into the book and its background:

• New Fangled Fairy Tales: Classic Stories with a Funny Twist tales by a collection of authors, edited by  Bruce Lansky. In this collection the reader will meet King Midas (a workacholic banker who'd rather tend to his money than attend his son's Little League baseball games); The Three Bears (who invade Goldy's home because theirs is being stripped as a new superhighway replaces it); Little Bad Wolf and Red Riding Hood, Jill and the Beanstalk, The Prince and the Pea, The Real Story of Sleeping Beauty, The Obsolete Dragon, The Frog Princess, Goldy Locks, and Rudy and the Prince. (Grades 4+)
• Legally Corrrect Fairy Tales: Bedtime Classics Translated into the Legalese by David Fisher. This book contains Jack "Doe" and Jill "Doe" v. Imperial Bucket Corporation; Tailor v. Emperor Motion for Summary Judgement; Kingdom v. Hansel and Gretel; and Petition for Guardianship and Other Legal Relief in the Matter of Beauty, Sleeping; Re Snow White, Inc.; USA v. Wolf Deposition of Mr. Wolf; Humpty Dumpty v. King, King's Hospital, All of King's Horses, All of King's Men; Petitioners: Jack, George, Peter, Maria, et.al, v. Estate of Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe; Oak V. Gepetto; Kingdom v. Prince Charming; Beauty v. Beast; Little Red Riding Hood v. Regal Pictures, Inc.; Frog Prince v. Wicked Witch, and Kingdon v. Goldilocks. These stories are in legalese and are an excellent source in comparing language and jargon.  (Chapter book - Grades 10 +)
•  The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey. This is the first of her "Elemental Masters" series and an awesome read as it blends alchemy andmagic to the Beauty and the Beast story.  (Chapter book - Teens+)
• Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods

Other Resources:

 

•  For the truths behind the original fairy tales, please visit Fairy Tale Truths Revealed

• Student Interactive Fractured Fairy Tale website from ReadWriteThink (appropriate for Grades 3-12)
• Fractured Fairy Tales and Fables with John Scieszka - sponsored by Scholastic
While this post was a blast to put together, I find myself somewhat frustrated as I can't possibly present all the wonderful fractured tales I've read. So please leave some of your personal favorites in the comments.  Thanks for your visit - I hope to see you next week.

How To Make Learning Math + Science + Reading = FUN

Before getting to my post I just want to give a SHOUT OUT to my fellow She Writers on this festive Blog-Hop weened!  And, while I have no blogging tips to add - I hope you like my other tips!

A few months age, The Wall Street Journal's  Friday Journal (November 5, 2010) splashed the headline: "The Turf War for Tots:  In TV's battle for the hearts and minds of preschoolers, it's Mandarin and math vs. stories and sparkle"  Executives at Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. and Walt Disney were jockeying for market position following "starkly different" points of view:

Nick scheduled programs emphasizing "learning" such as "Dora" and spin-off "Go Diego, Go" (teaching kids Spanish) and "Ni Hao, Kai-Lan" (with 6-year-old cartoon Kai-lan Chow teaching kids Mandarin Chinese").  Disney argued that "learning programing" emphasizes too much work and not enough play, focusing on story-telling  instead.

This is all fine and good, and as parents it is nice to have a wider options for our kids.  My question is: Why isn't LEARNING = FUN (period)?

• Why does programing have to be either "learning" oriented or "story-telling"? Isn't story-telling a form of learning?  Isn't learning a form of story-telling (especially when learning about cultures)?
• Why is everything in education presented as extremes (for example:whole language or phonics)?

In my December 6, 2010 blog ("Our Education Dilemma") I mentioned an article by Paul Lockhart, a mathematics teacher at Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn, NY who laments about our current math curriculum which teaches students to memorize and apply formulas but which, in his opinion, should engage students by having them explore natural 'built-in' mathematical problems all around them instead.  Jon Scieszk's Math Curse does just this.  It was such a popular book he went on to write Science Verse detailing the poetry of science.

If Scieszka and Lockhart can integrate math + science + humor = fun ... why can't educators?  Why is everything either or? Our schools are losing so many students.  How many times have we, as parents, heard from our kids that school or learning is 'boring'?  I certainly have. 

So, here are some suggestions to make learning fun:

• Learning must be meaningful.  Teachers and parents must constantly introduce topics in a way that makes whatever the topic is, meaningful right then and there. Here are just a few suggestions:
• In math we have "manipulatives" - ususally blocks, discs, or shapes to "play" geometry or addition, subtraction, multiplication. division - but we also have to show them WHY these tools and operations are so important:  What's in it for them?  

• Design and make different types of kites.  Fly them - which works best -why (this combines math and science).
• Have your kids virtually 're-tile' a bathroom given a specific shape or sets of shaped tiles.  Re-tiling must involve geometry and math's various operations to be successful.  
• Maybe, you have a football fan - why not teach base ten, base two, base whatever as "first downs"?  
• Maybe you want to travel?  Have your kids select destinations and  convert local temperatures from Celsius to Fahrenheit  (working with fractions and conversion).
• Convert time zones and compute travel time (using various modes of transportation).  You can be really creative and invent your own forms of travel and travel time.
• They can do the same with various foreign currencies. Let them plan their trips, let the design their bathrooms - make it meaningful
• In Science - it's the same idea - make it meaningful to them.  You may want to relate whatever you are studying to their lives, their bodies, their immediate universe.
• Reading -again...fun!  Independent reading should be easy reading and it should be about meaningful topics and things they love.  

• Let them select their own independent reading material and you can expand their horizons by selecting very different books (slightly more challenging) to read aloud.  
• For reluctant readers - start with comic books or graphic novels.  They are coming into their own now and offer incredible art, relevant topics, serious vocabulary - and they really challenge cognitive skills such as inference (more on this in later blogs).
•  Go on field trips:

• Go on hikes (local and distant) - look for birds (with a book and binoculars), look at flora and fauna (again with book - or a camera/cell phone) - hunt for unusual things you can research later. Or, go on hikes talk together, have fun.
• Go to local (and distant) museums.  There are so many different types of museums now.  There are local historical sites, art, media, cultural, music, spiritual museums - explore - make their learning more personal.

This world is such an wonderful, colorful, vibrant, fascinating place - let's take advantage of it!

Have fun!  Let me know what and how you are helping your child explore his or her world!