Classic Fairy Tales and Modern Retellings: A Guide for Librarians, Teachers, and Readers
By (Author) Pauline Dewan
By (author) shady Radical
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Libraries Unlimited Inc
27th November 2025
United States
Young Adult
Non Fiction
Childrens and teenage book reviews and guides
Paperback
192
Width 156mm, Height 235mm
Drawing on the popularity of fairy-tale literature and its retellings, this guide provides insightful annotations to all the major picture books and novels for children and teens.
Although popular fairy tales such as "Cinderella" are familiar, the broader genre of fairy-tale literature is less well known. This genre includes traditional fairy tales (often compiled in book collections), picture-book retellings of single fairy tales, fractured fairy tales, and fairy-tale-inspired novels for both children and teens.
Designed to help librarians, teachers, and reading partners feel more confident in selecting and suggesting fairy-tale books for children and teens, this comprehensive guide offers themes, read-alikes, reading levels, awards, and curricular tie-ins for each book. Readers will learn about the distinguishing characteristics of fairy tales, key authors (contemporary and historical), major trends, and significant changes in the genre. They will also discover the therapeutic power of fairy tales, their empowering impact on children and teens, and the reasons that fairy tales continue to attract young readers. Insightful and engaging annotations of each book will increase their knowledge of the riches of the genre.
Pauline Dewan, MA, MLIS, PhD (in English), is a reference librarian at Wilfrid Laurier University. She has co-authored two books: The Readers Advisory Guide to Genre Blends for Children and Young Adults (2022) and Connecting Children with Classics: A Reader-Centered Approach to Selecting and Promoting Great Literature (Libraries Unlimited, 2018). She has also written articles about her two areas of interest, childrens literature and the value of reading for pleasure. Her article Reading Matters in the Academic Library: Taking the Lead from Public Librarians won the 2015 RUSA Press Award.