Fairy tales have been popular in cultures around the world for longer than we know. These stories are a source of enchantment for young children and remain embedded in our own childhood memories. And while I can always pore over great re-tellings of The Three Little Pigs or Sleeping Beauty, sometimes it’s fun to change it up a bit. Fractured fairy tales are re-tellings of these familiar stories but with character, plot, setting and point of view twists. This makes for some of the wittiest, most humorous books out there today for children.
Here are some of my favorites:
Waking Beauty by Leah Wilcox
The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka
The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas
Fractured fairy tales are not only fun, but educational as well. Many teachers are now incorporating these stories into their curriculum to teach children compare and contrast skills, point of view, creative writing and more.
Looking for something a little more in depth? No worries, there are fractured fairy tales for tweens and teens in novel form.
Beastly by Alex Flinn
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Bella at Midnight by Diane Stanley
Ask your librarian for more recommended titles.
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An... 
September 30th, 2009 at 9:20 AM
For adults, Grendel is an interesting retelling of the Beowulf epic from the point of view of the monster.
September 30th, 2009 at 12:53 PM
One of my favorites is Cinder Edna by Ellen B Jackson and illustrated by Kevin O’Malley. I give it to little girls who ask me for princess books. For older readers, Robin McKinley has written two very different versions of Beauty and the Beast, Beauty and Rose Daughter. They are both wonderful.
September 30th, 2009 at 4:45 PM
I second Merle’s pick of the McKinley books. They are really well done. Love the 3 Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig – spoiler alert – the flower house the wolves build at the end is so pretty, I want to go and live in it.
October 1st, 2009 at 1:49 PM
This post makes me also think of a TV series from the 1980’s–Shelley Duvall’s “Faerie Tale Theatre.” The Library has episodes on DVD–all classics with a twist. A simple keyword (any word) search in the catalog on “Faerie Tale Theatre” will work. Some of the directors include Monty Python’s Eric Idle (“The Tale of the Frog Prince”), Francis Ford Coppola (“Rip Van Winkle”) and Tim Burton (“Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp”). Think I’ve seen them all. The actors involved make up quite a list, too.