2016 Reading Challenge #1: A book based on a fairy tale.

¡Qué librito tan genial! Me ha encantado de principio a fin, toda esa ironía y humor negro que acompaña a cada uno de los cuentos, pasando por las maravillosas ilustraciones de Quentin Blake.
Si bien no todas las rimas son afortunadas, la esencia y el cometido de estos siniestros cuentitos no se pierde del todo con la traducción: divierte tanto a grandes como a chicos.

Me gustó mucho la despiadada Caperucita tan alejada de la versión original y el revés de Juan y las habichuelas mágicas. He leído algunos en voz alta para mi hermanito y lo disfrutamos un montón, ojalá fuera más largo. Espero tener la oportunidad de leerlo en inglés y conocer más de la obra de este autor.

This book was actually pretty engaging. When reading all the different versions of classic fairy tales they are extremely predictable especially as you get older but this book was just enough of older content mixed with the classic fairytales that everyone enjoys. I recommend this book to anyone that wants a quick, short (Connor) poem book to read.

I enjoyed it so much !

I love how he's retelling our childhood tales with a funny and a little savage plot twist

I can't remember the last time I read rhymes.. Decades, perhaps? I absolutely loved this collection and had a blast reading all of them out loud (to my self ^_^") and with impressions too!

This is interestingly enough the end of classic stories as we know them. I think I like Dahl's version, though.

This is, perhaps, one of my favourite volumes, ever.

With his trademark quirky humour, Dahl brings to readers his versions of the more traditional incarnations of several "fairy tales". These are not the versions made popular by a corporate monolith logo'ed with an 'aw chucks, ain't I cute' rodent. These are quippy, rhythmic and occasionally startling renditions that recall to mind the fact that "fairy tales" were originally intended as harsh preventative morality tales in a time when children and adults were generally illiterate, mortality rates were high among children and among the over 40 set, and life was never easy by modern standards.

This collection includes Dahl's rhymes for Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Jack and the Bean Stalk, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, and the Three Little Pigs. While they are not as lurid or as gruesome as the true originals (in some versions of the centuries old Snow White, her ... let's say her virtue and purity were physically compromised by all seven dwarves), there is a fair bit of violence in these rhymes. In at least one tale, someone gets their head chopped off, but the illustrations show no blood. Does this sound awful to you? Perhaps, but when one considers the myriad of video games available at a G or E or even PG level that contain graphic violence... In any case, consider yourself warned - be aware of your audience.

I have used this book many times with high school theatre classes to have them do comparisons of different versions of fairy tales (i.e.: the film cartoon, these poems, some other movies and parts of other plays, like Sondheim's "Into the Woods"). What tends to startle the students is not so much the actual content of these rhymes as the over-turning of their cherished notions that The Mouse House version is The One True Original version of every fairy tale ever told.

If you or your kid - or a kid you know - have a sense of humour that is a trifle sardonic or irreverent, have a love of language and an appreciation for the use of true word craft - metaphor, analogy, vivid description - and are looking for an alternative to either 'regular' fairy tales or poetry, this could be the collection for you.

PS: It's also available as a recording, all poems read by Scottish actor Alan Cumming. Cumming's inflection, emphasis, tone and pitch are spot on, but he sometimes speaks rather quickly and some of my students had difficulty following him (because of his "accent" - they can't imagine how they might have an accent if they went to Scotland!) unless they were reading along.

Caperucita Roja:



Una reinterpretación de cuentos infantiles clásicos estupenda. Probablemente mi historia favorita de Cenicienta (y yo soy cero fan de ella).

Un libro genial para iniciarme con Dahl.

Dahl single handedly turns nursery rhymes sideways, inside out and upside down.

Heretofore calm, serene children's playful stories become savage and gruesomely grisly as Cinderella's wicked step sisters have their heads chopped off my the prince.

The seven dwarfs have a gambling addiction; Jack's nasty mum climbs the beanstalk and much to his happiness, she is eaten by the giant; Little Red Riding Hood packs a pistol; Goldilocks may have fair yellow hair, but, really, she is a wanton thief who breaks and enters, thus getting her just reward in the end.

This book is revoltingly funny.

خیلی دوست‌داشتنی بود

Una manera divertida de adaptar los cuentos infantiles de manera breve y en versos.

Roald Dahl suele ser uno de los escritores de la infancia de muchos niños, yo incluida. Aunque puede que para muchos sea más conocido por todas las adaptaciones cinematográficas de sus cuentos para niños, como Charlie y la fábrica de chocolate o James y el melocotón gigante. En Cuentos en verso para niños perversos nos encontramos con algunos de los cuentos más conocidos de nuestra niñez, como puedan ser Blancanieves o Cenicienta, pero al estilo Roald Dahl. Me hubiera encantado encontrarme con más historietas cambiadas y en verso, porque de verdad, son geniales, divertidísimas y un poco más grotescas que las que nosotros hemos oído, como bien dice Roald Dahl, cambiadas y retocadas a lo largo de los años. Tenemos una Caperucita que tiende a asesinar lobos con un revolver, una Blancanieves que vive con exjockeys, etc.
Si queréis pasar un rato entretenido, coged estos cuentitos de Roald Dahl, que seguro que es sacan una sonrisa, y más de una carcajada.

The best poems in this collection are true masterpieces of satire. Here's the start of Cinderella:

"I guess you think you know this story.
You don't. The real one's much more gory.
The phoney one, the one you know,
Was cooked up years and years ago,
And made to sound all soft and sappy
just to keep the children happy.
Mind you, they got the first bit right,
The bit where, in the dead of night,
The Ugly Sisters, jewels and all,
Departed for the Palace Ball,
While darling little Cinderella
Was locked up in a slimy cellar,
Where rats who wanted things to eat,
Began to nibble at her feet."

Dahl's modernise (and darker!) take on some of the most beloved fairytales is still just as fun and twisted all these years later.

I also watched the 2 part animation which is just as great.

My favourite of the six tales was Snow White now living with 7 jockeys - though all were brilliantly altered to Dahl's quirky timeless imagination.