Ron Koertge is the author of many award-winning novels,
including Stoner & Spaz and its sequel, Now Playing:
Stoner & Spaz II; Shakespeare Bats Cleanup; Strays; Deadville;
Margaux with an X; The Brimstone Journals; and The Arizona
Kid. A two-time winner of the PEN Literary Award for Children's
Literature, he lives in South Pasadena, California.
Andrea Dezsoe is a visual artist and writer who works across
a broad range of media. She is a full-time faculty member at the
Maryland Institute College of Art and lives in New York City.
The language here is modern, brutal and sharp as a carving knife.
The cut-paper silhouette illustrations, rendered by Andrea Dezso in
black and red, are haunting and perfect.
-The New York Times
With sardonic wit and a decidedly contemporary sensibility, Koertge
retells 23 classic fairy tales in free verse, written from the
perspectives of iconic characters like Little Red Riding Hood, as
well as maligned or minor figures such as the Mole from Thumbelina
and Cinderella's stepsisters... A fiendishly clever and darkly
funny collection.
-Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A much-honored poet and novelist retells, in free verse and from
various points of view, twenty-three familiar tales (mostly Grimm,
Andersen, and Perrault). With a contemporary sensibility and voice,
Koertge pitches directly to teenagers. . . Dezsoe's choice of
cut-paper illustrations is brilliant, a nod to Hans C. Andersen's
skill in that medium despite the radically different tone.
-The Horn Book (starred review)
The poems beg to be shared aloud, like the best gossip. The
sensibilities are wry, often dark, and the language is occasionally
earthy... This slim volume is at once simple and sophisticated,
witty and unnerving.
-School Library Journal
Sharp, ironic, and often darkly funny free verse.
-Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Written in free verse, 23 fairy tales are explained by those
"leftover" characters still hanging around in Ever After. This
would be a wonderful supplement to a lesson about fairy tales, or
an independent read if you still wonder if Little Bear really likes
porridge. B&W illustrations add a unique sense of rawness to
each tale.
-Library Media Connection (highly recommended)
These twenty-three contemporized fairy tales are darkly
sophisticated and meant for older teens, likely already familiar
with the popular originals and able to recognize and appreciate
their humor and irony. Narrated by various characters in several
formats, including blank verse, monologues, author accounts, or
rhymes; a wickedly gruesome black-and-white illustration
accompanies each witty retelling... All retellings hold surprises
and are darker than the originals, but their uniqueness is shared
poignancy; all sadly, and often chillingly, convey that each
character's first supposed "happily ever after" ending was merely a
high-priced illusion.
-VOYA
Amputating the "happily" from "ever after," Koertge's collection of
free-verse poems wrings 23 old favorites into terse puddles of
queasiness, grim endings, and ambiguous moral takeaways (which, to
be fair, means they're not that far off from many of the
originals)... Dezsoe's distinctive cut-paper silhouettes are
dripping with grotesquery but also beautiful in their own indelible
fashion. And they're a perfect match for Koertge's gritty, druggy,
sexed-up visions.
-Booklist
Many authors have hammered fairy tales into something wicked, but
after reading this collection, the words "Once upon a time . . ."
will never sound the same again.
-BookPage
A dark retelling of classic fairy tales including Little Red Riding
Hood and Rumpelstiltskin in free verse with a dash of gore and
horror that updates the stories for a YA crowd.
-The Los Angeles Times
This entire book was like a box of the darkest chocolates. They
held surprises inside and you simply can't stop reading them.
-Waking Brain Cells blog
These illustrations are bold, haunting (in more ways than one), and
bone-chilling in spots.
-Seven Impossible Things blog
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