Well they blew up the water main , everything they knew about Kiki was a lie and Kiki is gone. And they sold the reverse pided pieper thing. I had actually expected something like this to happen, but it came just as I ws getting off the BART trainand somehow I have avoiding picking it up again. I am actually fairly certin I will finish it tonight (if my cold doesn't put me to sleep) but I just find that I am very anxiious for the girls. Reading would resolve things, but something else might happen.

I just finished Kiki Strke and I'm going to go with classic tale(s) ( there are a few tales mixed in ) with some really fun twists . It fits in with my favorite genre - which starts with the retelling of fairy tales.

Beth, have you read Steven Brust's The Sun, The Moon, & the Stars? It uses a retelling of a Hungarian fairy tale. It's in Terri Windling's fairy tale series, with DeLint's Jack of Kinrowan, which I also liked, along with quite a few others I can't recall right off hand.

The Fairy Tale Series:

1. The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars by Steven Brust
2. Jack, the Giant Killer by Charles De Lint
3. The Nightingale by Kara Dalkey
4. Snow White And Rose Red (Fairy Tales) by Patricia Wrede
5. Tam Lin: Fairy Tales #2 (Fairy Tales) by Pamela Dean
6. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
7. White As Snow (Fairy Tales) by Tanith Lee
8. Fitcher's Brides (Fairy Tales) by Gregory Frost

I remember 1-5 very strongly. (I may own all of those.) 6, 7 - I think I've read. And I'm really not sure about 8.

I haven't read 8 and I am not sure about 7. I have more new books I have read in the category lately. Fairest by Gail Cason levine ( she wrote Ella Enchanted ). a retelling of Snow White. I enjoied it - but I kept pictureing the scenes as Movies. It feels like it was written fro the movies. I liked Golden by Cameron Dokey better. It is a retelling of Rapunzel and written more seriously , if that makes sense. Posion by Chris Wooding was excellent. cruel stepmom, changeling , quest, evil whitch house, - lots of grimm's brother type pieces, with a really different ending. Sort of a comming of age tale. and Valiant by Holly Black was pretty good - a bit grittier, life on the streets and drugs, but some interesting twist on various facts about fairie.

Apparently, Fitcher's Brides is a retelling of the Bluebeard story.

Thanks for the list, sumi. I tried to read Fitcher's Brides, but I just couldn't get into it. My favorites were 1, 2 and 5. I don't think I read 7. I haven't read Golden or Poison. I'll have to check those out.

I enjoyed Valiant.

When I was 12 my mother, exasperated at my stack of library books, asked me, "WHEN are you going to outgrow fairy tales?" I haven't yet.

I just read Mercedes Lackey's Fairy Godmother, which is not really a retelling as such, but is heavily informed by fairy tales. I enjoyed it quite a bit. My favorite fairy tale reworking is probably Beauty by Sheri S Tepper - several tales linked together into an epic.

I think my favorite fairy tale retelling of all time is Deerskin by Robin McKinley.

I didn't like Fairy Godmother which is odd, because I consider Mercedes Lakey's one of the better story tellers. DH tries not to read her - and then finds himself sucked in to her books.