Title: Little Lit: Folklore and Fairy Tale Funnies
Editor: Art Spiegelman
Artists: Daniel Clowes, Kaz, and Barbara McClintock
Genre: Fantasy / Humor
Year Published: 2000
Year Read: 2004
Publisher: Joanna Cotler Books
Source: Library
Content Rating: Ages 5+ (Some Rude Behavior)
Buy or Add on: Amazon // Goodreads
Did you ever think that fairy tale stories can be converted
into comic strips? Well, it seems like
they can since there is a brilliant collection of fairy tales stories being
told through comic strips called “Little
Lit: Folklore and Fairy Tale Funnies!”
“Little Lit: Folklore and Fairy Tale Funnies” is a collection of
various fairy tales that are shown in comic book strips and it is edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly. For anyone who loves reading fairy tales and
comic books, this graphic novel is a fantastic read for children of all ages!
Basically, there are a total of eleven fairy tale stories
and five puzzle pages and the fairy tale stories in this collection includes:
Prince Rooster by Art Spiegelman
In this tale, a young prince believes that he is a rooster
and his father, the king, tried to find a physician that would cure him of his
delusions. When it seems that no one can
cure the prince, an old man comes by the palace claiming that he can cure the
prince. Can the old man cure the prince?
The Sleeping
Beauty by Daniel Clowes
This tale is told after the events of “Sleeping Beauty” and
in this tale, the young prince kept his marriage to Sleeping Beauty a secret
from his parents since his mother is of a race of ogres and could not be
trusted. One day however, the young
prince soon became king and told the kingdom about his marriage to Sleeping Beauty
and his two children and his ogre of a mother was upset. So when the prince goes to war, the prince’s
mother decided to eat Sleeping Beauty and her children. Will the ogre Queen eat Sleeping Beauty and
her children?
The Princess and
the Pea by Barbara McClintock
The classic tale is retold in Barbara McClintock’s wonderful
illustrations as all the characters are animals and it once again relates the
story about how a princess who looked like a peasant when she first came to a
king’s palace for shelter has to prove to the King and Queen that she is truly
a princess when the Queen tests the princess by making her sleep on twenty
seven mattresses with a small pea hidden underneath all of those mattresses.
Wow! When I read this graphic novel a couple of years ago, I
was so amazed at how well the fairy tales in this novel were able to transcend
to comic book format! So many of the
tales in this graphic novel were like modern retakes on classic fairy tales and
it was awesome reading these stories that are so full of creativity and spark! All of the artwork in this collection were
extremely well done and were extremely creative to look at as there were
different kinds of illustrations being put forth into each story and therefore,
gave this collection such variety that I found myself being interested in what
this collection has to offer in the stories.
My favorite stories from this collection were “The Sleeping Beauty,” “The Hungry Horse” and “The Princess and the
Pea.” In “The Sleeping Beauty,” I loved Daniel
Clowes’ artwork since they were detailed and most of the characters have
small eyes that really made me laugh every time I saw them! I also loved the appearance of the old Queen
herself as she has blond and curly hair, has large red lips and has small
droopy eyes that made her look shifty and it was interesting that even though
she is considered an ogre, she never looked that ugly and looked like a normal
person. The story itself was pretty
entertaining for me since I wanted to know what happened to Sleeping Beauty
after she got married to the prince and it would have been scary about the idea
of the old Queen trying to eat Sleeping Beauty and her children if only the
artwork did not look so exaggerated and the tone of the story seemed a bit
light tone. “The Hungry Horse” was a brilliantly haunting story by Kaz and was an awesome read! Kaz’s illustrations were wonderfully
surreal as all the characters had large noses and were drawn out of proportion
and while the story itself was a bit serious, the illustrations made the story
hilarious to look at. “The Princess and the Pea” was
wonderfully done by Barbara McClintock
and I loved how all the characters in the story were portrayed as animals,
especially with the King, the Queen, the young son Lionel and the princess
Leotine, being portrayed as lions which greatly brought out their royalty (at
least that is how I view lions). Barbara
McClintock’s illustrations were just so beautiful and I loved the tiny
details she put into each character, especially with the characters wearing
royal clothing that truly matched their royalty.
Parents should know that some of the tales in this
collection such as “The Hungry Horse”
by Kaz have endings that are rather
abrupt and sometimes sad and that might upset younger children who do not like
sad endings or want to know what happens at the end of the story. Parents should probably read this collection
first to see if their child can handle the endings in some of these stories.
Overall, “Little Lit:
Folklore and Fairy Tale Funnies” is a brilliant graphic novel that fans of
both fairy tales and comics will easily love for many years to come! I would
recommend this collection to children ages five and up since there might be
some stories whose sad and abrupt endings might upset smaller children.
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