Old Stories Told Anew -- Try these for a new take on familiar fairy tales.

• Beauty
  

  With the  critically acclaimed novels The Gate To  Women's Country, Raising The Stones, and the  Hugo-nominated Grass, Sheri  Tepper has established herself as one of the major  science fiction writers of out Time. In  Beauty, she broadens her territory even  further, with a novel that evokes all the richness of  fa read more ...
  
  

  With the  critically acclaimed novels The Gate To  Women's Country, Raising The Stones, and the  Hugo-nominated Grass, Sheri  Tepper has established herself as one of the major  science fiction writers of out Time. In  Beauty, she broadens her territory even  further, with a novel that evokes all the richness of  fairy tale and fable. Drawing on the wellspring  of tales such as "Sleeping Beauty,"  Beauty is a moving novel of love and loss, hope and  despair, magic and nature. Set against a backdrop  both enchanted and frightening, the story begins  with a wicked aunt's curse that will afflict a young  woman named Beauty on her sixteenth birthday.  Though Beauty is able to sidestep tragedy, she soon  finds herself embarked on an adventure of vast  consequences. For it becomes clear that the  enchanted places of this fantastic world--a place not  unlike our own--are in danger and must be saved before  it is too late.

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• Beowulf: a new verse translation
  

  A brilliant and faithful rendering of the Anglo-Saxon epic from the Nobel laureate. Composed toward the end of the first millennium of our era, Beowulf is the elegiac narrative of the adventures of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who saves the Danes from the seemingly invincible monster Grendel and, later, from Grendel's mother. He then returns to his own country and dies in old age in a vivid f read more ...
  
  

  A brilliant and faithful rendering of the Anglo-Saxon epic from the Nobel laureate. Composed toward the end of the first millennium of our era, Beowulf is the elegiac narrative of the adventures of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who saves the Danes from the seemingly invincible monster Grendel and, later, from Grendel's mother. He then returns to his own country and dies in old age in a vivid fight against a dragon. The poem is about encountering the monstrous, defeating it, and then having to live on in the exhausted aftermath. In the contours of this story, at once remote and uncannily familiar at the end of the twentieth century, Seamus Heaney finds a resonance that summons power to the poetry from deep beneath its surface. Drawn to what he has called the "four-squareness of the utterance" in Beowulf and its immense emotional credibility, Heaney gives these epic qualities new and convincing reality for the contemporary reader.

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• Enchantment
  

  "Enchantment" chronicles the adventures of a modern man's travels through time and space -- between contemporary America and ninth-century Russia -- to save a princess and her kingdom, find love against all odds, and conquer relentless evil.

  
  
  
• Hood
  

  Bran ap Brychan finds his world ripped from its foundation as invaders topple his father's kingdom and send the young prince fleeing into the forest. Readers will be spellbound with this entirely fresh take on this legendary figure.

  
  
  
• Shadow spinner
  

  When Marjan, a thirteen-year-old crippled girl, joins the Sultan's harem in ancient Persia, she gathers for Shahrazad the stories which will save the queen's life.

  
  
  
• Snow White and Rose Red
  
• Someplace to be flying
  

  Lily is a photojournalist, stealing away from the music scene she usually covers to pursue bizarre rumors of "animal people" living in the ruins of the Tombs - the city's darkest slums. Hank, on the other hand, knows the crumbling Tombs all too well. This is the part of the city he calls home, creating a life and a ragtag family on streets where many fear to tread. One night, in a brutal incide read more ...
  
  

  Lily is a photojournalist, stealing away from the music scene she usually covers to pursue bizarre rumors of "animal people" living in the ruins of the Tombs - the city's darkest slums. Hank, on the other hand, knows the crumbling Tombs all too well. This is the part of the city he calls home, creating a life and a ragtag family on streets where many fear to tread. One night, in a brutal incident, their lives collide - uptown Lily and downtown Hank, each with a quest and a role to play in the secret drama of the city's oldest inhabitants: the animal people. For the animal people walk among us. Native Americans call them the First People, but they have never left, and they live disguised among us. And they claim the city for their own. Coyote the Trickster, wily, dangerous, and utterly compelling. Jackdaw the storyteller, nursing the secret wounds of tragedy. Raven, guarding the pot that holds the birth and destruction of life itself. The unpredictable Fox, the deadly Cuckoos, the Wolves that prowl city streets. And the Crow Girls, two charming young punks who delight in mischief, gossip, thievery...and who are much, much more than they seem. Not only have Hank and Lily stumbled onto a secret, they've stumbled into a war. But in this battle for the city's mythic soul, nothing is quite as it appears.

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• The amazing Maurice and his educated rodents
  

  In a magical place called Discworld, a talking cat recruits a group of intelligent rats and a boy with a penny whistle to cash in on the Pied Piper legend.

  
  
  
• The broken sword
  

  Beatrice, who is blind, has found the Holy Grail. When she touches it, her vision is restored - and she gains strange, mystical powers. Drawn to the young king by the Grail's magic, Beatrice becomes Arthur's companion as he returns from the Middle East to the United States. What should be a simple trip is instead fraught with peril. Even in the technological age, there are those who use magic - read more ...
  
  

  Beatrice, who is blind, has found the Holy Grail. When she touches it, her vision is restored - and she gains strange, mystical powers. Drawn to the young king by the Grail's magic, Beatrice becomes Arthur's companion as he returns from the Middle East to the United States. What should be a simple trip is instead fraught with peril. Even in the technological age, there are those who use magic - and not always for good. An evil sorcerer covets the Holy Grail and the power it conveys, and he'll do anything to get it. Meanwhile, the Knights of the Round Table are confused by the modern world. Chivalry as they knew it seems to be dead, and no one knows how to fight a good duel anymore. Led by Hal, who was once Galahad, the knights learn to ride motorcycles instead of horses and how to drink beer instead of mead. But they never forget their true mission - to protect and serve the High King. When Excalibur is shattered by an evil magician, Arthur seems defenseless, and the dream of the Round Table seems once again doomed. But the Round Table is a dream that never truly dies, and though still a teenager, Arthur is truly the High King, with all the power that title implies. Camelot will rise again.

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• The fourth bear: a nursery crime
  

  "The Gingerbreadman - psychopath, sadist, genius, convicted murderer and cookie - is loose in the streets of Reading. But Jack Sprat doesn't get the case. He and Mary Mary have been demoted to Missing Persons because of Jack's poor judgment involving the poisoning of Mr. Bun the baker. Missing Persons looks like a boring assignment until a chance encounter at the oddly familiar Deja Vu Hotel le read more ...
  
  

  "The Gingerbreadman - psychopath, sadist, genius, convicted murderer and cookie - is loose in the streets of Reading. But Jack Sprat doesn't get the case. He and Mary Mary have been demoted to Missing Persons because of Jack's poor judgment involving the poisoning of Mr. Bun the baker. Missing Persons looks like a boring assignment until a chance encounter at the oddly familiar Deja Vu Hotel leads the pair into the hunt for missing journalist Henrietta "Goldy" Hatchett, star reporter for The Daily Mole. The last witnesses to see her alive were the three bears, comfortably living out a life of rural solitude in Andersen's Wood." "But all is not as it seems. How could the bears' porridge be at such disparate temperatures when it was poured at the same time? Was there a fourth bear? And if there was, who was he, and why did he try to disguise Goldy's death as a freak accident?"--BOOK JACKET.

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• The rose and the beast: fairy tales retold
  

  With language that is both lyrical and distinctly her own, Francesca Lia Block turns nine fairy tales inside out. Escaping the poisoned apple, Snow frees herself from possession to find the truth of love in an unexpected place. A club girl from L.A., awakening from a long sleep to the memories of her past, finally finds release from its curse. And Beauty learns that Beasts can understand mor read more ...
  
  

  With language that is both lyrical and distinctly her own, Francesca Lia Block turns nine fairy tales inside out. Escaping the poisoned apple, Snow frees herself from possession to find the truth of love in an unexpected place. A club girl from L.A., awakening from a long sleep to the memories of her past, finally finds release from its curse. And Beauty learns that Beasts can understand more than men. Within these singular, timeless landscapes, the brutal and the magical collide, and the heroine triumphs because of the strength she finds in a pen, a paintbrush, a lover, a friend, a mother, and finally, in herself. Best Children's Books 2000 (PW) Books for the Teen Age 2001 (NYPL)

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• Wicked: the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
  

  When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious Witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil? Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is abou read more ...
  
  

  When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious Witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil? Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability, and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to become the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly, and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

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