Fractured Fairytales

Have you ever heard of Fractured Fairytales? Sounds rather painful but oddly curious at the same time, does it not? My kids are in a summer reading program at our local library and this morning's activity was just that 'Fractured Fairytales.' An animated, wackily dressed lady came and read some Fractured Fairytales to the group of kids and parents that had gathered. While the performer was a local lady, the fairytales were children's books that are easily available in libraries across the country.

Fractured Fairytales are adaptations of the age-old fairy tales we all know and love. The plots may be changed, the characters rearranged or roles reversed, the settings reinvented, the stories may even be possible sequels or mix-ups to the well-known tales. Whatever the case may be, they are almost always hilariously funny--especially to the children.

After our laughs, I decided to look up more Fractured Fairytales, I wanted to have more fun with them and share them with my children and the children we care for as well.

Here are some of the other titles I found during my search for more Fractured Fairytales:

'The Wolf Who Cried Boy'--Little Wolf wishes for something different for supper, besides the usual lamburgers--he wants 'boy' to eat. In this quirky twist, the wolf cries boy as opposed to the traditional tale of the boy crying wolf. Definitely a barrel of laughs.

'The Wolf's Story: What Really Happened To Little Red Riding Hood'-- This one is a delightful point of view in which the wolf claims he was being helpful to Grandma until the little troublemaker Little Red Riding Hood came along and messed everything up. I like this point of view in that it takes the scary character in the story and makes him funny. Knowing both versions will give many kids lots of fun comparisons.

Yet another point of view change Fractured Fairytale is called 'The Very Smart Pea and the Princess-To-Be', which merely changes the perspective from the girl's to the pea's, guaranteeing to bring lots of giggles as the pea goes from his pod of brothers and sisters to the queen's palace.

I think these Fractured Fairytales are a real asset to children's literature. All of the stories present a wonderfully amusing twist on already good favorites, making them both doubly fun and enticing to kids and their parents--teachers and other adults who read to children, as well. 'Falling For Rapunzel' was the title of one of the Fractured Fairytales we enjoyed today. While obviously a play on the well known Rapunzel tale, this one has hilarious plays on words and a unique twist for an ending. The illustrations are comical and the above-mentioned plays on words are quite catchy.