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Title: The Sleeping Beauty by Trina Schart Hyman ISBN: 0-606-19844-X Publisher: Turtleback Books Distributed by Demco Media Pub. Date: January, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.50

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)

Rating: 4
Summary: A lavish retelling of the Brothers Grimm story of Briar Rose
Comment: "The Sleeping Beauty" has been a favorite fairy tale even before it was first set down by the Brothers Grimm. Once upon a time there lived a King and Queen who finally had a baby daughter after wishing for a chil for a long time. The King was so filled with joy that he prepared a great feast to which he invited everybody, including the fairy women, so that they might be kindly disposed towards the little child. But because he only had twelve golden plates and was too ashamed (and afraid) to ask one of them to dine from only a silver plate, the King failed to invite the oldest of the fairies to the celebration. At the birthday feat each fairy presents the new baby with a magic gift, but after the eleventh fairy has her say, the thirteenth fairy arrives and curses the princess: when she is 15 years old she will prick herself with a distaff and shall down dead. When she leaves the twelfth and youngest fairy steps forward. She cannot change the curse but can soften it: their daughter will not die, but instead shall fall into a deep sleep that will last for a hundred years.

Young readers know the rest of the story, how the King ordered all the spinning wheels in the kingdom destroyed (so much for new clothes for the next 15, er, 115 years), but the old fairy finds a way to make sure the young princess called Briar Rose meets her destiny. Everyone in the castle falls asleep as well and over the years a hedge of thorny briar-roses grows around the castle until the day a Prince decides that he would be happy to die just for a chance to look upon the sleeping beauty.

"Dornröschen" is one of the five most popular of the tales by the Brothers Grimm, along with "Cinderella," "Snow White," "Little Red Cap," and "Hansel and Gretel." In this adaptation which is retold and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman I did notice one subtle change that reflects more modern times: instead of associating the bad fairy with ugliness, we are told that she is old with a heart full of rage and malice. Of course, there is still the traditional emphasis on beauty in terms of Briar Rose. But then it is hard to tell most of these stories by the Brothers Grimm without buying into the idea that women need to be beautiful to be happy (Read "The Pink Flower" or "The Goose Girl" if you are really interested in seeing the idea of beauty carried to an extreme).