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Title: Mother Holly: A Grimm Tale by Johanna Westerman, Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm, John Warren Stewig ISBN: 1-55858-925-2 Publisher: North South Books Pub. Date: September, 2001 Format: Library Binding Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.50

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Average Customer Rating: 3 (1 review)

Rating: 3
Summary: Revisionist Fairy-tale
Comment: Fairy-tales were not originally merely "tales told to children." Modern readers, depending upon personal orientation, may be offended or uncomfortable with the sex, violence, subversive social and spiritual subtexts, harsh realities and ambiguous, less-than-happy endings contained within many of these tales. If you are among those readers who prefer their fairy-tales revised and sanitized, please disregard this review and the 3 stars given. Perhaps you will like this book very much and find it deserving of more.
If however you prefer your fairy-tales unadulterated, then you, like me, will be disappointed in this re-telling of the Brothers Grimm classic. Mother Holly is unusual among Grimm's fairy-tales and ranks among my favorites because it so openly stars the ancient Germanic witch-goddess Hulda, popularly known as Frau Holle or Mother Holly. It is rare to find such clear traces of Europe's pagan past within a popular fairy-tale. Stewig has changed the focus of the tale from the spiritual relationship with Mother Holly and transformed it into a morality tale. His goal is, as he writes in the Introduction, to demonstrate to children "that with help we can all change the way we behave." (And by "help" he doesn't mean a magical fairy godmother!) The lazy step-sister thus ultimately learns to be more like the industrious heroine and all live happily after. If you desire a direct, straight-forward (okay, heavy-handed) morality lesson, I guess this is fine. If you are expecting a faithful retelling of the Brothers Grimm tale, which originally had a happy ending for onely one sister, akin to Cinderella or Vasilisa the Wise, be prepared for disappointment.
Ironically while the subversive, magical,pagan elements of the fairy-tale have been deleted, the racism and prejudice implicit within many European fairy-tales is left intact. The lazy sister is initially depicted within the illustrations as a brunette while the good, industrious sister is blonde. When the lazy girl is transformed by book's end into an equally industrious, polite "good" girl, she literally turns blonde as well. (This is expressed in the text as well as in imagery, so the point can't be ignored.)