The Vine: January 14, 2011
Another fairytale book question. I’ve looked this book up on Google and other places, and the problem is that there seem to be a ton of editions/variations on this fairytale. The one I’m talking about is a picture book, though, and beautifully illustrated (I checked the illustrators mentioned in the last TN fairytale question, but no dice).
The story is the one where there is a girl who has a lot of brothers (seven, I think?) and the wicked stepmother turns them into swans or geese and the only way they can be turned back is by the girl sewing them shirts of thorns or something. She has to pick these at night, secretly, I think, and of course, her hands get all screwed up. Plus, she has a deadline — maybe a year? I don’t know. What I remember most is that she runs out of time before she finishes the last sleeve on one of the shirts, so when she tosses the shirt on the last brother, he is left with one wing instead of an arm.
I’d love to find this book again (making the giant leap it is even still available in print anymore, though I’m not that old) not only for myself, but because I want to give a copy to somebody. Any help out there?
Don’t give away your picture books
*****
Hi Sars,
I’ve been trying to remember the name of a YA book I read, and I hope your readers can help. I got it from the library when I was 10-12, so 1992-94, and it’s about a girl who’s antisocial but brilliant and who excels in a special school where she designs her own curriculum. Perhaps she starts as an arsonist? With a troubled home life? I’m not quite sure.
Since they don’t make her do anything at the school, at first she just does nothing, and then she becomes engaged with school and the world. For some reason I think the girl was standing with a dog on the cover, though I don’t remember the dog in the book. Title might have had “brain” in it.
I really wanted to go to this special school with the main character, so I’d appreciate help scratching this itch!
Maggie
Tags: Ask The Readers popcult
First person: maybe this one? http://www.amazon.com/Six-Swans-J-Grimm/dp/1558589821
The story is definitely The Six Swans, anyway.
The first one must be “The wild swans” by danish fairyteller Hans Christian Andersen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Swans
@Picture Books – yes! The Seven Swans! She had to pick the flax and weave the shirts herself, and she couldn’t speak while she did it. A prince came and tried to woo her and get her to talk but she didn’t. I’ve heard the story in several places but I didn’t realize until you mentioned it that I had that book too! Now I’m hoping someone else can find it because I want a copy.
Picture Books, that fairy tale was included in the TV mini-series, Jim Henson’s The Storyteller:
http://tinyurl.com/4lzv4ku
Joely Richardson played the sister. I’m sorry that I don’t know the specific book you’re looking for, but maybe this will help. Good luck!
Wikipedia indicates that the fairy tale is known as “The Six Swans”, and names a bunch of variants; maybe those might be worth tracking down to see if any of them lead to the book? I know I remember reading it in the Lang version, but those weren’t elaborately illustrated like Picture Books describes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Six_Swans
On a related tangent, for anyone who loves the fairy tale of “The Wild Swans,” there is an excellent book of the same name. The author is Peg Kerr and the book is half a novelization of the fairy tale and half a parallel story about a young gay man in NYC in the eighties. It’s an excellent read, though the juxtaposition of the two stories is a little odd at first.
And on a more related note, I ran across this picture book version while looking for the author in my last comment: http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Swans-Amy-Ehrlich/dp/0525479147/ It looks beautiful and one of the reviewers says they read this version as a child so it may have been around for a while.
Check out this website: SurLaLune Fairy Tales:
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/
There is a ton of info and resources about various fairy tales!
Another novelization on “The Six (or Seven) Swans” story for those who are interested is “Daughter of the Forest” by Juliet Marillier. It is book one of a series, but you can read it as standalone.
Maggie,
If it’s the book I’m thinking of, it’s older than that, because I read when I was 13 or so, so at least 1984. I remember she got into meditation and yoga after someone gives her a copy of “Siddhartha.” And she burned down the place where her sister was going to get married? Oh this is going to drive me nuts now, because I can’t remember it either and Novelist is being no help to me!
Margaret
The swan story is definitely the H.C. Andersens version, I’d say. It’s quite gruesome, as much by him. She must make the coats of stinging nettles and never say a word. A king nevertheless falls in love with her, but after a while he is led to believe she is a witch and she is supposed to be burned, but in the last minute the swan brothers come to save her.
Here is a pretty Gutenberg translation (easier to read than the Wikipedia version):
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32572/32572-h/32572-h.htm#Page_39
Can’t say which book you had, of course.
I have no idea about the second one, but it reminds me of when I went to evening high school. They had the same approach: it’s your own responsibility to handle your school. It worked wonders with me, a teenager sick of people always watching me.
I have “The Annotated Brothers Grimm”, which has “The Six Swans” in it. It also has beautiful illustrations from many sources for all the tales within it. It may not be the edition you had as a child, but I highly recommend it:
http://tiny.cc/aizdr
My first reaction to the second book was Anna To The Infinite Power, but that’s not it. It does ring a faint bell, though.
@Maggie and Margaret re book 2: Ooh! It was Margaret’s suggestion of arson and yoga and meditation that pinged my brain; could it possibly be “Crazy Eights” by Barbara Dana?
I loved, loved, loved this book; I remember parts of it being screamingly funny. And she burns (down?) the Ethical Culture Center before her sister’s wedding. Lord knows why that detail sticks!
Oh, poop, I can’t do tags.
Crazy Eights
Oh! Oh! Is it “Crazy Eights” by Barbara Dana? http://www.amazon.com/Crazy-Eights-Barbara-Dana/dp/0553144359/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295038897&sr=1-8
http://www.librarything.com/work/71172 – That’s the cover I remember, complete with girl and dog.
Wow, thank you guys! Crazy Eights sounds right. I can’t wait to find a used copy and read it again.
I’m glad someone else recommended “Daughter of the Forest” – after the reading the question I was going to do the same thing. I love retellings of fairytales, and this is one of the much better ones. The sequels follow the next two generations of the family rather than any particular fairytale, but I enjoyed them (and cried a lot, but books do that to me sometimes).
Here is the Bartleby link for The Six Swans:
http://www.bartleby.com/17/2/21.html
There is a beautifully illustrated book version of “Jim Henson’s The Storyteller” — written by Anthony Minghella (yes, English Patient Anthony Minghella). Minghella re-worked and re-wove nine European fairy tales into a stunningly literate, funny, touching book. It may not be the version of the swan story you were looking for, but it’s worth finding/reading/gifting.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/264919.Jim_Henson_s_Storyteller
The story you are searching for is:The wild swans / Hans Christian Andersen; translated by Naomi Lewis ; illustrated by Anne Yvonne Gilbert.
Publication info. Cambridge, Mass. : Barefoot Books, 2005.
You undoubtedly had a different edition. My first experience of the story was in a Shirley Temple’s Storybook anthology. The illustrations on the noted edition are quite lovely.
I third the rec for Daughter of the Forest and its sequels! The rest of Marillier’s books are kind of meh, but these four (and I think there’s a fifth now? but I’ve only read four) are some of my favorite books in the universe.