Matt Damon, teacher-librarian and author

In Bellview Elementary School library today, teacher-librarian Matt Damon led children through an exciting rendition of Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock (from Eric A. Kimmel’s retelling of the traditional African folktale).

Encouraging hand gestures to differentiate the characters, Damon used the story to introduce children to the library’s folklore and fairy tale collection.

Damon’s tenure with the Ashland schools includes teaching third-grade and P.E.

Of peak interest to children was Damon’s own book, The Fall of General Custard: Or the Overthrow of a Leftover (White Cloud Press, July, 2016, illustrated by Gideon Kendall). Copies of his book will soon be available for check-out through Bellview library, and Damon plans to share with children, the process that created his book.

Damon is scheduled to read his book aloud during Stories Alive’s Back to School Festival, noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17 at the Lithia Park Butler Bandshell. After the reading, festival-goers are invited to join a food fight led by characters from the book.

Stories Alive transforms children’s original stories into artistic performances. Proceeds from Saturday’s festival will benefit Stories Alive and the Ashland Schools Foundation.

‘Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood’

I never tire of reading contemporary fiction based on European fairy tales. So often, authors come up with a fresh angle of presenting the traditional story.

Liesl Shurtliff has done exactly that with Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood (Random House Children’s, April 12, 2016). As readers may expect, Red sets out to visit her grandmother’s house — but while a wolf howls in the woods, it doesn’t dress up as Granny. Instead, Granny disguises herself as a wolf to deter nuisance visitors.

Granny’s reputation as a witch attracts various people who want spells and potions.

Fantasy versus traditional literature

The slideshow that accompanies our reading of Chapter 6 in The Joy of Children’s Literature makes a very clear distinction between fantasy and traditional literature.

‘The Lunar Chronicles’ by Marissa Meyer

Related to my class discussion of fairy tales (and their heroines) this week, I recommend reading The Lunar Chronicles, a series of Young Adult science fiction novels by author Marissa Meyer.

Each book in the series is modeled after a fairy tale, and centers upon a heroine and her “prince.”

With my longstanding interest in “fractured” fairy tales, reading this series was natural for me. And because my comments address the story mid-series, they may unavoidably contain “spoilers.”

‘Cinder Edna’ by Ellen Jackson

The slideshow that accompanied our reading in The Joy of Children’s Literature this week raised an intriguing question: Do “fractured” or feminist fairy tales make sense if children don’t have the context of the original story?

With Cinder Edna by Ellen Jackson (1994), illustrated by Kevin O’Malley, children have a chance to compare and contrast the story of Cinderella with that of her next-door-neighbor. Both young women are similarly forced to work for a wicked stepmother and stepsisters.

‘Yeh-Shen’ by Ai-Ling Louie

Intrigued by the statement in our text for Children’s Literature, that a story from China “predates the earliest European version of Cinderella by 1,000 years” (Johnson 131), I chose the 1982 retelling of Yeh-Shen by Ai-Ling Louie, illustrated by Ed Young, as one of two different visual or literary interpretations of Cinderella.

One of the differences, as highlighted in our text, concerns the source of magical intervention that lets Cinderella “go to the ball.” Instead of a fairy godmother, Yeh-Shen is aided by the bones of her beloved pet fish.

‘Calamity Jack’ by Shannon and Dean Hale

European fairy mythology meets frontier America in Calamity Jack, sequel to Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale, illustrated by Nathan Hale.

This graphic novel picks up where Rapunzel’s Revenge left off. A misadventure with a beanstalk and the theft of a goose that lays golden eggs forced Jack to flee the city of Shyport. Now he and Rapunzel are returning home so he can put things right.

Readers who enjoyed the action, suspense and humor of Rapunzel’s Revenge will enjoy this story, which presents new challenges and introduces new allies.

Rapunzel’s Revenge was a 2011 nominee in the upper-elementary division, Oregon Reader’s Choice Awards. Readers can find both books in the Bellview Elementary School library and through Jackson County public libraries.

Cross-posted to the Jackson County Library Services Facebook page