From Publishers Weekly
Windling's Fairy Tale series has produced several excellent fantasy novels inspired by classic fairy tales. This is one of the series's most ambitious efforts, and only a writer as good as Yolen ( Sister Light, Sister Dark ) could bring it off. Yolen takes the story of Briar Rose (commonly known as Sleeping Beauty) and links it to the Holocaust--a far-from-obvious connection that she makes perfectly convincing. Rebecca Berlin, a young woman who has grown up hearing her grandmother Gemma tell an unusual and frightening version of the Sleeping Beauty legend, realizes when Gemma dies that the fairy tale offers one of the very few clues she has to her grandmother's past. To discover the facts behind Gemma's story, Rebecca travels to Poland, the setting for the book's most engrossing scenes and its most interesting, best-developed characters. By interpolating Gemma's vivid and imaginative story into the larger narrative, Yolen has created an engrossing novel. She handles a difficult subject with finesse in a book that should be required reading for anyone who is tempted to dismiss fantasy as a frivolous genre.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
A young woman's promise to her dying grandmother leads her on a quest to discover the truth of her own family's mysterious beginnings in this grim retelling of the classic fairy tale "Briar Rose," or "The Sleeping Beauty." In Yolen's modern-day version, the wall of thorns becomes a barbed-wire prison, while the sleeping princess is both victim and heroine. The latest in the "Fairy Tale" series showcases Yolen's skill at transforming the real world into a realm of fantasy. A good selection for adult and YA fantasy collections.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
*taken from Amazon.com*
Book Specs:
Reading level: Young Adult
Mass Market Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Tor Teen (March 15, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0765342308
ISBN-13: 978-0765342300
After reading this novel, Bound, and The Witch's Boy, I have become a sucker for fairy tales retold! This book made a startling connection between Sleeping Beauty, (one of my favorite fairy tales) and the Holocaust. And even though I knew that this novel was a "Holocaust" novel, the entire time I read it I was enthralled. I had to know what would happen next, and I remember that the day I read it I was so happy the sun was out. I let my kids play on the playground for the 2 1/2 hours it took me to read the entire novel! Amazing writing and great talent. After reading this novel, I am definetly putting Jane Yolen on my list of must read authors!!
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