Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Notable Fairy Tale books of 2010 and The Gooseyness Awards, Submit your Nominations Now!

Ah, the new year has begun, 2011. Are you as excited as I am?

By the end of the year I always begin a review of everything I've read and watched over the last year, then I make my top ten lists. I know, top tens lists pop up everywhere, but I enjoy looking back over the year, remembering which movie was the best, and which book captured me, inspired me, what was the best experience of last year.

 Though some years I barely watch enough movies to make a top ten list, I always have plenty of books to pick my favorites from. I also really enjoy checking other peoples top tens to see what I may have missed, what hidden gems I have yet to enjoy.

Since we're suppose to be focusing on fairy tales here, I decided to share some of my favorite fairy-tale-like stories here, and then I'll get into the Gooseyness Awards.

The books below aren't in any order, some were published last year, some I just discovered and read for the first time last year. Most of these aren't classic fairy tales, or even a retellings of a classic, rather they are original stories that resemble a fairy tale in some way, whether their style or setting or they may just contain elements of folklore or draw upon a mythology.

Here are my notable 'fairy tale' books from 2010 and the awards they win.
 
Best Storytelling, with the Creepiest, Gooiest villain: Half World by Hiromi Goto
 
I heard about this one ages ago and finally got my hands on it. Half World has such a good concept, and it never disappoints. The the story and characters dazzle, the language is beautiful. Mr. Glueskin is the ultimate villain, his name says it all, and you can tell Goto enjoys describing his awful stickiness. I highly recommend this one.

Winner of the best original fairy tale story in a cold setting: Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman.

It's Neil Gaiman, even when he writes a short children's story like this it's fantastic. Based on Norse mythology, the tale is simple, but not simplified. The gods Loki, Thor and Odin appear as animals, seeking the help of a young boy named Odd. My only complaint -- too short, but then again I shouldn't even complain about that, the tale works this way, as a short fairy tale.

Winner of the best original fairy tale story in a hot setting: The Hotel under the Sand by Kage Baker

It's got a hotel, which is always a novel setting, there is a treasure hunt, excellent cuisine, scrumptious as only Kage Baker can describe, but ultimately it's about letting go, the process of mourning and getting back on your feet. I only discovered Kage Baker's books last year, and sadly she passed away last year, this books perfectly captured how I felt about her passing.

Winning the prize for worst parents ever: Martin Prechetel's The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun.

A retelling of a Mayan myth, very very good. It's a story about love. Ahhhh. And it's a story about death and rebirth.

Best Novel with a Secret: Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

If you don't know the secret, I'm not going to spoil it for you. They made a movie for this staring Carey Mulligan and Kiera Knightly, of course I had to read the book first, and so should you. It's very subtle, so watch out.

Best short stories and winner of the best long title I've seen in a while: There Once Lived a Woman who tired to kill her neighbor's baby: Scary Fairy Tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
Translated from Russian, these are not fairy tales for kids. The original fairy tales collected by the Grimm Brothers were gruesome and cruel. They were told as warnings, to give out lessons, to tell the hard truth. Petrushevskaya's original fairy tales capture that same feeling.

And now that I've shared those I would like to introduce to you the Gooseyness Awards. This isn't an annual award, but rather whenever we discover a perfect candidate (a movie, or book or character, anything you want really), then we can nominate it for a Gooseyness Award. Then after a nomination, if the other person agrees and seconds it, then we have a winner!

Now, these guidelines aren't set in stone, we can modify them however we like:
  • A Gooseyness Award should be given to anyone or anything who is silly, scatterbrained, or acts in utterly ridiculous manner.
  •   The nominee can be a movie, a book, a character, a picture, a song, etc.
  •   The nominee should be highly entertaining, worth sharing with others.
  •   Fairy-Tale related is a bonus.
  •   After you nominate someone(something)you need to share a description about why they deserve a Gooseyness Award.
  • If the other person isn't familiar with the nominee, then they should try to read, watch, etc in order to decide yay or nay.
My Nominations are as follows:

First is the Princess of Lagobel from The Light Princess by George MacDonald

I didn't realize that George MacDonald was Scottish, or that he wrote the Princess and the Goblin or that he was dead. (1824-1905). But I only recently read this story, and I do believe the Princess in it deserves a Gooseyness Award. Why? Because she is a very silly Princess, with a very silly curse, (I mean she loses her gravity!) and she certainly behaves in a very scatterbrained manner.

Here is an excerpt from the novel, when her parents are talking about her.
 
 “It is a good thing to be light-hearted, I am sure, whether she be ours or not.”
 “It is a bad thing to be light-headed,” answered the queen, looking with prophetic soul far into the future.
 “’Tis a good thing to be light-handed,” said the king.
 “’Tis a bad thing to be light-fingered,” answered the queen.
 “’Tis a good thing to be light-footed,” said the king.
 “’Tis a bad thing—” began the queen; but the king interrupted her.
 “In fact,” said he, with the tone of one who concludes an argument in which he has had only imaginary opponents, and in which, therefore, he has come off triumphant—”in fact, it is a good thing altogether to be light-bodied.”
 “But it is a bad thing altogether to be light- minded,” retorted the queen, who was beginning to lose her temper.

My second nomination is the wonderful, yet slightly manic depressive, Princess Rapunzel from Disney's Tangled:

"Best Day Ever!" (My sentiments exactly!)

I love the way Rapunzel embraces the unknown, and her contagious enthusiasm for life, that's why she deserves the  award.

Thirdly, I shall nominate all the Princesses from the book The Secret Lives of Princesses by Philippe Lechermeier and Rébecca Dautremer
From Princess Oblivia who "forgets everything" to Princess Thimbelina, who can "sometimes get a little silly, mostly at night." these girls deserve the Gooseyness Award, because they are charming and intriguing and the illustrations in the book are gorgeous.

They have a great website. There are games and puzzles, and the Princess Test. I enjoyed the matching game especially. http://secretlivesofprincesses.com/
And finally, I'm going to nominate Artemis Fowl from his latest adventure, The Atlatis Complex by Eoin Colfer. After nominating all those girls, all Princesses too, I felt I was being a bit one-sided, maybe even sexist. The Gooseyness Award can be award to anyone, any gender, any animal, vegetable or mineral.

I realize you haven't read the latest Artemis Fowl book, Terrwyn, but when you get a chance to read it, you'll see why I'm nominating Artemis Fowl. In the latest book he is suffering from a guilty conscious, known as Atlantis Complex. It causes paranoia, obsessive compulsive behavior and multiple personalities. I'm not going to give away the fun, but believe me, Artemis Fowl deserves a Gooseyness Award because of this book.

Those are my four nominations. Who among them deserves the award? Do all of them? Have I completely missed the mark on these nominations? You'll have to decide. Meanwhile I'm off to find even more nominees who deserve the ultimate prize.
Hmmm, maybe I should make an actual award, that might be fun, now where's my glue, where's my craft box.

2 comments:

  1. Do you like my broad definition of a 'fairy tale'? I realized the only book even remotely like a fairy tale is Ludmilla Petrushevskaya's and those are fairy tales for adults.

    George MacDonald's book is a fairy tale though, right?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would agree that George MacDonald's book is a fairy tale!!!

    I think I should do my nominations under a different post? Or shall I do them here in the comment section?

    The posting is so much more fun and since I have been lax in the posting, I think I should take the plunge and post!

    ReplyDelete