Sleeping Beauty: Magic Master

Stephanie True Peters

This high-energy, graphic-novel retelling of the classic princess story features a sword-wielding 12-year-old who saves her own kingdom rather than waiting in slumber for a magical kiss. The plot seems warped at first, but this and the other offerings in the Far Out Fairy Tales series feature engaging back-of-the-book content to help young readers compare and contrast the classic folk tale to the rewrite. This twisted tale, with accompanying comprehension questions and vocabulary pages, shows kids that learning the classics can be fun.

The Shadow Cadets of Pennyroyal Academy

M.A. Larson

Hogwarts-esque Pennyroyal Academy—home to Evie, an orphaned child with special powers—is a place where princesses train military-style to join the fight against a grotesque army of witches. In this second book in the series, heroine Evie returns to confront relational challenges many middle-schoolers face (fickle friends, heart-pounding crushes, and parents who just don’t understand). Sadly, Evie’s impulsive, emotional style of handling things sets a less-than-great example for readers. A few scenes of forgiveness and reconciliation brighten the gloom, but overall the story feels tired and grim.

Charmed

Jen Calonita

In Book 2 of the Fairy Tale Reform School series, shoemaker’s daughter Gillian Cobbler must learn to handle the fame she earned from her heroism in Book 1. Other students at the reform school now consider her a leader and role model. Gillian has to learn how to handle her upgraded social status as the villains she defeated come back to threaten the kingdom once more. Charmed defines heroism as self-sacrifice, humility, and devotion to family. The fun-to-read tale offers plenty of age-appropriate adventure and paints a more hopeful picture of adolescence than the average middle-grade novel.

Gris Grimly’s Tales from the Brothers Grimm

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and Margaret Hunt

Gris Grimly brings out the most macabre details of the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales in this new anthology. Though marketed as a children’s book, Grimly’s illustrated version could give even older kids bad dreams. Instead of portraying Cinderella dancing in a flowing gown, Grimly shows her as an emaciated waif crying over her mother’s grave. Meanwhile, Little Red Riding Hood (“Red-Cap” in this version) stands over the Big Bad Wolf’s mutilated corpse with a pair of scissors. The original folk tales were cautionary tales, but this version seems meant to evoke horror, not caution, and doesn’t belong on a child’s nightstand.

Afterword

The much-hyped franchise Descendants makes heroes of the children of Disney villains. Disney introduced the characters in a TV movie and a series of young-adult novels by Melissa de la Cruz. The first book, The Isle of the Lost, reached the No. 1 spot on The New York Times bestseller list. Its newly released sequel, Return to the Isle of the Lost, picks up where the movie ended.

The Isle of the Lost resembled a how-to manual for rebellious tweens. The characters throw a “howler” of a party while their parents are out of town, during which they drink toad’s-blood shots and play Seven Minutes in Heaven. By the second novel, though, the teen villains are reforming. They explore the nature of evil, which, according to their professor, is real and frightening but can be overcome by good. Return to the Isle of the Lost is a fun follow-up to the movie, though it’s unlikely to be remembered as a classic. —L.L.