Twice Upon a Time

Rapunzel: The One with All the Hair

ISBN 0439796563

ISBN 978-0-439-79659-0

The novel was published on June 1, 2014. It is 208 pages.

Plot

Rapunzel was in deep trouble. She was recently held prisoner by a witch as the result of a deal her parents made when she was born.

Prince Benjamin craved to have a grand adventure travelling minstrels would compose songs about. His mother, however, was overly protective and watched him “like a hawk”.

When the story began, Prince Benjamin was fetched for supper by his best friend Andrew. He was distressed to sit beside Prince Elkin, his “ever-bothersome, frog like” cousin.

Meanwhile, Rapunzel has been weeping. She was hungry, aching, and homesick.

The next day, Rapunzel woke to discover a little orange kitten on her feet. She named her Sir Kitty. When the witch appeared, Rapunzel threatened that her parents would find her soon. The witch laughed and told her she was far from any village.

At the same time, Prince Benjamin was wandering far from the castle. His glasses fell and broke. He stumbled around until a boy approached him and brought him to his house. The boy's father mended his spectacles as if it were never broken. In conversation, Prince Benjamin discovered that all the boys born the three years following his birth were also named Benjamin. He also found although the boy's father was excellent at making spectacles, he had to clean dung chutes for a stable income.

At late night, Andrew and Benjamin were furtively eating plum cakes in the kitchen. Benjamin admitted he wished for a way to prove himself and help the spectacle maker to work in his dream career. Andrew told him about a treasure cave in the Great Forest. A large, hairy troll guarded the entrance, so not even the bravest knights dared to approach it. If the prince defeated the troll, he could give the treasure to the spectacle maker.

The next day, Prince Benjamin discovered that Elkin was back for training to be a prince.

After a failed attempt at climbing down the tower, Rapunzel found a way to escape by looking into the mirror to see behind her when the witch was leaving. She found a trapdoor in the ceiling.

Sleeping Beauty: The One Who Took the Really Long Nap

ISBN 043979658X

ISBN 978-0-439-79658-3

The novel was published on April 1, 2012. It is 176 pages.

Plot

Princess Rose was cursed by a fairy at her christening ceremony. She would slumber for a century after being pierced by a spindle.

The Prince's mother was an ogre. She banned all beautiful objects and people from the castle, and sought blood on the second and fourth Thursdays of a month. Everything in the castle was dusted and turned dull.

Princess Rose was constantly supervised and avoided all pointy objects. On her eighth birthday, she invited four girls, including a girl from town called Sara. All the girls except Sara were displeased by the constant supervision of the ladies-in-waiting.

A few weeks after Rose's birthday, Sara's mother moved her family to another part of town with a blacksmith and his five children in a tiny house. Rose wanted Sara to stay in the castle. She became her new lady-in-waiting.

Meanwhile, a hundred years later, the Prince's new page, Jonathan, taught the Prince how to survive in the wild, since he ran away often. When he first ran away, he glimpsed a familiar building on the castle grounds, hidden by vines.

When the Prince was fourteen, he discovered a small separation of the vines over a window of the mysterious building. He saw a castle library that looked exactly like the one in his castle. The Prince wanted to discuss this with Jonathan, but found that he went to be a squire.

The Prince was devastated. He spent nearly a month in the forest. When he returned home, he was told he was in charge, since his father and mother had gone to a meeting. The Prince saw this as an opportunity to learn more about the history of the castle, so he invited the oldest people in the kingdom and neighboring towns for tea. During teatime, he discovered that his castle used to be a field, and the old castle used to be farther away. One day, the castle spontaneously relocated. It moved just less than a hundred years ago, right after Princess Rose disappeared.

When Princess Rose was sixteen, she visited her cousins. She wandered around and found an old woman. She saw a sewing machine for the first time, and was amazed at her natural talent. She was just being passed a spindle as her parents and Sara arrived, but then, it was too late.

Beauty and the Beast: The Only One Who Didn't Run Away

ISBN 0545310199

ISBN 978-0-545-31019-2

The novel was published on April 30, 2013. It is 288 pages. Its Lexile rating is 760L.

Summary

Beauty finds her older sister to be perfect and more deserving of the name "Beauty."

Meanwhile, the prince finds he is expected to be athletic, commanding, brave ,and tall. But the prince's only interests are: bagpipes, which he plays poorly, studying the stars, and trying to figure out how to make worms live forever.

When Beauty's life turns upside down and she's forced to head out into the world, she has to figure out just who she wants to be, and when Prince Riley suddenly grows fur and sharp nails, he has to learn that a beast's appearance can be deceiving.

Reception

Rapunzel: The One with All the Hair

Rapunzel: The One with All the Hair has received editorial reviews from both Barnes & Noble and Janice DeLong. Barnes & Noble praised it as "a fresh take on an age-old fairy tale". Janice DeLong commented that the novel has a "most satisfactory resolution", and praised that it "fairly sparkles with contemporary attitude and humor".

Sleeping Beauty: The One Who Took the Really Long Nap

Sleeping Beauty: The One Who Took the Really Long Nap has received an editorial review from Kathryn Erskine. She described the novel as "hysterically funny" and "fantastically fun". She praised the writing as "upbeat, breezy, and clever", and claimed the author did a "superb job". She recommended the novel to "both young and young-at-heart readers".

Beauty and the Beast: The Only One Who Didn't Run Away

Beauty and the Beast: The Only One Who Didn't Run Away has received editorial reviews from both the School Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews. The School Library Journal recommended the novel for grades 4-7. SLJ criticized the dialogue, claiming it "doesn't sound authentic and seems pieced together with little or no transition". SLJ also disapproved of the pacing, stating the events "all seem random and do little to enhance the plot". It claimed the novel leaves some to "wonder what took so long", since the traditional story begins at "about 70 pages from the end". The reviewer concluded with a lighter note, saying the book is "still...popular with tweens", and recommended it to "librarians looking for light, nonviolent retellings".

Kirkus Reviews began with commenting that the story is "reasonably charming" and "has little bite". Later, it criticized that "the story takes a long time to get started", and "the connections between the first half and the second half of the story don't always adhere". Kirkus stated that the plot is "all so clean and lighthearted and safe that readers accustomed to any edge at all might find their teeth aching". The reviewer also described the novel as a "squeaky-clean read".