Tag Archives: Disney

Review: Disfigured: On Fairytales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Nonfiction, , , , , , , , , , ,
Disfigured: On Fairytales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc cover shows a forest of leaves with a cabin poking through. A disembodied ear, hand, and a crutch sit on top of the leaves.

Disfigured: On Fairytales, Disability, and Making Space
Amanda Leduc
Coach House Books
Published March 3, 2020

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Disfigured

In fairy tales, happy endings are the norm—as long as you’re beautiful and walk on two legs. After all, the ogre never gets the princess. And since fairy tales are the foundational myths of our culture, how can a girl with a disability ever think she’ll have a happy ending?

By examining the ways that fairy tales have shaped our expectations of disability, DISFIGURED will point the way toward a new world where disability is no longer a punishment or impediment but operates, instead, as a way of centering a protagonist and helping them to cement their own place in a story, and from there, the world. Through the book, Leduc ruminates on the connections we make between fairy tale archetypes—the beautiful princess, the glass slipper, the maiden with long hair lost in the tower—and tries to make sense of them through a twenty-first-century disablist lens.

From examinations of disability in tales from the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen through to modern interpretations ranging from Disney to Angela Carter, and the fight for disabled representation in today’s media, Leduc connects the fight for disability justice to the growth of modern, magical stories, and argues for increased awareness and acceptance of that which is other—helping us to see and celebrate the magic inherent in different bodies.

My Review

I heard about this book years ago from booktuber Jesse on YouTube, who read and recommended it. Sadly, it took me a long time to actually read the book myself, but I finally have! And I’m so glad I did.

This book explores fairytales through the lens of what it’s like to read them as a person with disabilities. The author not only shares her own experience as a girl with cerebral palsy, but she also quotes and shares stories of other writers and activists with disabilities as they share their own experiences as well.

One of the things I found the most impactful about DISFIGURED was seeing different fairytale characters and stories from this perspective. There were many things I hadn’t considered or was unaware of. It helped to break things down into tropes and themes and look at what those ideas say about the value or morality of those characters and through the characters the people represented.

For example, the author talks about how often in fairytales, characters with disabilities fall into two categories. Either they are noble characters whose disabilities become reversed because they were pure of heart or brave or noble. Or the disability is supposed to be evidence of an internal evil that remains a static part of the character’s nature.

There’s also some commentary about the differences in the roles of women versus men in fairytales, too. I enjoyed that a lot.

All in all, DISFIGURED is a really thoughtful book that explores familiar fairytales, where they came from, and what they teach us about who we are and what society should be. And asks whether we agree with those lessons and, if not, what we will do about it.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
The author has Cerebral Palsy. She quotes other disabled writers and activists.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Very infrequent extreme profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to fairytale romance/weddings. Leduc recounts an early version of what became the Sleeping Beauty fairytale in which a maiden pricks her finger on a flax seed and falls into a magical sleep. A traveling king sees her and is so overcome with lust that he rapes her (not described in any detail). The author points out that the story never addresses the king’s behavior as problematic, wrong, or illegal.

The author references an essay written by a man with disabilities who openly talks about hiring sex workers to meet his personal needs. (No details beyond this.)

Spiritual Content
Discusses the origins of the fairy godmother/fairies in fairytales. Examines the Christian (Calvinist, in the case of the Grimm Brothers) roots or edits to many fairytales in subsequent editions. Mentions of magic in stories.

In one tale, the devil tricks a man into promising his daughter to him. The girl thwarts the bargain several times.

Violent Content
References to some gory elements of especially early fairytales. Cinderella’s stepsisters mutilate their feet to fit into her shoe. The evil queen in Snow White is forced to dance in red-hot metal shoes until she dies at the tale’s end. See romantic content.

The author also discusses the changeling myths and how people would leave their babies or young children in the snow to die of exposure if they believed the baby was a changeling. She briefly tells a story about a man who burned his wife to death. He claimed she’d been replaced by a changeling after an illness.

Drug Content
Mentions of magical potions or poisoned fruit.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything but help support this blog.

Review and Giveaway: Mistress of All Evil by Serena Valentino

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , ,

I’m super excited to share this review of the fourth book in the Villains Series by Serena Valentino. Check out my thoughts and be sure to read to the end where you can enter to win the first four books in the series plus a branded mug that changes color in hot water. (Check it out in the prize pack picture below. It’s so cool.) Thanks to Disney-Hyperion for sending me a set of VILLAINS books, and for providing a prize pack!

Mistress of All Evil (Villains #4)
Serena Valentino
Disney Press
Published on October 3, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Mistress of All Evil
The tale is told as if it’s happening once upon a dream: the lovely maiden meets her handsome prince in the woods. The story has been told many times and in many ways. But always the maiden finds out that she is a princess-a princess who has been cursed by a dark fairy to prick her finger on a spindle and fall into an eternal sleep. Though her three good fairies try to protect her, the princess succumbs to the curse. But the power of good endures, as her true love defeats the fire-breathing dragon and awakens the princess with true love’s first kiss. The two live happily ever after.

And yet this is only half the story. So what of the dark fairy, Maleficent? Why does she curse the innocent princess? What led to her becoming so filled with malice, anger, and hatred? Many tales have tried to explain her motives. Here is one account, pulled down from the many passed down through the ages. It is a tale of love and betrayal, of magic and reveries. It is a tale of the Mistress of All Evil.

My Review
The book started out a little rough for me. It introduced a lot of characters I wasn’t familiar with who I think feature in earlier books in the series. So if I’d read from the beginning, I probably would have had a better frame of reference. Without that, it took me a while to figure out who the odd sisters and Circe were and why they were significant to the story.

The other tricky thing for me was that at times the story jumped around a bit, and I wasn’t always sure I followed what was happening. At one point the story references Princess Tulip as (I think?) Aurora’s daughter and I didn’t understand how that could be. Probably I misunderstood the reference or it’s better explained in an earlier book in the series.

Once I got my bearings, I enjoyed the way the book explained some of Maleficent’s history and wove together the stories of other villains in other fairy tales. That definitely made me want to read the rest of the series. In fact, a couple of times I almost put down Mistress of All Evil in order to go back and get the full backstory on some of the other fairytales. I especially found the story behind Snow White and her relationship with her stepmother compelling. Totally have to add that to my reading list now.

On the whole, I found the concept for the series pretty cool. I liked that it went above and beyond the facts and elements present in the familiar Disney fairy tales to create a larger whole story world connecting them all. I’d recommend starting with the first book in the series if you can, just so you don’t have the confusion I had at the beginning. I think especially younger readers would find that off-putting. Fans of Jennifer Donnelly’s Deep Blue should check out this series.

Recommended for Ages 9 to 12.

Cultural Elements
As in the fairy tale movie, it seems like most of the characters are white. Maleficent, as in the movie, has greenish skin, though here it changes color with her mood.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Infrequent use of mild profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief references to kissing, marriage, or betrothal between a prince and princess.

Spiritual Content
Maleficent grew up in Fairyland with lots of other fairies, like Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, the three good fairies who protect Princess Aurora, and the Blue Fairy who guides Pinocchio.

Several reference to nameless gods. Maleficent finds a ruined castle which she learns was once the home of the god Hades. She never meets him but hears about him from her goons, creatures who were once his servants.

Violent Content
Brief descriptions of Ursula’s death and the battle between Maleficent (as a dragon) and the prince who wants to rescue Princess Aurora.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

About Serena Valentino

Website | Facebook |Twitter

Serena Valentino has been weaving tales that combine mythos and guile for the past decade. She has earned critical acclaim in both the comic and horror domains, where she is known for her unique style of storytelling, bringing her readers into exquisitely frightening worlds filled with terror, beauty, and extraordinary protagonists. The books in her best-selling Villains series are best enjoyed when read in the following order: Fairest of All, The Beast Within, Poor Unfortunate Soul, and Mistress of All Evil.

About the Villains Series

The Disney Villains series by Serena Valentino explores how the antagonists in Disney movies became some of storytelling’s most iconic villains. In the first four Villains books, we see how the Evil Queen, the Beast, Ursula, and Maleficent fall into darkness, through the instigation of the mysterious Odd Sisters: Lucinda, Martha, and Ruby.

Enter to Win the Villains Prize Pack

One winner receives a copy of the first four books in the Villains series and a branded mug that changes color in hot water. Giveaway open to US addresses only. Prizing and samples provided by Disney-Hyperion.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Save

Save

Monthly Wrap-Up: February 2017

Lists, News and Fun, , , ,

I feel like I always start these posts with some surprised exclamation like, OMG, how is it MARCH ALREADY?!

But we’ll move past that and get to the good stuff! First… book mail. I got so many books this month from participation in Irish Banana Blog Tours, a Disney blog tour, Children’s Literature, and directly from Bloomsbury. It was like Christmas all over again! (And if you know my family, you know we just finished celebrating Christmas like four weeks ago, so it’s like the magic continues…)

So here’s my book stash for February 2017:

Have you entered the giveaway for a chance to win TWENTY books?

Also– here’s something you do NOT want to miss. To celebrate the release of Beauty & the Beast: Lost in a Book, I’m hosting a giveaway for an incredible prize pack. One winner will receive TWENTY books, y’all. Here’s the prize pack.

Click the image to visit my blog post and scroll down to find the entry form. So far, there aren’t a lot of entries, so your chances of winning are pretty good.

February 2017 Reviews Revisited

In terms of reviews, here’s what you may have missed…

Wanted by Betsy Schow

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

I’m a huge fan of fairytale characters re-imagined, so this story about Robin Hood’s daughter was a pretty sure bet for me. I loved the way the tales got a bit twisted as the story went on. Fun! Great pick for Ever After High or School of Good and Evil fans.

Above: Broken Sky Chronicles 2 by Jason Chabot

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

Really fascinating fantasy tale. This is book two in the series, so I’d recommend starting with book one. I had a hard time following some of the events and wonder how much of that was because I was missing the backstory from the earlier book.

The Blue Moon Narthex by N J Donner

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

Looking for an action-packed story featuring a male protagonist for readers 8-12? You want this one. Trust me.

Nowhere Near You by Leah Thomas

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

I almost fell out of my chair when I learned there was going to be more to Ollie and Moritz’s story which began with Because You’ll Never Meet Me. SO. GOOD. I forgot how much I love those boys.

Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

This is one of my recent favorites. I LOVED Jade and the window into her art, her family, and her struggles in her community. Well done. Check out the post where Renee Watson shared her list of favorite poems about loving life, too.

Denton Little’s Still Not Dead by Lance Rubin

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

I snagged a review copy of this book after hearing Lance Rubin speak on a panel at YALLFest in Charleston last November. He’s hilarious, but also shared a lot about what it’s like to write about best friends. The book is also super funny, and definitely a great testament to friendship.

Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

This one pretty much had me at its description of an often overlooked moment in US history. I wasn’t crazy about the POV chosen for the historical parts of the story, but overall– it’s powerfully told. A great read if you’re looking for something that explores history and race relations or if you’re looking for an unusual mystery tale.

When You Never Said Goodbye by Meg Kearney

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

This is the story of an adopted girl now in college who decides to find her birth mother. It’s inspired by the author’s own journey. I loved the poetry and the relationships between Liz and her siblings.

The Fearless Traveler’s Guide to Wicked Places by Peter Begler

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

If you like wacky, otherworldly adventures, this is a must-read. I loved the main character, Nell, and the commentary from her little brother made me laugh out loud.

Book Burners by Max Gladstone, Margaret Dunlap, Mur Lafferty, and Brian Francis Slattery

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

So I got mixed up– this isn’t YA, it’s adult fiction, which I didn’t realize when I agreed to review it. Nonetheless, I found the story really kept me turning pages. It’s told in short episodes (each one is like 50 pages) which can be purchased individually or as a whopping nearly 800 page paperback. You can read the first episode free here.

Liked by Kari Kampakis

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

I picked up this non-fiction title because my daughter is nearing the age where she’ll leap into the social media frenzy. I wanted some guidelines and wisdom as a parent and also a resource for her on how to behave in a godly, responsible way in the wilds of cyberspace. This book is exactly what I needed.

Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book by Jennifer Donnelly

Review | Amazon | Goodreads

This one had me at Jennifer Donnelly, one of my favorite authors. It reads like a deleted scene from the movie (okay, more than a scene, because obviously there’s a whole book plot that happens) which begins after the Beast gives Belle the library and ends in the library again, ready to resume the familiar story. Great stuff. Also– you can win a copy of this plus NINETEEN other books if you enter the giveaway on my post before 3/10/17.

Save

Review: Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , ,

Isle of the Lost
Melissa de la Cruz
Disney-Hyperion
Available May 5, 2015

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Mal, the daughter of Maleficent, and her best friend Jay, the son of Jafar, live on the Isle of the Lost, where their villainous parents were banished from the fairytale kingdom of Auradon twenty years ago. Surviving on leftovers shipped in from Auradon and prevented access to magic, the villains scrape by. But all long for the day when the magic returns and they can take revenge on those who imprisoned them. For Mal, that day comes when Carlos, Cruela de Vil’s son, creates an invention that sparks changes in the Isle, and the possibility of escape seems just within reach. Oh, also the possibility of destroying her longtime rival, Evie, the Evil Queen’s daughter. So that’s a plus.

The team of four have to work together—a tall order considering they’re better versed in how to trick and betray one another than they are in how to actually be friends. Some parts of the story show the point-of-view of Prince Ben, son of Belle and the Beast (wait, isn’t he a prince now?) and the trials of his coming of age and beginning to take on some royal responsibility. Strange dreams connect him and Mal, but they don’t know each other yet.

My daughter and I enjoyed reading the Ever After High books by Shannon Hale, so I picked this book up at a book fair thinking it was similar and we’d also enjoy it. And I was right—I did enjoy the story. I think I had the same experience with Ever After High books, where because I’d read Shannon Hale’s Book of a Thousand Days, I wanted that kind of finesse in the EAH books, too, and it’s just not that kind of story. So that happened here, too. I’ve read The Ring and the Crown, and the writing and characters are a lot more complex, so it took some adjusting for me to get into this book. They’re totally different kinds of books, and that’s okay. I just had to adjust.

I thought the story set up the series well. The end leaves a lot of questions unanswered, and shows some real growth on the part of the team of four villains. Carlos is totally my favorite. He’s so sweet and super smart. I loved that de la Cruz worked in the engineering element with his character. So great!

One noteworthy difference is that Ever After High pulls its storyworld from a broader spectrum of fairytales, whereas Isle of the Lost draws its characters from those in Disney movies. I can see that as being a positive or a negative, depending on how you look at things. Overall, I think readers who enjoyed Ever After High would enjoy Isle of the Lost.

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Cultural Elements
Often fairytale retellings are pretty white, but I love that de la Cruz went a bit diverse with her story here. Carlos is the Latin son of Cruella de Vil. Jay is the Middle-Eastern son of Jafar.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
The islanders live off of leftovers and garbage shipped in from Auradon, so some of that stuff is kind of icky. For instance, they eat old wilted food and stuff like that. Nothing crude per se, but kinda ick.

Romance/Sexual Content
Jay has a reputation as being a player. He flirts with a lot of girls, but nothing beyond that comes into the story.

Spiritual Content
The Isle of the Lost exists under a dome that prevents the villains from using magic, but magic begins to make its presence known.

Violent Content
Because the characters are the children of villains, their homes are generally unhappy. Their parents treat them cruelly—mostly in the way they speak and withhold affection. (Sad but not really violent, I know, but I thought it worth mentioning.)

Drug Content
At a party, one character encourages the others to do shots of toad’s blood. It’s unclear whether this causes any intoxication or is just a silly/gross challenge.

Save

Review: Life Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes and Autism by Ron Suskind

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Memoir, Parenting, , , , ,

A Life Animated: A story of heroes, sidekicks and autism
Ron Suskind
Kingswell

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

When the Suskind family moves to a new home, they begin to see startling changes in their youngest son, Owen. He loses the ability to communicate with them and seems to retreat inside himself. The family embarks on a journey to find ways to reconnect with Owen via one of his favorite things: Disney movies.

This is an amazing, truly inspiring story. I’m awed by the courage it must have taken for both Owen and his family to continue pressing forward without giving up, even in moments when field experts were at a loss as to how to help, when specialized programs proved disappointing. Throughout the book, Owen’s father describes his son with love and affection, clearly impressing on readers his value, not just to his family, but as a human being.

For people who don’t personally know someone with an autism diagnosis, I imagine it could be easy to overlook the autistic community. Suskind makes this impossible. Though the book focuses on the family’s experience with their son, there are a lot of references to larger issues faced by families with autistic children or injustices within our system that limit the ability of families to provide much-needed care and assistance. I thought that was a great value, too. Many of those things I simply wasn’t familiar with. For a short time after I graduated, I worked for a behavior analyst extremely well-respected in the field, but that was more than ten years ago now, and I’m grossly under-informed these days.

The Disney references were really fun, and you’ll definitely get a lot more out of the story if you’re familiar with those classic movies, but they’re not the point of the book. The point is that those tales became a vehicle by which a remarkable boy rebuilt a way of communicating with the world around him.

I recommend this book because it’s such a great, triumphant story, and we all need that message, and also because this reminds us that we are all human, all valuable, no matter how we process information.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently. There’s one chapter in which most of the profanity occurs as part of an exposure therapy to help Owen deal with aftermath of a bullying incident.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief references to kissing.

Spiritual Content
The family prepares for and celebrates Owen’s Bar Mitzvah.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
Owen’s older brother hosts a high school party which gets a bit out of hand. Lots of alcohol stored in the Suskind’s basement disappears during the party.

Save

Review: These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Book Review and Content, Romance, Sci-Fi, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

These Broken Stars
Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Disney-Hyperion
Published December 10, 2013

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. A product of the greatest engineering minds, the Icarus luxury spaceliner unexpectedly drops out of hyperspace. Wealthy passengers and military personnel race to escape. Lilac LaRoux, daughter of the wealthiest man in the universe finds herself trapped aboard an escape pod with Major Tarver Merendson, a charity case who clawed his way up military ranks the old-fashioned way. When the pod crash lands on the planet, Tarver is determined to keep himself and the helpless Lilac alive. As they face the unforgiving challenges of survival together, they will need to trust one another and depend on each other’s strengths to stay alive long enough to be rescued.

My favorite thing about this book was that both Tarver and Lilac had skills to contribute to the success of their survival. It wasn’t another retelling of the cliché old tale about the man knowing all about surviving and the helpless lady kind of tagging along at his mercy. Lilac is smart and knows things about the ship’s operation because of growing up around it. Tarver has had a lot of experience surviving on a hostile planet. Together, they make a formidable team.

The romance is definitely more of a clichéd element. The rich aloof girl and the hero who comes from nothing. She blows him off to save face. He takes her at face value. She thinks he hates her. He thinks she despises him. But she secretly likes him and he secretly likes her, etc. I felt like that 180 degree turn happened kind of fast. It was definitely intense, though.

The story took a bit of a weird turn as Tarver and Lilac investigate some strange life forms they find on the planet. It definitely reminded me of an old Star Trek episode – in a good way.

The ending was a bit abrupt for me. Through the whole book they’ve been wondering how to solve this big problem, and it’s going to be so terrible if they can’t do something. Then Lilac basically has a stern conversation with the head of her problem and it’s all fixed, no worries at all. I had hoped for a little more complexity there.

Over all, I did enjoy the story of the romance and especially Tarver’s memories of his family. I loved that they had this equal partnership where they both had skills essential to one another. Each chapter begins with these snippets of debrief interviews between Tarver and (we assume) a superior officer. Brilliant. Definitely added suspense and intrigue to the story.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Moderate profanity used with moderate frequency.

Sexual Content
Brief scenes leading up to and referencing intercourse. While the acts aren’t graphically described beyond brief references to nudity, the reader is left in no doubt of what happens.

Spiritual Content
Lilac and Tarver encounter strange beings at first mistaken for ghosts or hallucinations. It appears that these other beings have powers far beyond human abilities and can change the way things appear.

Violence
There is some description of the ship coming apart and being destroyed and some mayhem and injury which result from that. On the surface of the planet, Tarver and Lilac find the remains of the ship. A few descriptions of what they find are pretty icky.

Drug Content
None.

Save