Review - Tales as Old as Time

Better and Better!
Ms. Bowns’ fairy tale retellings keep getting better and better. My favorites in this collection were the first story – The Upper Hand – the last – The Pot That Wouldn’t Stop – and one in the middle - Frog the Inventor. This is not to say the others (there are 12 fairy tale retellings in all) were not good, they are! But I connected especially with those three.
Ms. Bowns’ has converted fairy tales, some more familiar and some less, from their original into rhyme. Then she has added one or more twists making each story both familiar and new. For example, The Upper Hand is a retelling of the Emperor’s New Clothes but, in Ms. Bowns’ retelling the joke is on the clothiers and the Prince (yes, downgraded from Emperor!) definitely has the upper hand.
As with her other collections, my biggest difficulty was the dearth of my knowledge of some of the originals. This, of course, meant the twist was lost until I could find and read the original. However, the stories do stand on their own; they are witty and quick and enjoyable.
Fairy tales, verse, variety, and short, easy, funny read. Recommended!