Official Review: Fairytale Prequels by Ernest Manigo Jr.

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CataclysmicKnight
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Official Review: Fairytale Prequels by Ernest Manigo Jr.

Post by CataclysmicKnight »

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Fairytale Prequels" by Ernest Manigo Jr..]
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3 out of 4 stars
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Fairy tales like Cinderella, Snow White, The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood are perhaps some of the most well-known stories of all time. They're simple enough to read to kids and learn at a young age, end happily ever after to inspire optimism and often even have an underlying meaning - don't accept gifts from strangers, don't take the easy way out of work, etc. Fairy tales aren't without their fair share of plot holes, however, and Ernest Manigo Jr. manages to plug some of those holes and really expand on some famous tales with his book Fairytale Prequels.

Fairytale Prequels is a collection of seven stories that work as Prequels to famous fairy tales. In addition to the previously mentioned tales (Cinderella, Snow White, The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood), Ernest also has prequels to Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk and Sleeping Beauty. They're all titled "Before" their fairy tale ("Before Cinderella", for example), and brilliantly begin with the words "Before once upon a time". This really makes it evident not only that these are prequels to particular stories, but that they're fairy tales of their own. Each really manages to expand on the original world; even the incredibly basic The Three Little Pigs fairy tale ends up getting a prequel that sets an entire world of pigs that are preyed upon by wolves. In addition to being their own stories that also work as prequels, many of the stories manage to impart a lesson, just like their original counterparts. Using the same example, the original The Three Little Pigs fairy tale teaches children that taking a shortcut to make a home out of sticks or straw will cause trouble in the long run, and the prequel Before The Three Little Pigs teaches children the importance of learning in school and hard work.

The prequels vary from Before Cinderella's (slightly confusing) politics and war love story to the more action-packed Before Rapunzel to the fantasy-laden Before Sleeping Beauty. They also manage to introduce a slew of entirely new characters like Jack's father in Before Jack and the Beanstalk and Prince Arthur IV, son of King Arthur III who is the original King Arthur's grandson in Before Cinderella. While some of the stories wouldn't clearly belong to the original fairy tale at first, by the end the link is clear, such as how Before Sleeping Beauty tells of entirely new fantasy creatures and having the entire world go through changes before leading up to Maleficent in the last sentence.

I was also rather impressed that these prequels are entirely original, not inspired by other media like Once Upon a Time (the TV show that explores many fairy tale characters together), the Snow White and the Huntsman movies or the Red Riding Hood movie. I went into this expecting to see clear inspiration from those and other sources, but instead was pleasantly surprised! The book also includes the original fairy tales, each typically 2-3 pages long, and each is rather well written.

The book is set up like a fairy tale book as well, with a patterned blue border around each page and artwork on numerous pages. The art varies in height from a few lines of text to half a page, and has a nice hand-drawn look to it. The art highlights important scenes well, but there was one instance when it really worked against the book. In the last paragraph of Before Snow White, the image used is placed on top of the text instead of beside it, meaning that several words across six lines of text are completely impossible to see. There were also two grammatical errors within Before Snow White, which was particularly odd as I only found one other error throughout the entire book. Finally, it's worth mentioning that the text was just slightly too small for me to read without squinting, so I had to turn my kindle sideways and scroll down each page to read it. This isn't a big deal, but it's something to look out for.

Overall I really enjoyed this collection. The author promised reasons behind the major questions in fairy tales, such as why Cinderella ended up with such a horrible family, and it delivered! However, the book is recommended on Amazon for 3-11 year olds and the vocabulary used in the book means that overall I'd only recommend it to the upper side of that range. Before Cinderella was also slightly hard to follow at times even for me as an adult, and Before Sleeping Beauty briefly mentions mating between fantasy creatures - the Neelands - and humans as well as those same fantasy creatures living off the energy of human placentas. Either of these may be a little awkward to explain to young children. Finally, the image issue at the end of Before Snow White really made that ending difficult to read. With all these issues, I have to give Fairytale Prequels by Ernest Manigo Jr. 3 out of 4 stars. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves fairy tales and anyone who reads them to their kids!

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Fairytale Prequels
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Guppy
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Post by Guppy »

A great review. It does sound like an intriguing collection of stories, though the placenta part is unexpected.
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greenstripedgiraffe
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Post by greenstripedgiraffe »

This is a good review! I would likely enjoy the stories, but I think your comments about being hesitant to share these with children are justified. Thanks!
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Kay_Jay
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Post by Kay_Jay »

 Fairytale Prequels by Ernest Manigo Jr.
It's nice and good for children but the cover of the book is not interesting. It won't grab a child's attention.
Tbunde5
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Post by Tbunde5 »

Does the author intend his book to be read by children? Just wondering, since the original Grimm stories are also not for children.
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