Girls

Life Isn't a Fairy Tale

by Annet Schaap

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Pub Date 4 Mar 2025 | Archive Date 13 Dec 2024

Pushkin Press | Pushkin Children's Books

Teens & YA

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Description

A collection of dark, funny retellings of 7 classic and familiar fairy tales, giving young adult readers a new perspective for navigating everyday challenges.

"Bold, sharp and written with deceptive simplicity,and heightened by Schaap's ominous black-and-white illustrations, this is an absorbing, slyly sinister collection for 11+.” —Guardian

These are no damsels in distress, but young women of flesh and blood - who certainly don't need rescuing. In these 7 famous fairy tales turned into enchanting, inspiring and sometimes hair-raising stories for today's world, you’ll find girls with their own dreams and desires, bravely facing problems that are both relatable and daunting and fighting to overcome them.

A miller’s daughter with a special gift decides marrying a prince wasn’t such a good idea after all.
A determined girl gives up on trying to kiss a frog.
A fearless heroine comes face-to-face with a not-so Big Bad Wolf.
A monstrous princess, held captive on a deserted island, yearns to break free and find her true place in the world.
Two sisters, abandoned by their father, wander lost in the big city, until they meet a pair of very helpful old ladies.
A young maid finds something terrible in a locked room while she is cleaning the Reverend’s house – then the Reverend arrives home.
A forgotten young girl learns to finally let go of her sleeping big sister and live her own life.

From the author of the international bestseller Of Salt and Shore, and translated by the award-winning Laura Watkinson, these reimagined fairy tales are funny, feminist and achingly true to life.